I love love love Makkai's short stories, but somehow never got around to reading her novel, The Borrower, until just now. There is a Nabokov nod right off the bat!
They say I'm the most terrific liar they ever saw in their lives. And that one, old lecher-lepidopterist, gabbling grabber, stirring his vodka-pineapple from the high narrow shelf of N-A-B, let me twist his words. (You can always count on a librarian for a derivative prose style): Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what I envied, what I thought I could fix. Look at this prison of books.
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Juan Martinez
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