“…Which leads to the book that was responsible for the convergence of my furtive reading life with my academic one: Pnin. Before we went home to read it, Professor Beaujour told us that Nabokov had buried a secret image throughout the book. I set out to discover it with unprecedented fervor. After reading the book twice, I decided the secret image was a mermaid. The sea theme recurs often and there are a few mentions of mermaid tails. But I was wrong (at least that wasn’t the image Professor Beaujour had in mind); it was a squirrel, which, as the all-knowing narrator tells us, is a Greek word meaning “shadow-tail.” Nabokov planted belochki throughout the book—into Pnin’s childhood bedroom, the name of his pediatrician, the park where he hyperventilates on his way to the Cremona lecture. Professor Beaujour set about the task of uncovering for us, one by one, the great wealth of secret squirrels in the book—they were practically on every page, unmissable, yet I’d missed them. I became dizzy with joy.”
I Hated English Class, Until We Read Nabokov- The novelist taught me how to leave room for magic. August 26,2014
By Yelena Akhtiorskaya
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119221/nabokovs-pnin-book-changed-my-mind