Ada allegedly takes place on Antiterra, a world “parallel to” the one (called “Terra”) dominated by Russia and America, the places Nabokov live d longest ). What is totally unparallel is the sexual morality of the two planets. Antiterra lacks (or is free of) Christian sexual strictures.

The trilingual (Russian, French, English) mix of “memoirs” and reflections also mixes two narrators: Van and Ada Veen. Thsee incestuous half-siblings have been reunited in old age after decades of separation (in which Ada engaged in another kind of incest with her younger sister, Lucette; Lucette also fell in love with Van, but Van loved only Ada... though indulging himself with may brothel visits). Each remembers their distant past differently, or, at least different specifics are salient for each of them. In opining about the nature of Time and in writing very long sentences, Van is at least in part a parody Proust. Ada is less than a third the length of In Search of Lost Times, but could easily take longer to read. Indeed, I think that Ada might be an ideal book for someone planning to be marooned on a desert island -- and probably for no one else.

The publication in 1969 of Ada was a major event, with a Time cover story, etc. It was marketed as more sexually daring than the notorious Lolita, and sold many copies. I would venture the guess that relatively few of the buyers made it through the book. The structural difficulty discouraged some and others were outraged by the amoral sex.

The “great love” of Van and Ada bores rather than outrages me. Lucette is more interesting, and according to Nabokov’s biographer, Brian Boyd, is the main character, haunting most of it. Nabokov went on record saying he despised Van Veen. I’m not totally convinced of that, but it’s hard to imagine anyone finding Van more interesting than Ada.

Neither critics nor the large audience for Lolita paid much attention to the two following novels. Nabokov kept doing what he was doing, but few people cared any more, and I don’t think that enshrining his late work in the Library of the Americas is going to lead to a re-evaluation of the late Nabokov work with its waning inspiration, increasingly mechanical cleverness and complexity.

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Note: I have laregly lifted this from a review of the Library of America volume that I feel epinions lured me into reviewing. IO thought that if I wrote about something listed in epinions "Books seeking reviews" that the books would be in the epinions database. What I consider breach of implicit contract by epinions along with the mess of its book database are my justification for what borders on double-posting, but apologize to anyone finding his or her way into the duplication.



Recommended: No