Word: nabokovian
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Dates: during 1965-1965
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First published in Paris in 1930 in a Russian emigré review, the tale seems direct enough at surface level. Smurov, a young Russian emigré in Berlin, anxiously searches among his acquaintances for the identity of which the Revolution stripped him. This is a recurrent Nabokovian theme; he has never forgiven the Soviets for appropriating his childhood. But Nabokov could not-and cannot-resist sending his skill off in any and all directions. A simple exercise in homesickness is made to bear many other burdens, and its surface conceals, or seems to conceal, hidden meanings. Among them...