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joannaautumn's review
I honestly think most readers can't understand this book without an analysis. That's why most of us dislike it because we don't understand it, not really.
Anyway, rating this wouldn't be fair, so I'll read some analysis in the next few weeks(or months/years) and then decide what to think.
On another note, I don't think I'll read another Nabokov book for quite a while.
Anyway, rating this wouldn't be fair, so I'll read some analysis in the next few weeks(or months/years) and then decide what to think.
On another note, I don't think I'll read another Nabokov book for quite a while.
laurapk's review
2.0
It was a painful read, interspersed with beautiful prose which mostly lost me on paths shaded by too many references and language puns I couldn't follow (I can do French, but not Russian). I had made it 3/4 through the book without realizing that the whole novel is placed on a different planet, a mirror world of ours. And I completely missed that Van was dying of cancer in part 5, after living a long accomplished life. There was a lot of humor in the book I could smell, but not taste (references or language barriers stood in the way). I did however greatly enjoyed Nabokov's use of quantum physics and relativity in the novel (like for example when he 'dies' at one point in part 3, but somehow continues to live in a different universe - I read about this 'Schrodinger's human' experiment in some physics for the lay audience books). Ironically, my favorite part of the novel is Part 4: "The texture of time" - which most people complain was the most complicated and maybe should have been left out. Sometimes I needed to read the paragraphs twice to catch the meaning, but it was worth the effort. I loved the fact that as Van attempts to understand the threads making the texture of time, he and Ada meet in old age for the first time in years, when the texture of their skin and bodies has altered significantly, and they are deprived of the buffer of 'having aged side by side'.
Ultimately, as Ada says in the final part: "[...] she had been somehow responsible for the metamorphoses of the lovely larvae that had woven the silk of 'Veen's Time'"
Ultimately, as Ada says in the final part: "[...] she had been somehow responsible for the metamorphoses of the lovely larvae that had woven the silk of 'Veen's Time'"
aleffert's review
4.0
This is a trashy novel about the sex lives of idle aristocrats. However, it is by Nabokov and so it is an exquisite trashy novel about the sex lives of idle aristocrats. The prose is beautiful. The word play is delightful. The characters, sadly, are sort of tedious. The narrator, of course, is unreliable.
This book is weird. It is set in an alternate history earth whose geopolitics seem specifically set up so that the characters can make lots of triple language puns that cross Russian, French, and German and go right over my head. For some reason electricity has been banned. Somehow there is a water powered telephone. This alternate history setting also gives Nabokov an excuse to make clever jokes about actual historical figures: e.g. the four term ruler of America named Gamaliel. The main plot of the book is about an incestuous relationship between a brother and sister who thought they were cousins and much of the first segment of the book is concerned with them having extremely underage sex. So yeah, a weird book, not as good as Lolita or Pale Fire, but there are moments of obvious brilliance.
This book is weird. It is set in an alternate history earth whose geopolitics seem specifically set up so that the characters can make lots of triple language puns that cross Russian, French, and German and go right over my head. For some reason electricity has been banned. Somehow there is a water powered telephone. This alternate history setting also gives Nabokov an excuse to make clever jokes about actual historical figures: e.g. the four term ruler of America named Gamaliel. The main plot of the book is about an incestuous relationship between a brother and sister who thought they were cousins and much of the first segment of the book is concerned with them having extremely underage sex. So yeah, a weird book, not as good as Lolita or Pale Fire, but there are moments of obvious brilliance.
schwarmgiven's review
5.0
Oh, Good Lord!
This book really should come with a warning label. I had read three other Nabokov books in 2021 (LuzHin, LoLiTa, Pal E Fir) and thought I was ready for anything--boy, was I wrong!
This book is MASSIVE. This book is HARD. This book is a Sci-fi alternate history incestuous demonology or something. Maybe. I am not even really sure where to start. Speaking of the start, it is like Simirlian initially. A brutal biblical family history trudge, followed by character driving weirdness and relationship reflections, combined with historical timelines that Philip K Dick could not track.
Seriously. Ada, or Ardor is a BIG FAT HARD TO READ monster of a 20th-century masterpiece. Be ready before you start. It will take time, internet research, library reading, and many other tools to get through.
Think Proust with puzzles, Pynchon with paradoxes, or Joyce with even more juice--a significant work with no easy way around,
Good luck, I broke Grammarly trying to write this review (where it was predicted "sounds friendly" of all things).
This book really should come with a warning label. I had read three other Nabokov books in 2021 (LuzHin, LoLiTa, Pal E Fir) and thought I was ready for anything--boy, was I wrong!
This book is MASSIVE. This book is HARD. This book is a Sci-fi alternate history incestuous demonology or something. Maybe. I am not even really sure where to start. Speaking of the start, it is like Simirlian initially. A brutal biblical family history trudge, followed by character driving weirdness and relationship reflections, combined with historical timelines that Philip K Dick could not track.
Seriously. Ada, or Ardor is a BIG FAT HARD TO READ monster of a 20th-century masterpiece. Be ready before you start. It will take time, internet research, library reading, and many other tools to get through.
Think Proust with puzzles, Pynchon with paradoxes, or Joyce with even more juice--a significant work with no easy way around,
Good luck, I broke Grammarly trying to write this review (where it was predicted "sounds friendly" of all things).
imogenrobinson__'s review
2.0
Nabokov writes so beautifully, he is able to articulate things I could never put into words, but I’m afraid I’m not intelligent enough for this frightfully long book! Found it really quite challenging to work through. Part 4 is kinda trippy too, sort of deviates from the rest of the novel. Nowhere near as good as Lolita.
neerajams's review
3.0
Not quite sure what I felt about Ada. It had moments of absolute gorgeous brilliance - as any book by Nabokov would, but overall it was a bit too esoteric, a bit too inside baseball (too inside Russian literature?), too inaccessible for me to really enjoy it overall.
It left me ready to read more Nabokov, but looking forward to finding one of his novels that is about someone other than a 16-year-old nymphet.
It left me ready to read more Nabokov, but looking forward to finding one of his novels that is about someone other than a 16-year-old nymphet.
wonderterror's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
sere_rev's review
2.0
DNF at 20%. This book feels like Nabokov was having too much fun showing off his mastery over language(s) to bother with anything as inconsequential as plot, world-building, or writing compelling characters. Good for him, but not for me.
jenmcmaynes's review
2.0
A disappointing chore of a book, especially coming after my appreciative re-read of Pale Fire. There were just too many aspects that left me wondering what was the point: the bizarre pseudo-historical mash up, the constant use of Russian and French (without translations in my edition), the constant shifting in tone and style, the chapters long discussions of Time or life on Antiterra. Even taking these stylistic and thematic issues out, the novel’s obsession with sex and female beauty was hard to read (and I even knew going into it that at its heart it was an incestuous love story), not because it was graphic (it wasn’t) but because the sense of white male entitlement was palpable. Basically, Nabokov’s usual wit and style were not enough to elevate this one for me.