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amtgrg's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
5.0
“I suppose the pain of parting will be red and loud.”
Okay not better than Lolita, but I don't know why it isn't Nabokov's second most read novel here. He himself said that while he held the greatest affection for Lolita, it was Invitation to a Beheading that he held in the greatest esteem. Just check out this for an opening sentence:
"In accordance with the law the death sentence was announced to Cincinnatus C. in a whisper."
And there you have in the two quotes the color red, loudness, and secrecy - in short a feel of Soviet Russia. But Nabokov doesn't want you to think of Soviet Russia while reading it. And it is in protogonist, Cincinnatus' crime we discover what it is really about. He was "accused of the most terrible of crimes, gnostical turpitude, so rare and so unutterable that it was necessary to use circumlocutions like “impenetrability,” “opacity,” “occlusion” - the crime, in brief of being someone difficult to know. That could a crime in Soviet Russia too, which wanted the public and private life to be same, which effectively means no privacy, no secrets etc.
But C, is not shallow like others. He is conscious of depths in himself that he himself hasn't penetrated. And so. this crime, that is, the lack of transparency, was to show up sooner or later. He is accused, found guilty, and an execution is ordered. The sentence is welcomed with smiles, masses seem to derive a kind of sadistic pleasure from idea of an execution. The ease and lack of seruousness with which people treat him and his sentence is appaling.
In such a world, C. finds himself, an outsider, looking for escape. Smacks of Kafka's alienated characters? Is but there is no cause-and-effect relationship. Apparently, Nabokov hadn't heard of him when he wrote it.
It is hardly saying anything new that people who are different (hardly a virtue in itself, but not a vice either), who don't have that false virtue of being normal, the golden mean of mediocrity in all qualities are often persecuted by society in all parts of the world - and even where they are not they do always feel persecuted -
"I am here through an error—not in this prison, specifically—but in this whole terrible, striped world; a world which seems not a bad example of amateur craftsmanship, but is in reality calamity, horror, madness, error—and look, the curio slays the tourist, the gigantic carved bear brings its wooden mallet down upon me. "
The images of golden cage and a spider devouring its prey add to this atmosphere where feeling of being unnessarily persecuted gathers strength. And he tries hard, hard to make sense of this world around him
"Involuntarily yielding to the temptation of logical development, involuntarily (be careful, Cincinnatus!) forging into a chain all the things that were quite harmless as long as they remained unlinked, he inspired the meaningless with meaning and the lifeless with life."
But it is useless, all his attempts to make himself understood by these shallow people (or at least, shallow to him) fail:
"I myself picture all this so clearly, but you are not I, and therein lies the irreparable calamity."
since he is surrounded by people who are more puppets than human beings - full of acting and role plays.
“I am surrounded by some sort of wretched specters, not by people. They torment me as can torment only senseless visions, bad dreams, dregs of delirium, the drivel of nightmares and everything that passes down here for real life.”
Yes, there seems to be a superiority complex about him but that is an understandable reaction in someone who hasn't met a like minded soul in his life - it is difficult tobe always understanding when no one understands you. There is nothing for him but to scorn inwardly as his prison mate charges into generally admired eloquence saying cliche things with cliche phrases or his executioner who is a sort of celebrity.
And so, C. turns to the last resort of all those misunderstood souls - writing
"I am chained to this table like a cup to a drinking fountain, and will not rise till I have said what I want. I repeat (gathering new momentum in the rhythm of repetitive incantations), I repeat: there is something I know, there is something I know, there is something … When still, a child, living still in a canary-yellow, large, cold house where they were preparing me and hundreds of other children for secure nonexistence as adult dummies, into which all my coevals turned without effort or pain; already then, in those accursed days, amid rag books and brightly painted school materials and soul-chilling drafts, I knew without knowing, I knew without wonder, I knew as one knows oneself, I knew what it is impossible to know—and, I would say, I knew it even more clearly than I do now. "
but even that doesn't console his soul:
"The thought, when written down, becomes less oppressive, but some thoughts are like a cancerous tumor: you express is, you excise it, and it grows back worse than before.”
“...All my best words are deserters and do not answer the trumpet call, and the remainder are cripples.”
BIG SPOILER AHEAD READER DISCRESTION IS ADVISED
The twist in the end suggests that C. was a willing participitant of his own execution - there is something to think about for those who find themselves presecuted by the world for being different.
asgard224's review against another edition
4.0
"În conformitate cu legea, sentinţa de condamnare la moarte i-a fost comunicată lui Cincinnat C. în şoaptă."
Absurditatea întâmplărilor prin care trece Cincinnat după momentul ce e întemnițat duce cu gândul la scrierile lui Kafka.
Redau un fragment din prefața lui Ion Ianoşi (1996):
"Pretinde, complet ilogic, să afle motivul condamnării şi mai cu seamă data execuției. Așteaptă, cu nesăbuință, să fie tratat ca un om de către judecători, temniceri şi călăi. Conform logicii lor firești, aceştia îl batjocoresc însă tot timpul, îi regizează noi şi noi farse de eliberare, deoarece în ochii lor ispita libertăţii merită să fie tratată doar prin bufonade. Dorinţa de a cunoaşte şi de a fi inconfundabil e o dublă crimă de lezmajestate într-un univers univoc şi uniform, purtând uniforme pe corp şi pe suflet. Autorul a dispreţuit dintotdeauna plebea, de aceea îşi confruntă personajul cu o masă amorfă, în care nimeni nu are voie să fie o personalitate şi toată lumea trebuie să se lase comandată. E un teatru de marionete trase de sfori şi pe sfoară. Nu e populat de oameni, ci de fantome, de năluci şi strigoi, parodii ale realului, nişte pseudo-ființe care duc o pseudo-existență."
Absurditatea întâmplărilor prin care trece Cincinnat după momentul ce e întemnițat duce cu gândul la scrierile lui Kafka.
Redau un fragment din prefața lui Ion Ianoşi (1996):
"Pretinde, complet ilogic, să afle motivul condamnării şi mai cu seamă data execuției. Așteaptă, cu nesăbuință, să fie tratat ca un om de către judecători, temniceri şi călăi. Conform logicii lor firești, aceştia îl batjocoresc însă tot timpul, îi regizează noi şi noi farse de eliberare, deoarece în ochii lor ispita libertăţii merită să fie tratată doar prin bufonade. Dorinţa de a cunoaşte şi de a fi inconfundabil e o dublă crimă de lezmajestate într-un univers univoc şi uniform, purtând uniforme pe corp şi pe suflet. Autorul a dispreţuit dintotdeauna plebea, de aceea îşi confruntă personajul cu o masă amorfă, în care nimeni nu are voie să fie o personalitate şi toată lumea trebuie să se lase comandată. E un teatru de marionete trase de sfori şi pe sfoară. Nu e populat de oameni, ci de fantome, de năluci şi strigoi, parodii ale realului, nişte pseudo-ființe care duc o pseudo-existență."
ambientmusicbf's review against another edition
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
leoniefnk's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Absurd to the max.
jacquelinepon's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
heidijomann's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Nabokov is always incredibly impressive, but in this case I also found him incredibly complicated. I had tried to get through this book several times before I actually read the whole thing, and I'm glad I did. I would recommend reading it in one sitting if you can.
doctorlauren12's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
agiali's review against another edition
3.0
I have a problem where I can recognize a classic is phenomenal and the words I'm reading are spectacularly put together, but I feel so disconnected from classics. Ideally, I really enjoyed this, but reading this felt like an out-of-body experience. I know I read the words and that I enjoyed them, but I could have put this book down at any point and forgotten about it.
Still excited to read more Nabokov though! I think my next may be Pnin or Lolita.
Still excited to read more Nabokov though! I think my next may be Pnin or Lolita.