Pnin (Penguin Modern Classics)

Product Details

    Series: Penguin Modern Classics
    Paperback: 176 pages
    Publisher: Penguin Books, Limited (UK) (May 1, 2010)
    Language: English
    ISBN-10: 0141183756
    ISBN-13: 978-0141183756
    Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.4 x 7.8 inches
    Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Nabokov fans will be disappointed by narrator Stefan Rudnicki's stiff, staid performance in this audio version of the author's 13th novel. Told in a series of vignettes, the story follows Russian immigrant and professor Timofey Pavlovich Pnin as he boards the wrong train on his way to deliver a lecture, loses his luggage, struggles with the English language, hunts for living quarters, deals with his ex-wife, and throws a faculty party. Rudnicki's narration is clear and steady, but fails to capture the playfulness of Nabokov's prose and the humor of the text. Instead, Rudnicki's tone is variously stiff, needlessly booming, or monotone. He does, however, provide a wide range of voices for the cast of characters. His rendition of the title character-which sounds like a hybrid of Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat and Soviet comedian Yakov Smirnoff-is dynamic and entertaining. Listeners will be left wishing Rudnicki had infused more of his narration with those qualities. (Nov.)
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Review
"Hilariously funny and of a sadness." -Graham Greene""Pnin"'s vita, though its essence is saintliness, is yet a work of brilliant magic and fabulous laughter." -"The New Republic ""Fun and satire are just the beginning of the rewards of this novel. Generous, bewildered Pnin, that most kindly and impractical of men, wins our affection and respect." -"Chicago Tribune""Nabokov can move you to laughter in the way the masters can-to laughter that is near to tears." -"The Guardian"