Rating: 
Summary: hilarious doom and mockery
Review: from reading "pnin" one gets the sense of an author who loves to
highlight and ridicule human failing at every turn; in this case nabokov's dartboard is timofey pnin (just from the name you know this guy is here for us to occasionally laugh at) a professor of linguistics, teaching an arcane language with absurd pride that no one cares about. the underlying despair of pnin's existence only emerges in spurts, and most of the scenes are exquisitely targeted shots at the anal retentive, joyless and somehow lovable old man who busies himself with a life he has never lived consciously. there are heartbreaking scenes, such as when pnin's only gift from his son breaks. ("i have nofing, nofing!") while pnin is a mostly comical character (intended, i think, to represent in his slightest characteristics, our embarrassing and futile attempts to control what cannot be controlled or understood--life). perhaps the most significant and telltale part of the novel is in the beginning--nabokov frankly admits the pessimism and sense of the absurd running throughout the tale, confessing that he "hates happy ending". he is speaking for not only a certain kind of reader but a certain kind of human being, the kind that never feels comfortable with sugar coated takes on human life, in literature or otherwise. beautiful and heart rending, not to be missed within this lifetime.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable, but I'm not sure I understood it all
Review: I needed the annotated version of this short novel by Nabokov, because I'm sure that I missed many of the things that were happening here. Basically the story of a Russian exile who teaches at an American university (something Nabokov was quite familiar with, in the grand "write what you know" tradition), the top story is quaint and humorous, the title character being a likeable, if somewhat eccentric, man. He's close to the "born loser" in his relationship with his University and his ex-wife, but he's not just a simple sad sack. There's meat on his bones, and while he seems oblivious to the tumult of his life, he remains fairly proud and retains a reassuring naivete.The story under this is what I could not quite catch. I'm sure that Nabokov was making some sly comments on University life and ex-patriots, but every time I thought the dawn was about to break, the sun slipped behind another mountain. The prose is enjoyable, and, had I not read two other books by Nabokov, I might not have felt a loss. My favorite part here is a party that Pnin throws as a house warming, inviting over his supervisor as well as friends (ex-landlords) and acquaintances (including one fellow that he merely says hello to daily on his walk across campus). Following the party, his supervisor has to tell him that Pnin's job is not very secure, as the supervisor is taking a position at another university and his replacement may not be as open to keeping Pnin in his current position. After the joy of his party, this deflates Pnin, and he verges on becoming angry. Picking up the party debris and cleaning dishes, he is washing a prized gift from his son when it slips out of his hand and drops into the suds-filled sink. He almost caught it--his fingertips actually came into contact with it in mid-air, but this only helped to propel it into the treasure-concealing foam of the sink, where an excruciating crack of broken glass followed upon the plunge�.Then, with a moan of anguished anticipation, he went back to the sink and, bracing himself, dipped his hand deep into the foam. A jagger of glass stung him. Gently he removed a broken goblet. The beautiful bowl was intact. He took a fresh dish towel and went on with his household work. Here is Pnin's strength, I thought. His life is that bowl, occasionally being dropped, but, strangely, he never breaks.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a masterpiece, but immensely pleasant
Review: In many of Nabokov's novels one finds so much human nastiness. As Nabokov retorted to those who imagined that Humbert Humbert was in some sense autobiographical, "Humbert Humbert is a monster!" Pnin is not, and while he may have some enemies in this novel, they could never be confused with the spawn of Satan. And unlike Humbert Humbert, Pnin is in many ways autobiographical. For one thing, the title character is an academic pretty much along the same lines as Nabokov (though not nearly as successful). For another, Nabokov, like Pnin, never learned to drive a car. In his constant trips across the United States in search of butterflies (these trips form much of the material basis of Humbert and Lolita's car treks), his wife would drive, while he would sit in the passenger side writing his novels on 3 x 5 note cards (much like poet John Shade in PALE FIRE). So, if someone who has been stunned by the genius of LOLITA and PALE FIRE and the virtuosity of ADA is coming to this unpretentious volume expecting more of the same, they will find themselves disappointed. This is Nabokov Lite. But it is not all the worst for that.
Rating:
Summary: You can hear a "Pnin" drop...
Review: One of Vladimir Nabokov's lesser-known works is "Pnin," a gently comic story about a perpetually lost Russian expatriate and the chaos that is his life. Nabokov slyly lampoons America, expatriates, psychiatry and fussiness through Pnin, but he managed never to be mean-spirited about it. Timofey Pnin is a timid professor of the Russian language at an American college, who moves every semester. Originally from Russia himself, he struggles with English, trains, appliances, dental work, and his relationship with his manipulative ex-wife, who insists that he give financial aid to her young son. The offbeat Russian expatriate drifts through his life, trying to arrange things the way they should be. At first glance, Pnin looks like a clueless, absentminded loser. However, after Nabokov shows us his lost loves, his absurd little life, his reminiscences, we see him differently. Okay, he's still a clueless, absentminded loser. But he's a loser with depth! "Pnin" has pessimism, but there's a certain sense of comic optimism as well (despite Nabokov's explanation that he dislikes happy endings). Pnin's theme song should be "I Will Survive." Nabokov's writing is less rich here than in many of his other novels, in keeping with the humorous plot. Perhaps the funniest chapter is when he describes Victor's lack of psychiatric complexity, making fun of shrinks everywhere. But there's plenty of subtlety with the satire, such as the tragic story of Mira, a woman Pnin loved who was killed by Nazis. Or how Pnin washes the dishes after a disastrous party. Pnin is ethical, generous and forgiving as well as fussy, picky and more than a little strange; he's perhaps the most sympathetic character Nabokov ever made. Nabokov pokes fun at Pnin while making us like him for his essential kindness. He's no buffoon, but a person who could really exist. The other characters aren't quite as vivid, although Victor (Pnin's ex-wife's son) is very good: the hapless artist son of two shrinks, who disappoints them by not having any weird complexes. In the end, Nabokov's "Pnin" is a sort of personal Don Quixote who is dealing with the strangeness of his own life. Comical and a bit saddening, this is an undeservedly little-known book.
Rating:
Summary: You can hear a "Pnin" drop...
Review: One of Vladimir Nabokov's lesser-known works is "Pnin," a gently comic story about a perpetually lost Russian expatriate and the chaos that is his life. Nabokov slyly lampoons America, expatriates, psychiatry and fussiness through Pnin, but he managed never to be mean-spirited about it. Timofey Pnin is a timid professor of the Russian language at an American college, who moves every semester. Originally from Russia himself, he struggles with English, trains, appliances, dental work, and his relationship with his manipulative ex-wife, who insists that he give financial aid to her young son. The offbeat Russian expatriate drifts through his life, trying to arrange things the way they should be. At first glance, Pnin looks like a clueless, absentminded loser. However, after Nabokov shows us his lost loves, his absurd little life, his reminiscences, we see him differently. Okay, he's still a clueless, absentminded loser. But he's a loser with depth! "Pnin" has pessimism, but there's a certain sense of comic optimism as well (despite Nabokov's explanation that he dislikes happy endings). Pnin's theme song should be "I Will Survive." Nabokov's writing is less rich here than in many of his other novels, in keeping with the humorous plot. Perhaps the funniest chapter is when he describes Victor's lack of psychiatric complexity, making fun of shrinks everywhere. But there's plenty of subtlety with the satire, such as the tragic story of Mira, a woman Pnin loved who was killed by Nazis. Or how Pnin washes the dishes after a disastrous party. Pnin is ethical, generous and forgiving as well as fussy, picky and more than a little strange; he's perhaps the most sympathetic character Nabokov ever made. Nabokov pokes fun at Pnin while making us like him for his essential kindness. He's no buffoon, but a person who could really exist. The other characters aren't quite as vivid, although Victor (Pnin's ex-wife's son) is very good: the hapless artist son of two shrinks, who disappoints them by not having any weird complexes. In the end, Nabokov's "Pnin" is a sort of personal Don Quixote who is dealing with the strangeness of his own life. Comical and a bit saddening, this is an undeservedly little-known book.
Rating:
Summary: one of nabokov's best
Review: PNIN is Vladimir Nabokov's fourth English language novel, or, perhaps more noteably, the novel that followed his only famous work, LOLITA. PNIN in every way stands up to LOLITA and his two subsequent and greatest novels, PALE FIRE and ADA. These four novels represent Nabokov at his artistic peak (include also his incomparable translation of Pushkin's EUGENE ONEGIN). PNIN equals LOLITA in every imaginaive and enchanting category applied to prose, but it does not feature those same sexually explicit themes that made LOLITA so popular. So much the better: Nabokov's writing is not intended for the groin. PNIN is an asexual creation that attracts as naturally and as brilliantly as lolly-pop LOLITA. PNIN is the creation of a moralist, not a writer of smut. As Nabokov compels readers to like and to sympathize with the monstorously cruel and selfish Humbert Humbert, he compels his readers to look down our unenlightened noses at moral, selfless and kind Pnin. Nabokov, of course, wants us to laugh at his Pnin throughout the entire novel, but he also wants us to respect his charater's superior intelligence, to admire Pnin's devotion for his ex-wife and Her son, and to laugh at, not identify with, those inferior characters that think Pnin is merely a bumbling dolt. PNIN reacts to the classic novel, DON QUIXOTE, wherein the reader is invited to mercilessly and continuously laugh at that famous protagonist with out a shimmer of judgmental guilt--a result that Nabokov raged against in his lectures concerning QUIXOTE. Nabokov disarms readers who believe Pnin is merely a clown. PNIN does not merely depict one particular point in Timofey Pnin's life--as has been suggested by certain reviewers from this website--but depicts the greater portion of Pnin's life, with an emphasis on the nine or ten semesters he taught at a good-sized college. This scope provides readers with a whole heck-of-a lot more personal information about Pnin than clowns are allowed, or necessarily disallowed. Pnin is as much of a clown as Joyce's Leopold Bloom (the two actually share many qualities). In short, one should read PNIN because it is very, very funny and is Nabokov's most charming novel. Ignore the strange comments that accuse PNIN of not having a plot.
Rating: 
Summary: Cure for Insomnia
Review: Pnin was the 5th Nabokov book I've read. I loved Despair, Lolita, Laughter in the Dark, and Sebastian Knight. I hated Pnin. Reading two pages put me, mercifully, to sleep every night. I'm getting sleepy just writing this review...
Rating:
Summary: Pnin
Review: The overwhelming success and notoriety of Lolita has sometimes had the unfortunate effect of obscuring some of Nabokov's other treasures. Pnin is one such gem, being his third English novel, fragments of which were published during the 50's in the New Yorker.
It is the account of a Timofey Pnin, professor of Classical Russian Literature at Waindell College, a course failing year after year to garner deserved interest. The novel is a succession of carefully blended time morphs, the beginning and end forming a kind of cycle, wherein the reader is made privy to various comical blunders of Pnin's academic life, as well as his painful memories of an exiled Russian past, bloody revolutions and a war-torn Europe. Pnin is proud to have adopted America as a new home, being largely oblivious of his total incompetence in the English language and his role as the butt of many cruel and childish jokes, perpetrated by the rest of Waindell staff. He lives alone, with the pangs of unrequited love and a son whom he barely has the chance to see. Pnin is a charming character, capable of inspiring a spectrum of different emotions.
Such is the plot on surface, deceptively simplistic, though having a complex clockwork running behind scenes. Things take a surprising turn when the narrator is revealed, and Nabokov himself (Mr.N) makes a bewildering appearance in his own book, inviting a complete re-interpretation of many key events. The careful reader will be left pondering the motifs of the squirrel, the identity of the novel's `Evil Maker' and the significance of Pnin's flashbacks. Some logical paradoxes are posed by the novel: there are puzzles to be worked out.
The work is slender and as such is considered one of Nabokov's more accessible novels, which can be enjoyed on a few different levels. Vladimir Nabokov did rely on a number of his own experiences, being a professor throughout several colleges in the U.S. (Stanford, Cornell, Harvard), to poke a little fun at the mechanism of academic life, though unlike poor Pnin, he possessed an unmatched control and execution of the English language. Much of the novel's translucent beauty is captured so perfectly in Nabokov's prose that many sentences deserve to be re-read several times for full appreciation of what John Updike called the `ecstasy' effect that is evident in the late master's writing. "A score of small butterflies, all of one kind, were settled on a damp patch of sand, their wings erect and closed, showing their pale undersides with dark dots and tiny orange-rimmed peacock spots along the hindwing margins; one of Pnin's shed rubbers disturbed some of them and, revealing the celestial hue of their upper surface, they fluttered around like blue snowflakes before settling again." (Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin) In such thrilling undulations of verse will the memory of this novel preserve itself in the mind of its sensitive reader.
Rating:
Summary: Pnin
Review: The overwhelming success and notoriety of Lolita has sometimes had the unfortunate effect of obscuring some of Nabokov's other treasures. Pnin is one such gem, being his third English novel, fragments of which were published during the 50's in the New Yorker.
It is the account of a Timofey Pnin, professor of Classical Russian Literature at Waindell College, a course failing year after year to garner deserved interest. The novel is a succession of carefully blended time morphs, the beginning and end forming a kind of cycle, wherein the reader is made privy to various comical blunders of Pnin's academic life, as well as his painful memories of an exiled Russian past, bloody revolutions and a war-torn Europe. Pnin is proud to have adopted America as a new home, being largely oblivious of his total incompetence in the English language and his role as the butt of many cruel and childish jokes, perpetrated by the rest of Waindell staff. He lives alone, with the pangs of unrequited love and a son whom he barely has the chance to see. Pnin is a charming character, capable of inspiring a spectrum of different emotions.
Such is the plot on surface, deceptively simplistic, though having a complex clockwork running behind scenes. Things take a surprising turn when the narrator is revealed, and Nabokov himself (Mr.N) makes a bewildering appearance in his own book, inviting a complete re-interpretation of many key events. The careful reader will be left pondering the motifs of the squirrel, the identity of the novel's 'Evil Maker' and the significance of Pnin's flashbacks. Some logical paradoxes are posed by the novel: there are puzzles to be worked out.
The work is slender and as such is considered one of Nabokov's more accessible novels, which can be enjoyed on a few different levels. Vladimir Nabokov did rely on a number of his own experiences, being a professor throughout several colleges in the U.S. (Stanford, Cornell, Harvard), to poke a little fun at the mechanism of academic life, though unlike poor Pnin, he possessed an unmatched control and execution of the English language. Much of the novel's translucent beauty is captured so perfectly in Nabokov's prose that many sentences deserve to be re-read several times for full appreciation of what John Updike called the 'ecstasy' effect that is evident in the late master's writing. "A score of small butterflies, all of one kind, were settled on a damp patch of sand, their wings erect and closed, showing their pale undersides with dark dots and tiny orange-rimmed peacock spots along the hindwing margins; one of Pnin's shed rubbers disturbed some of them and, revealing the celestial hue of their upper surface, they fluttered around like blue snowflakes before settling again." (Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin) In such thrilling undulations of verse will the memory of this novel preserve itself in the mind of its sensitive reader.
Rating:
Summary: Nabokov creates his own rules in this satiric novel
Review: Vladimir Nabokov is so often called a "master stylist" that it is easy to forget that he is an adept storyteller as well. Even though PNIN, one of his lesser known works, threatens to disappear under the gorgeous stylistic turns, it is ultimately the pathetic title character and his nemesis/narrator who drive this novel. Pnin is a Russian instructor at a college, and, due to his solitary existence and his failure to grasp the subtleties of English, he has become a running joke to most of his colleagues. He is fussy, awkward, and usually clueless. The novel reads as episodes in Pnin's life: losing his lecture notes on a train he should never have been on; his weekend with other Russian immigrants; the crushing love and hope he experiences when his ex-wife visits him; a party he gives for his colleagues. The narrator's the biting and hilarious commentary about Pnin and those he associates with keeps the reader from taking these events too seriously. But should we? In the writing of this work, Nabokov breaks all the rules. His shifts in points-of-view, his sometimes favoring of lengthy exposition over scene, his dropping of plots and subplots just as they get going all work precisely because he is such a skilled novelist and knows the effect of abandoning conventions. In dashing the reader's hopes, his style takes tenacious hold of the reader's imagination; we learn to trust the voice - even if we shouldn't. This last is what is truly brilliant about the novel: we allow ourselves to be swept into a story of non-events and pathos, laughing along the way and becoming in essence yet another of Pnin's mocking colleagues. Students of literature and book discussion groups can discover a wealth of topics here: Is the narrator reliable? How can the narrator be both omniscient and a specific character? How does the touching story of Pnin's first love fit with the mocking tone in the rest of the novel? What is the range of the Russian immigrant experience Nabokov supplies? Is Pnin heroic or merely pathetic? While PNIN is hardly the masterpiece that PALE FIRE or LOLITA is, it has its own rewards. Once I advanced past the first chapter, I didn't want to leave this odd, Old World character. Highly recommended, especially if you've already read one or more of Nabokov's other works.
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