/lit/ - Literature

>Once upon a time there was an old Russian man who loved America but America didn't love him so he died lonely and miserable the end
Well that was depressing. What was Nabby going for here?

>>20404849

PniN

Poor Pnin.
How much of the narrator's version of events do you trust? Also, what was going on with all those squirrels?
Anyway, general Nabokov thread. Has anyone read Ada or Ardor? Is it really his best?

I loved Lolita, but I don't think I quite 'get' this book. It's even quite short but it's been such a slog for me. What is it I am missing or not understanding? I know it is supposed to be quite funny (and it sometimes is), but mostly it just seems very boring.

>He had an irritating way of standing on the landing and assiduously brushing his clothes there, the brush clinking against the buttons, for at least five minutes every blessed morning. He had a passionate intrigue with Joan’s washing machine. Although forbidden to come near it, he would be caught trespassing again and again. Casting aside all decorum and caution, he would feed it anything that happened to be at hand, his handkerchief, kitchen towels, a heap of shorts and shirts smuggled down from his room, just for the joy of watching through that porthole what looked like an endless tumble of dolphins with the staggers. One Sunday, after checking the solitude, he could not resist, out of sheer scientific curiosity, giving the mighty machine a pair of rubber-soled canvas shoes stained with clay and chlorophyll to play with; the shoes tramped away with a dreadful arhythmic sound, like an army going over a bridge, and came back without their soles, and Joan appeared from her little sitting room behind the pantry and said in sadness, “Again, Timofey?” But she forgave him, and liked to sit with him at the kitchen table, both cracking nuts or drinking tea.
Was he autistic?