Nabokov: Temy i variatsii by Maxim D. s> Shrayer Vera Polishchuk (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 527 number of Zoshchenko's short pieces, almost entirely confined to the period up to I923, according to Hicks, a turning-pointwhen, though continuing to use skaz extensively, Zoshchenko dropped ornamental prose and moved towards the journalistic form. The chapter on skaz and journalism which follows underlines the extent to which so many of Zoshchenko'sshort stories began theirlife as reportage.The authorrecognizes I932 as the year in which Zoshchenko was finally forced to remake himself in a more purposeful, optimistic mould but avoids any discussion of whether this new Zoshchenko abandoned skazas a consequence. There is also no treatmentof the novellas, where a case can certainlybe made forthe presence of a differenttype of skaz. In his introduction, the author speaks of the 'sweet seduction' of his subject an enthusiasmwhich this reviewercommends. It is a pity that this worthybook somehow failsto convey that sense of enjoyment. School ofEuropean Languages andCultures MICHAEL FALCHIKOV University ofEdinburgh Shrayer, Maxim D. Nabokov.Temyi variatsii. Translatedfrom the English by Vera Polishchukin collaborationwith the author. Sovremennaia zapadnaia rusistika. Akademicheskii proekt, St Petersburg, 2000. 374 pp. Notes. Bibliography.Index. Priceunknown. MAXIM D. SHRAYER'S study on the connection between Nabokov's poetics and life is principally a collection of material from his book The Worldof Nabokov's Stories (Austin, I999) and several earlier articlesin Russian translation . Widening the scope of his earliermonograph Shrayertracesthe patterns of love, memory and the 'otherworld'in both Nabokov'sfictionand hisletters. He suggeststhat the relationshipbetween these recurringthemes is centralto Nabokov's thinkingand writing. Taking the motifs in Nabokov's 'literary' letters, Shrayer maps their reappearance in Nabokov's short fiction and their final transformation in Nabokov's autobiography. In Nabokov's work, personal memory becomes fiction and then fiction is transformed back into memory. Shrayer follows Nabokov'spreoccupationwith these themesin his dialoguewith Chekhovand Buninon thedevelopmentof new formsinshortfiction.Shrayer'scomparative analysis of 'Dama s sobachkoi' and 'Vesna v Fial'te' shows that in spite of several parallels of plot and language there are fundamental differences in outlook and consequently of form between the two short stories. Whereas Chekhov's open ending hints at the possibility of future happiness through love in thisworld, Nabokov's closed structureimpliesa notion of 'otherworld' not as a conventional model forlife afterdeathbut as a formof memorywhich keeps loved ones alive. In contrast, Bunin's understanding of death as an inevitable consequence of overwhelmingpassion as expressedin 'Genrikh'is seen by Shrayeras Bunin'spolemic againstNabokov'smodernismin 'Vesnav Fial'te'. The chapter on Bunin is in itself an important contribution to our biographicalknowledge of Nabokov. Shrayerdescribesthe troubledrelationship between these two icons of Russian emigre literaturewhich veered from admiration to tension and rivalry.Like Chekhov's and Bunin's work, which 528 SEER, 8o, 3, 2002 bridgesthe gap between 'fathers'and 'sons',Nabokov'sfictionis seen asbeing 'covertlymodernist'.Hence, Shrayerchallenges the notion that Nabokov is a Westernratherthan a Russianwriter. Shrayeremphasizesthe impact of literarycontroversieson Nabokov'swork in his discussion of 'Vasilii Shishkov' and the related poems of that period. Although initiallyintended to be a complex literaryhoax on Adamovich, the workturnedout to be one of Nabokov'sbest shortstories.Shrayerarguesthat Nabokov uses this storynot only as a metaliterarydialogue with the fictional poet Shishkov, but also as the preparation for his own departure from a constantly diminishing emigre world. Here Shrayer not only illuminates Nabokov's role in the culturallife of the emigre community, but also returns to his preoccupation with the theme of the 'otherworld'which becomes for Shishkovand Nabokov himselfthe memory of a lost Russia. In his discussion of Nabokov's interest in the religious philosophy of Judaism Shrayer approaches another neglected area of Nabokov studies. Shrayer sees Nabokov's contacts with Jewish-Russian emigres and his marriageto a Jewish woman as the origin of the Jewish theme in Nabokov's work. In his analysisof Darand Pnin,Shrayerargues that the heroes of both novels come to understandthe afterlifeprimarilyas an influence of the dead on the living an idea which Shrayerlinksto contemporaryJewish thinking. The impact of the Holocaust on theJewish theme in Nabokov's work can be seen in Pnin,where the hero, havinglost hisfirstlove in a concentrationcamp, has to question his belief in an 'autocraticGod' and finds instead comfort in the idea of a 'democracyof ghosts...