Vera

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Summary: The story of a special marriage well told
Review: Vera Nabakov was totally devoted to her husband, to his life and to his work. Stacy Schiff's excellent biography tells their story in considerable detail. Vera Slonim the daughter of a wealthy Jewish family in marrying Nabakov made her religion his life and his art. She took upon herself many of the practical tasks that Nabakov disdained. They developed between themselves a private language in which they shared their own unique synashaetic way of feeling the world. She typed and read his manuscripts, found quotations for him helped him create one of the twentieth century's great literary oeuvres.

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Summary: Everything you wanted to know about the "VN's" and then some
Review: Very well written and researched account of the lives of Vera Slonim Nabokov and her husband Vladimir. The author goes to excruciating lengths to show the reader that without a partner like Vera to serve as his secretary, teaching assistant, typist, translator, proofreader, editor, manager, marketing agent, social coordinator, housekeeper, etc., etc., the eccentric Vladimir would have probably floundered in disorganization, vanity, and so forth, and, would not have attained the fabulous literary success he did. Wish Schiff's editor(s) could have helped her trim a few examples of Vera's seemingly limitless ability to serve her husband (and her own interests, as well), which become redundant, and exhausting to read about.

Rating:
Summary: The Real Life of V.
Review: Yeah when i first saw this book about a year ago i immediately had an unpleasent vision: I imagined a string of biographies coming out on Dimitry, Morris Bishop, Simon Karlinsky, Alfred Appel, Phillip Halsman, Irena Guildiarni, Nora Peebles, Edmund Wilson's son, Mary McCarthy's cousin, the writing staff of Time and The New Yorker of the 60's and 70's, and maybe collective biographies featuring hundreds of Nab's students at a time.

Of course, Nab fanatics are insatiable in their appetites and so, being one, my eyes do light up anytime a new book is out about him (or his wife). Knowing the insatiable nature of Nabokovians I am tempted to take advantage of this in ruthless capatilistic fashion by publishing some type of book, say it's called "Nab and Me" or something awful like that... People would immediately know it's trash but I know that true Nabokovians would have to buy it, they would have no choice.

Anyhow this biography was real fun to read and a testament to Nabokov's persistent belief in the subjectivity of everything: Boyd and Schiff cover much of the same ground and yet the stories sound almost completely different. Indeed there is a haunting quality to this work, an interplay of Vera's V and Vladimir's V., leaving the reader to wonder who V. is, and where is V's wife, V., and if they even exist at all. The person impersonating Vladimir in this book may have been the same one as in Boyd's, but the part of Vera is much more rich and present in Schiff's book, whereas whoever was supposed to play her in Boyd's biographies forgot to show up.

Rating:
Summary: V.N. couldn't have written it better- -even with Vera's help
Review: You will forever think of V.N. and Vera as a single creative force, and admire them all the more for that.

Undoubtedly, a must-read for V.N. fans -- so thank goodness it's as delightful as his work: charming style, artful storytelling, brilliantly funny. A real gem.