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Summary: Another Russian writer called Fyodor.
Review: "The Gift" will mark the last of Nabokov's novelsin Russian as well as his farewell ode to the pre-Bolshevikliterature which formed him. The book follows a young poet, Fyodor, who lives in Berlin (as Nabokov did) in the 1920s. Fyodor's verses don't sell too well, so he decides to undertake a critical biography of a cherished Russian literary icon. In doing so he tuggles with Turgenev, dismisses Dostoyevsky, and pushes Pushkin in the self-confident, pretentious, and sometimes brilliant manner in which Nabokov himself presented these writers in his Russian lit courses. Nabokov, in the 1962 introduction to this book, claims that Fyodor is not his alter ego; but what Nabokov character isn't? Who doesn't grasp the Nabokovian slyness of Humbert Humbert, or the Nabokovian froideur of Lolita and Sebastian Knight? With "The Gift", Nabokov stirs up the apparent nostalgia of dark Berlin streets, lean years, and literary fervor; and by the end, you are imagining young Vlad in his tattered trenchcoat, smoking his Gauloises, dreaming up the next novel in between butterfly chases and long letters to his faraway childhood love.
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Summary: I quit reading The Gift
Review: After searching for this book, finally tracking it down, and reading it, I was very disappointed. I have been virtually absorbed in Nabokov's work for nearly four months now, and this is the first criticism I have made. This is also the first book by N. that I have quit reading. I thought that compared to the other books I have read, the story was very weak, difficult to understand, and boring. Reading this book was an overall disappointment. Time to find something else to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice book
Review: Fyodor, the protagonist of _The Gift_, is a Russian living in Berlin. Fyodor is having a great deal of difficulty getting his writings published. Given the task of completing his biography in-progress of Chernyshevski, the late Russian writer accused of conspiring to assassinate Tsar Alexander II, Fyodor is finally able to get something published. Chapter 4 of _The Gift_ encompasses this biography. Vladimir Nabokov is considered one of the greatest authors of the 20th century. Nabokov is incapable of writing a paragraph, much less a sentence, without creating a work of poetry. This is no less true in _The Gift_. Nabokov does give a picaresque description of Fyodor's relationship with his adverturous father, a hunter of rare and exotic butterflies. _The Gift_, however, is so over-ladden with metaphors and intellectual gymnastics that character and plot development are almost completely sacrficed. The book also lacks focus, wildly jumping from one story line to another in quick succession. I completed reading _The Gift_ only because the author is the great Nabokov.
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Summary: I would like to return this gift
Review: Fyodor, the protagonist of _The Gift_, is a Russian living in Berlin. Fyodor is having a great deal of difficulty getting his writings published. Given the task of completing his biography in-progress of Chernyshevski, the late Russian writer accused of conspiring to assassinate Tsar Alexander II, Fyodor is finally able to get something published. Chapter 4 of _The Gift_ encompasses this biography. Vladimir Nabokov is considered one of the greatest authors of the 20th century. Nabokov is incapable of writing a paragraph, much less a sentence, without creating a work of poetry. This is no less true in _The Gift_. Nabokov does give a picaresque description of Fyodor's relationship with his adverturous father, a hunter of rare and exotic butterflies. _The Gift_, however, is so over-ladden with metaphors and intellectual gymnastics that character and plot development are almost completely sacrficed. The book also lacks focus, wildly jumping from one story line to another in quick succession. I completed reading _The Gift_ only because the author is the great Nabokov.
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Summary: Coming of Age in Exile
Review: I found this "coming of age in exile" novel of VN's to be an exhilirating, long read. The sensibilities developed in this final Russian novel of VN's are multi-layered and alternately opaque and transparent. Oftentimes this book appears to be going nowhere and then a passage appears that transports you into another of Nabokov's magical perspectives where human imagination informs the universe! I've enjoyed the pace of the text and found it to be a book worth savoring over an extended reading. Criticisms about the books apparent "plotlessness" are not based in any Nabokovian context. Careful reading, sirs and ladies, is the way to proceed. The reading is the thing! Take the gift as just that.
Rating:
Summary: Coming of Age in Exile
Review: I found this "coming of age in exile" novel of VN's to be an exhilirating, long read. The sensibilities developed in this final Russian novel of VN's are multi-layered and alternately opaque and transparent. Oftentimes this book appears to be going nowhere and then a passage appears that transports you into another of Nabokov's magical perspectives where human imagination informs the universe! I've enjoyed the pace of the text and found it to be a book worth savoring over an extended reading. Criticisms about the books apparent "plotlessness" are not based in any Nabokovian context. Careful reading, sirs and ladies, is the way to proceed. The reading is the thing! Take the gift as just that.
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Summary: Arduous
Review: I suppose there is a plot somewhere in this book, but it's lost amid the frequent changes of narrative style (first person, third person, then back-and-forth between the two) and the long descriptive sections. OK, there must be a lot to say about reading a book for the sheer enjoyment of the prose, as so many readers seem to respond positively to it. But it's never really attracted me: I find it's like running a marathon, but with no sense of achievement at the end. If you like to read books for the sheer challenge of it, then "The Gift" should be what you need. If you read for a sense of enjoyment based both upon style and plot content, beware.
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Summary: Hail Colorfully Winged Muse!
Review: Nabokov is very funny(in case you didn't already know that) and no matter what his subject matter the humor comes through. That is one of the gifts here, the other more obvious one is literature, specifically Russian literature, the tradition of which is a gift the Russian born Nabokov received and in this book he gives you his version of that tradition in brief and since this book would be the last book he wrote in Russian one assumes he is paying a quite deliberate homage to his homelands men of letters. But Nabokov is never serious for long and the laughs are always right around the corner or on the next page. This book is also about lead character Fyodor's gift which is his talent and that talent appears in wonderful ways all through the narrative. This was written in Nabokov's middle period while he lived in Berlin,Germany writing in a small hotel room with family and those circumstances just makes this all the more incredible because it is a very beautiful book. Perhaps Nabokov was wondering what he would do with his gift at this most uncertain pre-WWII moment in his life. His great books were still to come but this book is his first to show that he is no ordinary artist and it at least equals if not surpasses the later books in regards to appeal because it is so personal, or at least as personal as Nabokov gets. You know you are in the hands of a master when you suddenly realize the chapter you are reading is a dream even though it is written in a way that does not immediately give that away and so you share the dreamers belief that the dreamed moment is real(what is a Russian novel without a dream). But again Nabokovs humor comes into play as the clue that this is in fact a dream is only subtley inserted into the chapter. After early disruptions and tragedy(his father was assasinated by Russian police)Nabokov led a charmed life, perhaps willed it to be so, and this book is marked with that charm and his word magicians wit which were to be his life sustaining strengths and his father from whom he received the precious gift seems to benevolently haunt the margins of these farewell to Russia pages. And butterfly hunting is one of the more beautiful ways to describe the artists pursuit.
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Summary: VN's best Russian-language novel
Review: This is an intense, nostalgic, non-linear novel. It's a rich treat for Nabokov fans. The first time I read it, I recall getting frustrated at the seeming plotlessness, yet there were certain scenes and passsages that I could never forget. I picked it up again a couple of years later, and absolutely fell in love with it. The Gift is, in some ways, Nabokov's take on Joyce-- a roaming perspective, an intellectual humor, an overall sense of character development. The end of the novel is ecstatic with the potential of life.
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Summary: A imposing, but ultimately extraordinary novel
Review: This is another of those daunting books that I only completed after my third try. I'm glad I stuck with it - difficult but worthwhile. It begins with a portrait of the artist, Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, as a young man, trying to become a published author, scraping out a nearly destitute existence in Berlin. Like Nabokov, Fyodor's family had formerly been titled landowners in pre-Bolshevik Russia and are now living in exile in Berlin.
This book consists of five long chapters - the first describes Fyodor's literary quest, his surroundings, his lifestyle, and some of his poems, published by a small emigre press, as he reminisces over them. The best part of the book is the second chapter where we are taken back to Fyodor's childhood in Russia. There is an amazing description of his father's butterfly collecting expeditions and mysterious death in Central Asia. This section is absolutely fascinating and is among my favorite writings by Nabokov (or anybody else).
In chapters three and four the book becomes increasingly confusing. I think Nabokov is trying to challenge the readers to the point where most will just quit right here. Why? I have no idea. For example, on page 154 of the Vintage International edition he changes narrator and point of view - right in the middle of a paragraph! Then twenty pages later he switches back, again mid-paragraph. Our hero, Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, has a friend and rival named Chernyshevski. In chapter three Fyodor begins to write a book about another Chernyshevski who was an actual historic figure (?) in Russia; then in chapter four we get to read Fyodor's book about the historic Chernyshevski, which according to some of the other reviews is tremendously funny - I guess I didn't get the joke. Sounds like a pitch for a David Lynch movie.
Finally, in the last chapter, we are back to Fyodor in Berlin, and this section I did find hilarious - plus Nabokov more or less resolves all the plot elements and wraps up what ends up being a coherent story.
Admittedly my lack of knowledge of Russian history (Chernyshevski who?) and ignorance to most of Nabokov's inside jokes and Russian literary illusions prevented me from fully devouring and appreciating this novel - but in spite of that I was impressed and moved. This is the seventh Nabokov novel that I've read and my third favorite (after Pale Fire and Lolita). Well worth the frustration.
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