My reader’s block has ended and I’ve gotten into another book. I’ve been reading Nabokov’s Pale Fire. Last week, someone in my writing class said that he was reading Lolita, which I’d already read, but I was inspired to pick up some more Nabokov. Pale Fire is a novel in the form of a 999-line poem plus accompanying commentary. The “commentator” is hilariously wacko. Yay metafiction.
After this, I think I’m finally going to read Borges. I’ve had a collection of his fiction on my bookshelf for quite a while now, and since I seem to be getting onto a 20th-century postmodern kick, I think he’s next.
I’ve always preferred Pale Fire to Lolita. Kinbote’s overheated adventures as recounted in his “reading” of Shade’s emotionally restained poem is hilarious.
Some of this may have to do with Nabokov’s gay brother, who he never liked to talk about. But I leave that to Nabokov scholars. It’s a great fun “serious” read.
Yay, Borges. I was first introduced to his work in a high-school Spanish class, and it blew my mind. Good stuff. I’ve been wanting to re-read his stories… in English, now that my Spanish has fallen into disuse.
Definitely Borges, who’s long been one of my faves.
Good to hear that your reader’s block has ended! And while we are with writers from Latin America: I really enjoyed ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ by Marquez – would have been ca. 30 years or so ago.