The work that Nabokov never wanted published
It seems that the only book anyone’s talking about is Palin’s Going Rogue (including us, earlier this week), but for today’s news we managed to find some other happenings in the book world. From the evolution of the English language to Nabokov’s posthumously published collection of notes, we may be able to take your mind off Going Rogue and the impending theatrical release of New Moon. Enjoy!
- Language evolves constantly, and Boston Globe writer Jan Freeman’s new book, Ambrose Bierce’s ‘Write It Right,‘ comments on just how much English has evolved since Ambrose Bierce wrote his guide to usage in 1909′s Write it Right. Freeman states that “many of its 441 cautions are obsolete,” such as the instruction to say “I fear that it will rain” instead of “I am afraid it will rain.” The book raises the question, how foreign will current English look in 100 years? Will we sound as absurd as this Bierce character? Paper Cuts addresses the question and gives more background on the book.
- In case you’re looking to feel bad about yourself, check out NPR’s “Story Specialists: Doctors Who Write,” a piece about successful authors who also happen to be medical superstars. Anton Chekhov is probably the best known writer/doctor in history, and today Abraham Verghese and Terrence Holt are following in his multi-talented footsteps. Holt’s story collection In the Valley of the Kings is relatively removed from the field of medicine, while Verghese’s bestselling Cutting Stone tells the story of a family of doctors practicing around the world.
- Vladimir Nabokov’s recently published The Original of Laura has been getting a lot of buzz, but Los Angeles Times reviewer James Marcus tells readers not to get their hopes up. The book is essentially a collection of notecards that Nabokov jotted down in his last months of life, and what starts as an intriguing, well-written story about a sexual woman named Flora veers off suddenly to discuss death, abandoning her narrative altogether. Nabokov never meant for these cards to be published–in fact, he asked his family to burn them after his death–so it’s logical that the result isn’t the next Lolita. Marcus sums it up as a collector’s item, but not a work of art in itself: “As a novel — even as the sketch of a novel, with operating instructions enclosed — ‘The Original of Laura’ is largely an exercise in frustration.”
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