Mahtab’s review of Transparent Things (Vintage International) > Likes and Comments

Interesting review

You should read the clay machine gun by victor pelevin, if you haven’t already. It’s definitely a mind trip

Kelly wrote: "You should read the clay machine gun by victor pelevin, if you haven’t already. It’s definitely a mind trip"

Thank you, Kelly. I’ve actually read this one, though ages ago. Fun to see it come up again :))

I thought you would have.

I really like reading reviews from people who read and appreciate Nabokov. I've read a bit, and have appreciated the kind of storytelling feats those novels have been, but reading them can be a humbling experience for me. There are many ways to make meaning out of the narratives. Nabokov appears to know this and playfully links or confuses those layers of interpretation.

There is clearly a sense in which the movement between transparency and opacity characterizes the very reading experience ... for me at least. I'm pleased when I think I've understood something and it seems clear and solid ... only to turn transparent on the next page and I realize I'm not standing on the ground that I thought I was.

path wrote: "I really like reading reviews from people who read and appreciate Nabokov. I've read a bit, and have appreciated the kind of storytelling feats those novels have been, but reading them can be a hum..."

I really appreciate your thoughts. I agree with you completely. There’s something uniquely disorienting about the way Nabokov invites the reader into a moment of clarity only to let it shift underfoot a page later. That movement between clarity and uncertainty isn’t just part of the experience; it’s something he designs with almost mischievous precision.

He loves playing with the reader’s sense of stability. Sometimes it’s structural, sometimes it’s tonal, and sometimes it’s the way he lets a narrative device reveal itself only after you’ve already stepped into it. In Transparent Things, that shifting transparency feels intentional — as if he’s reminding us that interpretation itself is unstable, that meaning can flicker depending on where you’re standing.

It’s one of the things I admire most about him: the way he turns the act of reading into part of the story’s architecture. You think you’ve grasped something, and then he tilts the whole plane a few degrees and suddenly the same detail refracts differently. It’s humbling, but also exhilarating — that sense that he’s inviting you to notice the machinery while he’s still running it.

Fantastic review, Mahtab!

Peter wrote: "Fantastic review, Mahtab!"

Thank you so much, Peter :)

Mahtab wrote: "path wrote: "he tilts the whole plane a few degrees and suddenly the same detail refracts differently"

That's terrific way to describe the experience. The angle of appearance for all details is completely altered.

path wrote: "Mahtab wrote: "path wrote: "he tilts the whole plane a few degrees and suddenly the same detail refracts differently"

That's terrific way to describe the experience. The angle of appearance for al..."

I’m glad we both know how to stay upright on the moving plate Nabokov keeps tilting, changing the angle, and sliding under our feet :)

Such a lucid re-view, Mahtab! I really feel like reading this novella now, not just roll my eyes at it ;)

Bogdan wrote: "Such a lucid re-view, Mahtab! I really feel like reading this novella now, not just roll my eyes at it ;)"

Thank you, Bogdan! Re-reading this re-bellious, re-fractive, re-calcitrant little book is a re-freshingly re-liable cure for any re-sidual eye rolling ;)