Status Updates From The Stories of Vladimir Nab...

Sounds ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Beautifully written with a feeling of nostalgia and wistfulness, with well developed characters. Story a little thin but captures a special sensory vibe.

The Wood-Sprite ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - captures a mood and an idea of abandoning a homeland, though not a story I’ll likely think about much later.

Russian Spoken Here ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - entertaining and clever, the family turns their own home into a prison in an act of revenge. This is memorable - don’t think it fully squares the circle but I like it.

In memory of L I Shigaev, The Circle, Breaking the News - 3 bangers.

"...a pale youth seated in front of the shimmery mirror, with his livid forehead and black beard, dressed only in a torn shirt, guzzling cheap beer and clinking glasses with his reflection. Not only was I of no use to anyone in the world, but I could not even imagine a set of circumstances in which someone might care a whit about me."

Didn't like an Affair of Honor or the Christmas Story. Loved The Aurelian. Potato Elf was insane. a Dashing Fellow very good - Nabokov is so good at writing banal despicable people... the gimmicky "wouldn't it be funny if" ones aren't as compelling as the slices of life imo, even the ones where nothing "happens" (The Seaport)

La Veneziana is masterful and a little wicked.

The rest of them sort of feel like an overpowering candle scent.