Status Updates From Collected Stories

"Lips to Lips" - 4- old rich guy gets scammed by a small press known for contributions from emigré literati. a jaw-droppingly prescient story about style, authorship, recognition, and transactional joy. the bit about the main character fretting over how often he uses "young" and swapping half the instances for "youthful" had me hooting. Mr. Nabokov you would love Ultraviolet Light, my laser tag Heated Rivalry ripoff

"Terra Incognita" - 4.5 - VN toys with some of his longtime fixations--entomology, fictitious place names--to great effect. what a beautiful fusion of tacky ("...he was ready to do anything to get out of Zonraki, where they pass half the year brewing their von-gho and the other half drinking it.") and good SF ("porphyroferous," oh baby!). the adventure story is decent, but secondary to VN's transcendent wordplay.

"A Nursery Tale" omg...

"the aurelian" - 4 - we love stories about entomologists, bug freaks. excellent prose with some charming, well-placed touches of alliteration. the end is just a little bit too preordained, but the progress toward it is magnetic. interesting exercise in getting a full-bodied short story out of little more than a character's unspoken dreams or desires (and, of course, some florid historical-scientific details)

Safdie bros. fans be sure to check out "An Affair of Honor," in which a guy discovers his wife cheating with a friend, challenges the friend to a duel, and experiences the most stressful 24 hours of his life. it's not as harlequin or dialogue-driven as a Safdie but the side characters are absolutely hysterical and the tragicomic ending is an all-timer.