MixedThe Times Literary Supplement (UK)Felsen shares with Proust his fascination with the workings of jealousy and desire, as well as lengthy sentences, many of which extend over several hundred words. Here, however, the similarities end ... In Felsen’s work, there are few unexpected comparisons of the sort to be found in that of Proust; the similes are tame ... Felsen’s prose is striking for its lack of detail and characterization ... Karetnyk has done an excellent job of reproducing the obsessive rhythm – the difficulty – of Felsen’s prose. At times he adds an extra touch of metaphor ... My only quibble is Karetnyk’s anachronistic use of “gift” as a verb, which seems more of the current century than the middle of the last one.
Vladimir Nabokov, Ed. by Brian Boyd and Anastasia Tolstoy
MixedTimes Literary SupplementThink, Write, Speak is a frequently fascinating assortment of Nabokov’s hitherto uncollected, untranslated and even unpublished materials ... This new volume might – so far as the interviews are concerned – be subtitled \'The second best of Vladimir Nabokov\', but there is still much of interest ... Arriving at the final interview, I found myself thinking with both horror and relief that, had Nabokov not died when he did, this book could have been twice as capacious. Ashamed, and feeling more charitable, I began to wonder what Nabokov might have written had interviews not devoured so much of his time.
