Claire is...

BOOK 115: INVITATION TO A BEHEADING: VLADIMIR NABOKOV

Invitation to a Beheading is a novel by Russian American author Vladimir Nabokov. It was originally published in Russian in 1935-1936 as a serial in Contemporary Notes (Sovremennye zapiski), a highly respected Russian émigré magazine. In 1938 the work was published in Paris, with an English translation following in 1959. The English version was translated by Nabokov's son, Dmitri Nabokov, under the author's supervision.

The novel is often described as "Kafkaesque," but Nabokov claimed that at the time he wrote the book, he was unfamiliar with German and "completely ignorant" of Kafka's work. Nabokov interrupted his work on The Gift in order to write Invitation, describing the creation of the first draft as "one fortnight of wonderful excitement and sustained inspiration." Some scholars have argued that the central plot of Invitation has its roots in Chernyshevski, a character from The Gift.

While Nabokov stated in an interview that of all his novels he held the greatest affection for Lolita, it was Invitation to a Beheading that he held in the greatest esteem.

MY VERDICT: I found this book a little hard to read.  It seemed lacking in something to me and I feel like it could be the fault of the translation.  I know Nabokov to be an astounding writer and Lolita is proof of this but there seemed to be something less tangible, easy to grasp, in this novel.  I didn’t dislike it completely, there were still little hints of the unique visual descriptions that I admire Nabokov for, but they are a few precious jewels in an otherwise hard to look at scene.  This is just my opinion, some believe it’s a great book maybe even his best.  Lolita will always be the one for me.  I think it’s because Humbert Humbert is so human and Cinncinnatus (the protagonist in this novel) is almost the very opposite, he is indifferent and wholly unlikeable (which seems to be why he ended up in prison in the first place) but I didn’t really care for him and so I was not particularly concerned about the outcome of the book.