Speak, Nabokov Book

I came across this book by chance last week, with its handsome design and wordplay on the title of Nabokov's memoir. (Its original German title is more intriguing: Solus Rex. Die schöne böse Welt des Vladimir Nabokov.) Almost immediately my interest sparked. Maar writes with a quality of passion, critical intelligence and erudition that has no need to advertise itself; it's evident in every sentence and footnote.

Here he engages the riddle of Nabokov, whose novels famously lend themselves to endless decoding. Anyone who's plunged into the wizard's labyrinth knows its pleasures, and how rewarding navigating it can be in the hands of someone like Michael Wood or Brian Boyd. Maar is the best I've read, ready to lay his scalpel to the glittering darkness at the heart of Nabokov's shimmer - his lust for little Liliths (transformed into iridescent art in Lolita, but never resolved) and his negative fascination with homosexuality. This short book illuminates everything it examines.