Sara Habein’s #CBR4 Review #7: The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov by Paul Russell
I keep saying that I am woefully under-read when it comes to classic literature, but little by little, I close the gaps. 2 years ago, I finally inched into Russian-authored lit and read Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. I enjoyed it – as much as one can enjoy a novel with that subject matter – but I have yet to read any of his others, nor do I know a lot about the man, apart from how he was hopelessly enamored with his wife, Vera. So when I read the description of this book, I was intrigued – how does the younger, gay brother of a literary icon conduct his life? How dark is that shadow? The minutiae, the great secrets, and of course, loves of a person’s life are endlessly interesting to me, so I hoped that The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov would scratch that itch. Because only limited details of Sergey’s life are documented, Paul Russell chose to write a novel instead of a straight up biography. The result is a beautiful, lonely story about a man who has a lifelong struggle with happiness.
My full review can be found on Glorified Love Letters.
Thanks for reading.
