Pale Fire

Read from Monday, August 22nd to Tuesday, August 30th.

Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov is one of the most unique novels I have ever read. The plot structure is completely genre-defying. The story revolves around two characters, the poet John Shade and the ex-king Charles Kinbote, although the ending of the novel leaves you wondering what actually happened, whether or not it was the figment of one of the other's imagination.

Charles and John are neighbors and professors at an Appalachian college. Charles idolizes Shade, a well-respected poet, to the point of creepiness and stalking. Charles is, in actuality, the disposed former king of Zembla, a fictional northern European country, and he loves discussing all the majestic beauty that was his country, and his daring escape from the palace, over the mountains and across the ocean by boat to America. In early July, Shade begins work on his most ambitious work, a 999 line poem called Pale Fire. Charles mistakenly believes it is an ode to Zembla, but in reality it is about his youth, his daughter's suicide, and his own search for meaning in life after death. He finishes the last line of the poem on the day he dies,in late July. The poem then falls into Kinbote's hands to be the editor and publisher.

The novel is set up into three parts. The first is an introduction by Kinbote, giving some of the background, and the second is the 999 line poem in its entirety. The third part, and the bulk of the novel, is the commentary that Kinbote gives on many of the lines in the poem. This commentary varied from a simple explanation of a term or animal, to a lengthy discussion on his family history in Zembla, to the revolution of the communists, to his escape to America. Finally, there is the story of Gradus, a bumbling and inept assassin sent from the communists in Zembla in order to kill the former king. This story, which Kinbote so desperately wanted to tell, is what he really thinks Shade's poem is about subliminally.

The image of Gradus as death advances throughout the commentary to the very end, which we know already is the end of Shade's life. Finally, in the commentary on the last line and the 1000th line, which was also the first, (I was the shadow of the waxwing slain), Gradus meets the two men on the step of Kinbote's house. Mistakenly, Gradus murders Shade, and is sent to a mental institution. Kinbote then proceeds to posthumously publish Pale FIre, along with his extensive commentary.

The ending and set-up of the entire poem/novel leaves things open for the readers. Some maintain that Shade created the character of Kinbote, and others say the opposite. Some think that Kinbote was mentally insane himself, and that Zembla was just his illusion and fantasy, and Gradus really was an escaped mental patient who intended to kill Shade, who looked like a judge.

This book took me a few days to get into, and it was a slow start, but once I got going, I finished quickly. I really enjoyed the structure, and it definitely left me thinking after the ending. Four out of five stars.