Tell me about it. I think it was on the second reading that i figured out it was supposed to be alternate reality science fiction. In the beginning I started reading it because it had footnotes, naively thinking that the footnotes would explain all the bizarre nabakoivsms. Quarter in the way in i was like “these are the worst footnotes ever, they do not explain anything but make things even more bewildering; and why, when the novels characters switch between four languages, dont the footnotes provide translations, at least”. I looked in the back to see who wrote these footnotes, and it was a Russian name i did not recognize. I looked him up on the internet, wondering how this random idiot managed to get these inept footnotes published with he last work of a genius, and sure enough, it turned out it was Nabakov that did the footnotes.
Yeah, nevertheless, the book is great fun and i have read it three times. I read that Pale Fire is even more of a puzzlebox than Ada or Ardor, and i dont think i am ready for that yet. But maybe someday, when i am feeling adventurous.
> I think it was on the second reading that i figured out it was supposed to be alternate reality science fiction
The only reason I knew this was because I read the Wikipedia article after I finished the book. It was a strange experience to enjoy the prose even though I had no idea what was happening.
Yeah, nevertheless, the book is great fun and i have read it three times. I read that Pale Fire is even more of a puzzlebox than Ada or Ardor, and i dont think i am ready for that yet. But maybe someday, when i am feeling adventurous.