Berlin Book Club

Berlin is reading again - and talking about it, too. Radion 1 and the local libraries are inviting everyone to read and share their views on Alina Bronsky‘s 2024 novel. So I would like you to take part. Since it is a special event it is in GERMAN, in person at my place. Bring a little something to eat to share and your impressions on this fun read.
„Pi mal Daumen erzählt auf humorvolle Weise die Geschichte einer ungewöhnlichen Freundschaft. Oscar, der jenseits seiner mathematischen Besessenheit in den meisten Dingen des Lebens wie ein Kind wirkt, und die entschlossen und gegen sämtliche Widerstände die Realisierung ihres Lebenstraums in die Hand nehmende Moni ergänzen sich gerade wegen ihres unterschiedlichen Herkommens und der daraus resultierenden verschiedenen Lebenserfahrungen aufs Beste. Was er nicht weiß, bringt sie ihm bei. Und wo sie zu scheitern droht, ist er mit Rat und Tat zur Stelle.“
literaturkritik.de

Rolf writes:
Let’s delve into this masterpiece of literature, read, question, interpret, compare understanding and our takes.

Pale Fire, a poem in heroic couplets, of nine hundred ninety-nine lines, divided into four cantos, was composed by John Francis Shade (born July 5, 1898, died July 21, 1959) during the last twenty days if his life, at his residence in New Wye, Appalachia, U.S.A. (Quote from Foreword to Pale Fire, A Novel by Vladimir Nabokov, Vintage International, Random House, Inc., New York, Copyright 1962 by Vera Nabokov and Dmitri Nabokov).

In Pale Fire Nabokov offers a cornucopia of deceptive pleasures: a 999-line poem by the reclusive genius John Shade; an adorning foreword and commentary by Shade's self-styled Boswell, Dr. Charles Kinbote; a darkly comic novel of suspense, literary idolatry and one-upmanship, and political intrigue. "This centaur work, half poem, half prose ... is a creation of perfect beauty, symmetry, strangeness, originality and moral truth. Pretending to be a curio, it cannot disguise the fact that it is one of the great works of art of this century" - Mary McCarthy. (Both quotes from the back cover of Pale Fire, A Novel by Vladimir Nabokov, Vintage International, Random House, Inc., New York, Copyright 1962 by Vera Nabokov and Dmitri Nabokov).

As Oliver Spivey writes in his Essay "The Secret Rhythm of Chance": The Nabokovian Vision of Tragedy in Pale Fire (quote from Literary Matters, Issue 14.1): "Free from various time-worn conventions, Pale Fire operates according to the requisites of Nabokov's dream-tragedy mode. Like someone stuck in the zone between sleeping and waking, or someone lost in a hall of mirrors, the reader is never quite sure where the narrative's "real" world ends and its illusory one begins: characters and fictional realms seem to blur and interpenetrate."

Who is real, who is invented, which parts of the poems and the abundant commentary are written by whom and in what context and intention ...?

Looking forward to see you all and enjoy a lively discussion with you all at our Berlin Book Club Event on 23 June 2025.