Gary Shteyngart recommends Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov (Vintage, $12).
To many, Vladimir Nabokov means Lolita, but readers should not miss out on his hilarious Pnin. Instead of a Don Quixote tilting at windmills, we get Professor Pnin, an opinionated refugee recently arrived in self-congratulatory [post-WWII] America with his prerevolutionary Russian sensibilities in tow. Academic and romantic treachery abounds, not to mention the funniest renditions of a Russian accent in memory, but Pnin is no mad buffoon like Quixote. He is one of the most tenderly drawn characters Russian literature has to offer. Nabokov's brief evocation of the Holocaust, the tragedy that took the life of Pnin's first love, Mira, has few peers.
Gary Shteyngart is the author of The Russian Debutante's Handbook, recently published by Riverhead.
