Juan Martinez Juan Martinez

Nabokovilia: Richard Burgin

The Nabokov reference embedded below (from the short story "Jonathan and Lillian," collected in The Conference on Beautiful Moments) also appears, in slightly altered form, in Richard Burgin's Rivers Last Longer:

"Eric!" she said, taking his hands, her cheeks coloring slightly after he kissed her.


"This is Louise, fire in my loins, my sin, my soul, Louis -- the Great Garret, who deserves to win next year's Nobel Prize, and every year's for that matter."


Jonathan was impressed that West knew Nabokov as well as Fitzerald, but he had said it with such grandiloquence that Jonathan cringed.


See also this bit from Burgin's "The Identity Club":


He was considered at present an "uncommitted member" and had been debating between Nathanael West and some other writers. Nabokov, whom he might have seriously considered, had already been taken. At least, since he still had a month before he had to commit, he didn't have to dress in costume...


Read More