The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness, by Lila Azam Zanganeh, Allen Lane, RRP£20, 228 pages
Part critical essay, part biography, part memoir and part fiction, Lila Azam Zanganeh’s book of reflections on the life and work of Vladimir Nabokov is something of a literary platypus. However, the main contention of this whimsical, intriguing and at times bewildering work is that the author of Lolita “is the great writer of happiness”.
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Zanganeh is working on her first novel. To judge by some of the prose in The Enchanter, it will be a thing of wonder. In the meantime, this book is likely to make confused readers reach for Nabokov’s books, which might not be a bad thing.