Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov

If you were to read the blurb on the back of this book you would get the impression that this is Mr. Nabokov's shot at a book which is aimed squarely against an unseeing, ignorant state (such as Orwell's "1984" or Huxley's "Brave New World"). The first half of the story however, resembles a cross between Kafka's "The trial" and Caroll's "Alice in wonderland". The main character, Krug, is on the end of a whole series of attacks by the state (which is now run by a boy that he bullied at school), which attempt to force him into giving a speech publicly supporting the new regime. The attacks eliminate his family & friends one by one as the book ambles towards its conclusion.

Yet this is where the book ultimately falls down, in the final paragraph Nabokov introduces himself as the author and yet unlike in 'Pale Fire' or 'Lolita' I found it hard to relate to Krug in any way at all. The plot and characters are thinly veiled and it is obvious that the story is an excuse for Nabokov to rant about all extremes of political ideal. In the end it just feels like "The trial" or "1984" written in a peculiarly halucinogenic style, so that when each character meets their grisly demise it is plain that they are puppets and no feelings of sadness or paranoia encroach.

The book highlights very clearly that Nabokov was at his best when examining the human psyche at a personal level and that his apathy towards politics gave him no real context in which to vent his anger at Communism (which killed his father and exiled him from his homeland) or Fascism (which chased him and his Jewish wife from Germany where they had settled).