Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0003322, Fri, 21 Aug 1998 16:29:18 -0700

Subject
Re: VN & Andrei Makine (fwd)
Date
Body
From: AVINH@npr.org

Makine is an impressive writer--so impressive that he had to convince his
French publisher that his first novel proffered to them had been originally
translated into French from the original Russian. Of course, a crucial
difference between the talented Makine (whom I admire deeply) and VV is that
"Speak, Memory" was written originally in Russian and then rewritten in
English. Makine writes in French only. I do not know, and perhaps someone can
enlighten me, if his novels have seen Russification by his own hand.

Alphonse Vinh
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EDITOR's NOTE. I think I may have sounded overly negative about Makine.
Perhaps someone out there knows whether he has written in Russian or
translated his French work into Russian.
VN's SPEAK MEMORY, BTW, was first written in English (apart from
the "Mademoiselle O" chapter which was written in French. The Russian
version is secondary.