A Lift from Lolita

THE EYE by Vladimir Nabokov. 114 pages. Phaedra. $4.50.

Lolita has been good to her creator. The market in Nabokov, sluggish until she appeared, has been bullish ever since. In collaboration with his publishers, Nabokov has sensibly kept the post-Lolita market well supplied. The Eye is the latest reincarnation from Nabokov's past, translated from Russian by the author's son Dmitri (Harvard '55).

First published in Paris in 1930 in a Russian emigre review, the tale seems direct enough at surface level. Smurov, a young Russian emigre in Berlin, anxiously searches among his acquaintances for the identity of which the Revolution stripped him. This is a recurrent Nabokovian theme; he has never forgiven the Soviets for appropriating his childhood. But Nabokov could not--and cannot--resist sending his skill off in any and all directions. A simple exercise in homesickness is made to bear many other burdens, and its surface conceals, or seems to conceal, hidden meanings. Among them is not the introduction of a character named Khrushchov; in a foreword, Nabokov explains that the name was chosen innocently, though it has since picked up "comic" resonance.

The Eye can be savored as a delicious if slightly stale literary morsel--Nabokov is incapable of composing anything that will not gratify both the ear and the mind. It is likely, however, that Smurov owes his resurrection entirely to Lolita--for which all those who now appreciate Nabokov should be mildly, but not extravagantly, grateful.

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