3 Review(s)

Nabokov's debut book, Mary, is an engrossing story of adolescence, first love, and nostalgia. Lev Ganin, a young officer who is torn between his past and his future, relives his first love affair in a Berlin rooming house full of a variety of seriocomic Russian émigrés. His recollections of Mary are infused with the youthful vitality and ideal atmosphere of imperial Russia. The boarder next to Ganin's room, who he learns is Mary's husband, who is currently separated from her due to the Revolution but is anticipating her impending homecoming from Russia, stands in stark contrast.