One of the most fascinating characteristics of The Gift, the last novel Vladimir Nabokov wrote in Russian, is the slippage which takes place in the narrative point of view. Though the novel begins in the third person, and continues essentially in this mode throughout, quite often the "I" of the protagonist Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev breaks in with no warning to the reader. If this were not confusing enough, an additional parade of narrative acrobatics dances across the first chapter. (p. 138)
The novel does not have what could be called a coherent, logical narrative, which begins at a decisive point and develops to an inevitable conclusion. Its five chapters, including the biography in the fourth chapter, have occasionally been described as a series of related short stories. But the chapters do make a novel, and the key to all this is that the narrative is controlled by the consciousness of Fyodor, not by the Nabokovian third person, omniscient point of view. In essence, the third person positions Fyodor's consciousness, but then allows it free rein in the fact or fancy which is presented to the reader. We watch Nabokov watch Fyodor watch himself. And since Fyodor is obsessed with the past, both his own and that of Russia, his mind constantly flits from present to past and back again, almost uncontrollably. He can never position his "I" where it can serve an artistically cohesive purpose…. This kind of transformation, charming in itself, occurs repeatedly throughout The Gift, as Fyodor wrestles with the past, trying to make sense out of it, trying to write about it.
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