Chapter Five Summary

Pnin is headed to a cabin in an area called The Pines to meet with some friends and acquaintances. Evidently, such a gathering is common among Russian immigrants, though it is Pnin's first such visit (though, the narrator notes that he himself had gone before). Pnin was given incredibly detailed and specific directions to the cabin but, unfortunately, decided to go forgo them in favor of the advice of a local. As a result, he gets quite lost and arrives at the destination only after much circling and frustration.

The gathering is hosted by a man named Alexandr Petrovich Kukolnikov, who usually goes just by "Al Cook." He, like Pnin, moved to America after the Bolshevik revolution, though he has been in America much longer; he did not, like Pnin, dawdle for several years in Europe. Cook's wife is a thoroughly...