Enchanter

The Enchanter is a vicious triumph, brilliantly and almost osmotically translated from the Russian by Dmitri Nabokov in 1987, 10 years after his father's death.

The Guardian World News Martin Amis 2009

Lindy Hemming's costuming similarly suffers; she decks Zeus in shiny Medieval armor (which shines like that of King Arthur's in John Boorman's Excalibur), tricks out Hades in greasy locks and black robes like some anemic cross between Tim the Enchanter (John Cleese in Monty Python and the Holy Grail) and Rob Zombie.

MOVIE REVIEW: Clash of the Titans (2010) 2010

Though some aspects of The Enchanter are achingly arch for example, the rambling subtitles to chapters, or a vision of the reader training a telescope on Zanganeh's brown-eyed self, there are hints that the author is sharper-witted than her narratorial pose would often suggest.

The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness by Lila Azam Zanganeh – review 2011

Ornamented with charmingly naïve drawings by Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, and preceded by a hand-sketched "happiness itinerary", The Enchanter at times recaptures that period of childhood when a join-up-the-dots picture really did seem to promise a thrilling quest.

The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness by Lila Azam Zanganeh – review 2011

In The Enchanter, Lila Azam Zanganeh attempts to create a new genre: the Bildungs-romance.

The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness by Lila Azam Zanganeh – review 2011

But now her former apprentice, Brazen the Enchanter, has brought her a speechless feral child poisoned by a sorcerous infection.

i got a look that kill. voice that carry. calanthe_b 2009

Throughout "The Enchanter," Ms. Zanganeh appropriates Nabokov's arch and ornate phrases and strains to capture his style in what one assumes to be an attempt at homage.

The Trouble With Ardor Alexander Theroux 2011

As for the minority who may find that the repeated image in The Enchanter that stays with them is the one of someone "screaming quietly", then some of them would probably have been Nabokov-haters to begin with.

The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness by Lila Azam Zanganeh – review 2011

"The Enchanter" is essentially the retrospective account of a young woman's discovery of a writer's talent to enthrall, her celebration of a man who "sends planets spinning."

The Trouble With Ardor Alexander Theroux 2011

All the same, The Enchanter has some resemblance, in places, to a genuine book – an artist's book, even, though one turned out by the machine of international publishing.

The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness by Lila Azam Zanganeh – review 2011