The burning debate

There has been quite a a debate about whether or not Nabokov’s dying wishes should be respected and his incomplete final novel burned. The fate of the manuscript, which lies in a Swiss bank vault, appears to be in the hands of Nabokov’s son Dmitri. He has been in an email conversation with The Times and is playing cat and mouse with those who want to know what he will do.

The point that is well made is that if author’s dying wishes were paid any attention to then we would not have had Kafka. The problem is that an incomplete novel is never that easy to read for the casual reader but for the ardent fan it is something that can only ever end in dissapointment because it stops in mid air.

Let’s wait and see what Dmitri decides to do…