This book has more wormholes than a sci-fi film fest. With all of the back-and-forth in Nabokov's autobiography, it's easy to see why time could be construed as a major theme in "Speak, Memory." The story is told from all different vantage points, from little Vladimir in St. Petersburg in 1905 to a Berliner émigré existence in the early days of World War Two, to 1951 at the book's first publication, and the subsequent revisions/editions. Because of this, time becomes more elastic than it usually is, giving us a chance to think a little differently about the seconds, minutes, and hours that make up our own pasts, presents, and futures.
Questions About Time
- How does Nabokov, as a narrator, let us know when time shifts on the page?
- How have the translations and revisions of the book affected its sense of time, and what time means to the story?
- Are there points in the text where the story seems to be straddling to periods of time? Where?
Chew on This
The constant moving backward-and-forward in time signifies that all memories and moments are equally significant to the story.
Nabokov doesn't believe in time.