Happy World Book Day, dear reader.

This from the D.P.S.: Today we wish a very Happy Birthday to Vladimir Nabokov! On this day, April 23, 1899, the world got a whole lot sharper, darker, and infinitely more brilliant with the birth of Nabokov in Saint Petersburg, Russia.  For you uncultured heathen’s under the age of 40, Nabokov gave us Lolita (1955), a masterpiece so provocative it’s almost a dirty bomb in book form, diving fearlessly into the mind of a predator with prose so breathtakingly beautiful it’s almost criminal.  His sentences are precise, blending beauty with the grotesque in a way that makes your skin crawl and your heart race all at once.

He wrote in both Russian and English, mastering two languages with a dexterity that would most writers weep.  He had a habit of obliterating boundaries, fleeing the chaos of the Russian Revolution, dodging the horrors of Nazi  Europe, and somehow still finding the fire to churn out works that spit in the face of convention.  The upheaval he lived through would have broken lesser spirits, but he turned every exile, every struggle, into fuel for his unrelenting creativity.  From Pale Fire to Ada, Nabokov played with structure, language, and morality like a chess grandmaster, always ten moved ahead of the rest of us.  Here’s to the man who taught us that literature can be dangerous, dazzling, and utterly unforgettable.  #NabokovTurns126 #LiteraryLegend #GeniusUnleashed

In local news, I am technically behind schedule, but I’m having to write a chapter I was not planning on writing, so I’m coming at it cold…never realistically thought I’d write about it, but here we are.  The subject matter is exceptionally difficult for me: I usually stick to the lighter topics, things that are actually fun to write about.  I tend toward the humorous, which usually isn’t much of a limitation because I can find humor in just about anything.  But not this.  It’s unfunny and uncomfortable and I have no idea how it will turn out…I suppose you, dear reader, will eventually be the ultimate judge.

N.P.: “Come to Papa” – Bob Seger