Train Station – Garage – Hangar

Train Station – Garage – Hangar: Vladimir Nabokov and Poetics of Russian Urbanism
Publisher: St. Petersburg: Ivan Limbakh Publishing House, 400 pp., illustrations, cloth, 2004. ISBN: 5-89059-057-X. 

Yuri Leving’s book Train Station – Garage – Hangar: Vladimir Nabokov and Poetics of Russian Urbanism, explores the poetics of movement and urban space in the oeuvre of the Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov’s works are examined from the specific point of view of poetics of urbanism, a phenomenon that the author examines within the context of Russian and European literature of the XIX – beginning of the XX century. The book encompasses a broad territory of literary modernism, exploring three major motifs: train, automobile, and plane. Nabokov's corpus is taken as the culmination of these motifs; although Nabokov was not the last to use them, and may not even have carried them as far as some other writers, they found profound artistic embodiment in his work.
The work utilizes a substantial archival material and is richly illustrated. The rare photographs from private Nabokov family archive are published by courtesy of Mr. Dmitri Nabokov.
Focused on Russian literature, Yuri Leving’s book is not limited to it. Train Station – Garage – Hangar offers a kind of cultural thesaurus of modern technology as reflected in literature.

Awards:

• Short-listed for Andrey Bely Literary Prize (2004)
• Chosen as one of the FIVE BEST BOOKS OF THE WEEK by ExLibris Literary Review (2004)

Reviews:

• “I find Leving’s text quite daring in the way it gives a radically innovative shape to
  traditional scholarship… Train Station – Garage – Hangar may be an important contribution to Nabokov studies, but it also manages to remain relevant to any scholar working on the themes of city, movement, or materiality in Russian literature of the early twentieth century.” — Dennis Tenenboym, Harvard University. Slavic and East European Journal. Vol. 49 (4), 2005, p. 688.
• “Leving does an excellent job of subjecting bygone days to philological science while completely avoiding the all-to-common structuralist flaw of stripping the old world of all of its charm. Here, charm is ever-present.” — Stephen H. Blackwell, University of Tennessee. Nabokov Studies, No. 9, 2005, p. 228.
• "Leving employs an extensive system of cross-referencing allusions and associations; his fine-tuned ear and impressive research catch even the smallest echo of correspondence in the employment of an image or motif to a given end. He is particularly adept at revealing hidden subtexts, not only in Nabokov's work, but among the numerous other Russian, European, and American poets he cites. The sheer range of his material, not to mention the rich archival information and illustrations he provides, makes this book an interesting and valuable resource for scholars of Russian modernism. …his book is a solid and very pleasurable-to-read achievement."
  — Jennifer Day, Bard College, NY. Slavic Review. Volume 66. Number 1, Spring 2007, pp. 176-177.

Full list of reviews:

1.  A. Balakin. “The Union of Word and Iron” // Sankt-Peterburgskie vedomosti. September 29, 2004.

2.  Ian Levchenko. “To Make it Expensive and Tasty” // Russian Journal. Peterburgskie tirazhi. December 3, 2004.

3.  K. Reshetnikov. “Perepisyvaia nabelo. Obiavlen short-list premii Andreia Belogo” // Gazeta. November 3, 2004.

4.  M. Trofimenkov. “Incest and Militarism. The Andrey Bely Literary Award short-list has been announced” // Kommersant. # 207. Thursday, November 4, 2004.

5.  D. Davydov. “Nabokov. Train Station – Garage – Hangar” // The Book Review [Knizhnoe obozrenie] December 13, 2004.

6.  G. Amelin. “About temperature of coronal bone. Y. Leving’s Train Station – Garage – Hangar” // Russian Journal [Russkii zhurnal]. January 31, 2005.

7.  M. Malikova. “Nabokov today. Review of the new books on Nabokov: Books by Yuri Leving, Alexander Dolinin, Brian Boyd” // NLO [New Literary Review], # 70, 2005.

8.  Y. Isahaia. Review of Yuri Leving’s Book “Train Station – Garage – Hangar” // Krug. The Newsletter of The Nabokov Japanese Society, Tokyo, No. III (8), 2005.

9.    Stephen H. Blackwell. Yuri Leving. Vokzal-Garazh-Angar: Vladimir Nabokov i poetika russkogo urbanizma // Nabokov Studies. 50th anniversary of LOLITA issue.No. 9, 2005, pp. 228-230. Read the full text in PDF.

10.  Dennis Tenenboym. Yuri Leving. Vokzal-Garazh-Angar: Vladimir Nabokov i poetika russkogo urbanizma // Slavic and East European Journal. Vol. 49, No. 4 (Winter 2005), pp. 688-689. Read the full text here.

11. Alexei Filimonov. Skvozniak bessmertia. Review of Y. Leving’s book // Proza.ru. National Server of Contemporary Prose.

12. Jennifer Day. Vokzal—Garazh—Angar: Vladimir Nabokov i poetika russkogo urbanizma. By Iurii Leving. Slavic Review. Volume 66. Number 1, Spring 2007, pp. 176-177. Read the full text here. 

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