A Revolver To Carry at Night

No one really knows what goes on inside a marriage except the participants, and occasionally, not even they know. Zgustová’s (The Silent Woman) latest novel spans 40 years of Vladimir and Véra Nabokov’s marriage, with a postscript 13 years after Vladimir’s death. Identified with a wolf multiple times throughout—and like a wolf—Véra takes what she wants: Vladimir. Véra believes that her intense involvement in every part of Vladimir’s life is crucial to establishing his literary success. This is perhaps true. Sections are narrated by Véra, Vladimir, their son Dmitri, and Irina, with whom Vladimir has a brief, passionate affair that almost ended his marriage. It’s never clear if what binds Vladimir and Véra is precisely love, and Zgustová implies it was need, at least on his side. As Dmitri says of his mother, “Every family has its pillar, and she is ours.” Though the revolver of the title never goes off, its appearance at a party speaks to Véra’s most present emotion, fear, and her most intense characteristic, tenacity.