Great, great question.

First off, it should be said that this is essentially an unanswerable query. Or, at least, the beauty of Pale Fire is just how many different ways it can opened up and plunged into. As is often the case, Nabokov practically double dog dares you into multiple reads here.

Or, as my supremely kind 2nd grade teacher often told me: "It is okay, Matthew. Every one of your answers are right."

That being said, my approach, and one that I found struck a great balance between Shade's controlled, melancholic voice and Kinbote's increasingly erratic, thoroughly entertaining ramble, was by reading the forward, then the first Canto in its entirety, then the footnotes to each line of that Canto in their entirety. Afterward, I went back to the second Canto and repeated my pattern.

This kept Shade's words fresh in my mind while exploring Kinbote's “explanation” of them. It also allowed me to absorb Kinbote’s labyrinthine tale in large chunks, which helped in stitching it all together at the end. Of course, I always, always, followed his recommendation in certain footnotes to see yet another footnote, which, of course, derailed my entire process.

But that’s part of the fun - completely surrendering to Kinbote’s logic. It has that mad, Willy-Wonka-is-at-the-helm-of-this-boat-and-driving-us-straight-over-a-chocolate-waterfall quality to it.

Hope you’re enjoying this book. I think it’s a pretty great one.