This is one of the most confusing, interesting, intriguing books I have read. There are several things that annoy me about Kinbote I will break it down to the top six as best as i can.
1. He has attention deficit disorder big time. One minute it's Zembla, the next John and Sybil, while also himself, and maybe just maybe a little description about the poem. He is all over the place in his tellings.
2.I'm not sure the exact word, but basically i get a loser, pathetic, either clueless or in major denial vibe from him. His descriptions about interactions with John and Sybil as well as others, he seems totally oblivious that people seem to think he's nuts, bothersome, etc. But with Nabokov it's hard to determine if it's actual cluelessness or denial of lunacy.
3. wich leads me to my next point. In class I remember us talking about something to the affect of not trusting Nabokov. I don't trust him or Kimbote at all. Kimbote seriously kooky(reminds me of Humbert in ways) When he supposedly copies down parts of poem that were in the margins and scratched out and so on, I can't help but get the feeling that he wrote it. He makes me very suspicious and i don't really believe much of what he's saying.
4.His disrespect of Hazel's death is very disturbing. If he was just a normal healthy fan of Shade, he would have respect for anything or anyone Shade cared about, particularily a dead loved one.
5. The narcissism is crazy big. When i read the poem, I felt warm, sad, that i could relate in some ways, connected. Reading Kimbote's "commentary" is very annoying how he realtes everything to him and his Zembla when the poem doesn't feel in any way connected to him when reading it. Being so insanely full of himself is a bit sad and desperate feeling.
6. Spying on Shade so obsessively is very scary. Constantly looking to see if his light is on, the detailed descriptions of peeping through his windows and his distaste of anyone else connected to Shade. Nowadays, these kind of things are usually pretexts to psycho serial killers. Freaky stuff
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