What didn’t you like about Pale Fire? It’s drop dead brilliant.
I never bothered to pick it up, and don’t see a need to. Poetry is not in my wheel house, a novel revolving around a poem is not something that interests me. If I tried to read it I wouldn’t find it drop dead brilliant, I’d find it to be a book about a poem and the gross over analysis of a poem which I found so irritating in school.
This is part of what I mean when I say people’s tastes vary and that determines what they will and won’t like. If you don’t like poetry a meta-story about a poem is just not going to be something you like, could be the best book humanity has ever or will ever produce, if the topic isn’t to your liking there’s just no reason to pick it up. Gotta know who you are in this world. I’m a guy that find poetry boring and poetry analysis annoying, while I do like meta the meta needs to revolve around something I find at least vaguely interesting for me to care.