Last week Publishers Weekly released one of the earliest reviews of “The Original of Laura: (Dying Is Fun),” the last manuscript that Vladimir Nabokov left behind–a book coming out from Knopf this fall.

The review reminds readers not to expect a novel, or anything resembling a final product. The author left behind the manuscript on a series of 138 notecards, and ordered his family to destroy them when he died in 1977. The hardcover book will feature photos of each card, matched with transcripts of the notecard text on the facing page. His son decided to publish after a spooky encounter.

Here’s a brief sample from the review: “Nabokov’s handwritten index cards are reproduced with a transcription below of each card’s contents, generally less than a paragraph. The scanned index cards (perforated so they can be removed from the book) are what make this book an amazing document; they reveal Nabokov’s neat handwriting (a mix of cursive and print) and his own edits to the text: some lines are blacked out with scribbles, others simply crossed out.”

Prompted by J.D. Salinger‘s lawsuit against an unauthorized sequel, journalist and author Ron Rosenbaum revists the older, more interesting question: What has Salinger been doing since he published his last short story in 1965?

Over at Slate, the author trots out some old conspiracy theories, speculates about the mysterious lawsuit over “60 Years Later Coming Through the Rye,” and finally plugs a new novel published on for the Amazon Kindle called “J.D. The Plot to Steal J.D. Salinger’s Manuscripts.” The essay reminds us all that it’s not about the gossip, the mystery, or the lawsuit–it’s about the writing.

Here’s more from the story: “I’ve heard unofficial reports that he’s produced several novels whose manuscripts–like [Vladimir Nabokov's] “Laura”–have been stashed in a bank’s safe-deposit vault. Or that there are manuscript pages stacked to the ceiling in his house but no certainty about their state of completion. Other reports make him seem so strange that it’s possible he could be typing out the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit over and over again.”

Penguin UK will publish Vladimir Nabokov‘s final, unfinished work, “The Original of Laura,” while Knopf will handle the US version. The author left behind the novel on a series of 138 notecards, and ordered his family to destroy them when he died in 1977.The hardcover book will feature photos of each card, matched with transcripts of the notecard text on the facing page.

According to Bookseller, Nabokov’s son decided to publish, and literary agent Andrew Wylie negotiated a six-figure deal for the notecards.

Penguin Classics editor Alexis Kirschbaum explained in the article: “I’m an avid, obsessed fan of Nabokov and for other fans it’s incredibly interesting to see his handwriting and read his prose–not necessarily extremely polished, but you can still see kernels of genius in everything he wrote.” (Via MobyLives)