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471 reviews for:
The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World
Sarah Weinman
3.44 AVERAGE
471 reviews for:
The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World
Sarah Weinman
3.44 AVERAGE
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
I think the book suffers in trying to straddle sally coverage and nobokov bio. add in all the extra pieces of crime at the time and the legal proceedings and it just gets messy. surely bc the author knew a book only about sally’s short life would have made for a better podcast episode. good premise, not great execution
informative
reflective
slow-paced
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
I haven't finished this book, but since Goodreads won't let me write my review until I've marked the book as finished, I will do so.
I'm not abandoning this book. I am interested enough to read to the last page. But I'll be skimming rather than reading.
I read this book for the JCC book festival. I will recommend that we not include it. It's not a terrible book, but the only Jewish content is that the author is Jewish. That's not enough when the book itself is only mediocre.
Here's what I'd like to say to the author.
Sarah, you found a really interesting topic. Everyone knows "Lolita", but few people know that this true crime story inspired the author, Vladimir Nabokov.
But admit it, Sarah. You had enough information for a magazine article. Stretching it out to book-length means padding. We don't need to know the frustrations you encountered researching this under-documented event. We don't need to know your speculations about Sarah's state of mind as you walked her Baltimore neighborhood. And we would appreciate more muscular, more evocative writing. Your meandering narrative is worsened by your awkward style. By sentences like this: "That his date, a man with whom he'd been in the midst of weeks long affair, stood him up was indignity enough."
I'm not abandoning this book. I am interested enough to read to the last page. But I'll be skimming rather than reading.
I read this book for the JCC book festival. I will recommend that we not include it. It's not a terrible book, but the only Jewish content is that the author is Jewish. That's not enough when the book itself is only mediocre.
Here's what I'd like to say to the author.
Sarah, you found a really interesting topic. Everyone knows "Lolita", but few people know that this true crime story inspired the author, Vladimir Nabokov.
But admit it, Sarah. You had enough information for a magazine article. Stretching it out to book-length means padding. We don't need to know the frustrations you encountered researching this under-documented event. We don't need to know your speculations about Sarah's state of mind as you walked her Baltimore neighborhood. And we would appreciate more muscular, more evocative writing. Your meandering narrative is worsened by your awkward style. By sentences like this: "That his date, a man with whom he'd been in the midst of weeks long affair, stood him up was indignity enough."
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
A meticulously researched (as one has learned to expect from Weinman), interesting, devastating story. The story of Horner's kidnapping is absolutely horrific, and Weinman tells it well. That said, the peripheral stories held much less interesting me, and far, far less emotional involvement, which meant that I struggled to engage with much of the second half of the book. (I sincerely think it's great, this is just a "it's not you, book, it's me" situation.)
During the period when Vladimir Nabokov was writing his best-known work, a high profile criminal case was in the newspapers. Eleven-year-old Sally Horner was abducted and kept captive for twenty-one months by a man who told her he was an FBI agent. Her escape and return home were cause for much media attention at the time and, in The Real Lolita, author Sarah Weinman examines what happened to Sally Horner as well as what the Nabokovs were doing during that time, and what Nabokov knew about the case. She looks at the details of Horner's ordeal that made it into the novel, as well as the Nabokovs's denials that there was a connection. Weinman finishes up with the history of the novel's publication and of the subsequent movies and adaptations.
This was an interesting book. Weinman was working with few hard facts and managed to make the most of it. I read the original long article she wrote on the subject and suspect that the material was more suited to an article than a book. Still, I enjoyed learning about Nabokov's life and work during his years in the United States and the photo of the author in shorts, marching along with a butterfly net was delightful. Weinman has put together a few anthologies of mid-century noir fiction and that is where her real strength lies, but this book was a diverting holiday read and there's no doubt that Weinman has an eye for interesting historical events.
This was an interesting book. Weinman was working with few hard facts and managed to make the most of it. I read the original long article she wrote on the subject and suspect that the material was more suited to an article than a book. Still, I enjoyed learning about Nabokov's life and work during his years in the United States and the photo of the author in shorts, marching along with a butterfly net was delightful. Weinman has put together a few anthologies of mid-century noir fiction and that is where her real strength lies, but this book was a diverting holiday read and there's no doubt that Weinman has an eye for interesting historical events.
How much did a real-life sex crime inspire Nabokov's Lolita? Probably not as much as this true crime scribe wants you to believe. But that doesn’t mean her linking of a disturbing detective story & a literary masterpiece isn’t a tantalizing page-turner. In 1948, Sally Horner, 11, was abducted by a pedophile & whisked across state lines, sorta parallel to Humbert Humbert’s fictional flight. Did Nabokov draw on the lurid case? His denials ring false, but Weinman’s charges that he “pilfered” & “strip-mined” the story feel excessive. Satisfying for both the crime blotter & the bookshelf.
The Real Lolita is Sarah Weinman's non-fiction book examining the life of Florence "Sally" Horner, whose real life the author believes inspired Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.
I've never read Lolita and never heard of Sally Horner prior to this book being discussed at a book club. Eleven year old Sally Horner was kidnapped in 1948 by a convicted rapist and was held captive for 21 months. In this book which was once a long form essay Weinmen attempts to link Sally Horner's ordeal as inspiration for Lolita, which Nabokov over time has repeatedly denied. To be honest Weinman did not convince me of the link between the two and at the end of 300 pages I cannot confidently say that Nabokov has exploited the life and memory of Sally Horner. I do believe that this piece probably would have best been left as a long form essay as it did feel like there was a lot of padding to bump up the page count. My takeaway from this book is that Sally Horner's life was cut dramatically short and was let down by numerous adults who should have done more to protect her. Sally Horner was a little girl who when she grew up wanted to be a doctor but died at age 15 in a car accident after having her basic human rights denied for nearly two years, an absolute tremendous waste.
I've never read Lolita and never heard of Sally Horner prior to this book being discussed at a book club. Eleven year old Sally Horner was kidnapped in 1948 by a convicted rapist and was held captive for 21 months. In this book which was once a long form essay Weinmen attempts to link Sally Horner's ordeal as inspiration for Lolita, which Nabokov over time has repeatedly denied. To be honest Weinman did not convince me of the link between the two and at the end of 300 pages I cannot confidently say that Nabokov has exploited the life and memory of Sally Horner. I do believe that this piece probably would have best been left as a long form essay as it did feel like there was a lot of padding to bump up the page count. My takeaway from this book is that Sally Horner's life was cut dramatically short and was let down by numerous adults who should have done more to protect her. Sally Horner was a little girl who when she grew up wanted to be a doctor but died at age 15 in a car accident after having her basic human rights denied for nearly two years, an absolute tremendous waste.