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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
This is so Lana Del Rey vinyl
But honestly the 2nd half dragged a bit
But honestly the 2nd half dragged a bit
Basically this is the worst guy you've ever met and he never stops talking. The writing is absolutely brilliant and surprisingly, darkly hilarious. I fear that some of the more nuanced aspects of the prose were lost on me at times because I found my mind frequently wandering. I likely would have gotten more out of reading it in print, though I still enjoyed the audiobook.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Rape, Death of parent
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Car accident
3 stars. I would give it less but it's beautifully written.
**
Lolita is so many things, has been analysed and scrutinised and praised to the point that I can't really add anything more of value, but at it's core it's a portrait of singular, intense alienation. Humbert Humbert cannot be any more isolated or alienated; for not only is his every morsel of time & energy & imagination directed towards an intensely private pursuit, not only towards an intensely private intensely illegal & taboo pursuit, but towards a pursuit that is all of these things and also *does not really exist*. Humbert is not interested in young girls, he's interested in a highly specific, mythical, quasi-supernatural version of a young girl that exists only in his warped fantasies. The nymphets are not there. He notices a normal young girl who embodies a few common aesthetic features, a few crude personality traits, assigns her the nymphet role, and swims as far into his fantasy with her as he dares before retreating and summoning the courage to move on to another.
This is crucial, because while this is a novel about a paedophile, it also isn't. Take Humbert's friendship with Gaston. Gaston is a paedophile who likes young boys. He recognises, knows, somehow, that Humbert is a paedophile, and so feels safe to share this private aspect of his life with him. However, Humbert does not share back. If Humbert was like Gaston, he probably would. But he isn't; unlike Gaston he isn't into real children but into fantastical ones. He is completely alone; driven every second of every day by an urge that no-one else on earth can relate to or understand. Gaston is his only friend, and their relationship is as surface level as a friendship can be. Humbert's arch-nemesis, Quilty, is also a 'normal' paedophile, exploiting and abusing young children in ways remarkably familiar and mundane to anyone who knows anything about grooming & sexual abuse in Hollywood. Other paedophiles are just as unknowable to Humbert, and he to them, as anyone else. Gaston & Quilty may be evil, craven, scumbags, but there's a sense, theoretically at least, that they can find human connection (with other paedophiles) and a degree of satisfaction (through their paedophilia) and so can enjoy a level of human experience that they absolutely do not deserve.
Humbert however, is condemned to endless pathetic suffering. The cruellest tragedy of his devotion to delusion is that when he finally gets a nymphet all to himself, he cannot ever find contentment or satisfaction or peace precisely because he perceives her as a nymphet rather than the thing she actually is; a child, a girl, a person. ' It never occurs to him to consider her as a human being, or as anything but a dream-figment made flesh.' She will never be a nymphet, and in his monstrous machinations to make her one he only succeeds in denying her a childhood and denying himself any chance of real connection with another human being.
Oh, also extremely funny. extremely funny.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/02/lifetimes/nab-r-lolita.html?scp=3&sq=%22lolita%22%20book%20review&st=cse
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/lolita-by-vladimir-nabokov-joanne-harris-s-book-of-a-lifetime-10249561.html
Lolita is so many things, has been analysed and scrutinised and praised to the point that I can't really add anything more of value, but at it's core it's a portrait of singular, intense alienation. Humbert Humbert cannot be any more isolated or alienated; for not only is his every morsel of time & energy & imagination directed towards an intensely private pursuit, not only towards an intensely private intensely illegal & taboo pursuit, but towards a pursuit that is all of these things and also *does not really exist*. Humbert is not interested in young girls, he's interested in a highly specific, mythical, quasi-supernatural version of a young girl that exists only in his warped fantasies. The nymphets are not there. He notices a normal young girl who embodies a few common aesthetic features, a few crude personality traits, assigns her the nymphet role, and swims as far into his fantasy with her as he dares before retreating and summoning the courage to move on to another.
This is crucial, because while this is a novel about a paedophile, it also isn't. Take Humbert's friendship with Gaston. Gaston is a paedophile who likes young boys. He recognises, knows, somehow, that Humbert is a paedophile, and so feels safe to share this private aspect of his life with him. However, Humbert does not share back. If Humbert was like Gaston, he probably would. But he isn't; unlike Gaston he isn't into real children but into fantastical ones. He is completely alone; driven every second of every day by an urge that no-one else on earth can relate to or understand. Gaston is his only friend, and their relationship is as surface level as a friendship can be. Humbert's arch-nemesis, Quilty, is also a 'normal' paedophile, exploiting and abusing young children in ways remarkably familiar and mundane to anyone who knows anything about grooming & sexual abuse in Hollywood. Other paedophiles are just as unknowable to Humbert, and he to them, as anyone else. Gaston & Quilty may be evil, craven, scumbags, but there's a sense, theoretically at least, that they can find human connection (with other paedophiles) and a degree of satisfaction (through their paedophilia) and so can enjoy a level of human experience that they absolutely do not deserve.
Humbert however, is condemned to endless pathetic suffering. The cruellest tragedy of his devotion to delusion is that when he finally gets a nymphet all to himself, he cannot ever find contentment or satisfaction or peace precisely because he perceives her as a nymphet rather than the thing she actually is; a child, a girl, a person. ' It never occurs to him to consider her as a human being, or as anything but a dream-figment made flesh.' She will never be a nymphet, and in his monstrous machinations to make her one he only succeeds in denying her a childhood and denying himself any chance of real connection with another human being.
Oh, also extremely funny. extremely funny.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/02/lifetimes/nab-r-lolita.html?scp=3&sq=%22lolita%22%20book%20review&st=cse
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/lolita-by-vladimir-nabokov-joanne-harris-s-book-of-a-lifetime-10249561.html
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
"Me moriré si me tocas"
I honestly don't get anyone who could possible think there's any indication that lolita is a love story after reading the novel tbh. Even WITH humbert trying his best to rewrite history through his lens there's just so many indications from the book itself about how dolores felt about the horrible situation she was in - "She had no where else to go", crying herself to sleep every night, saving up money to run away etc. Its pretty much a fucked up horror story painted over with flowery language and proses from a pedo madman trying to rewrite history.
Nabokov's writing is absolutely praise-worthy though. The fact that he managed to write the proses he did in this book with english being his FOURTH language is just insane. This was a hella uncomfortable read but the book itself is impossible to put down and i'm glad (?) i finally had a chance to read this classic. Thought it was a good idea to finally read this after reading the heartbreaking novel my dark vanessa to close up the cycle.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia
Minor: Death of parent