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ashmagoffin 's review for:
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.