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A review by edgarallanfoe
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
3.0
I felt like I should clarify my thoughts here:
It probably did what it set out to do. The narrative voice was terribly clear, super unreliable, and made the whole thing that much more disturbing for it, so kudos. There would be passages that would’ve hit me as fairly profound and a little beautiful if they were written about, y’know, a person of consenting age. Prose was great, but it did take getting used to and dragged the flow a couple times. I didn’t go in expecting any sort of cathartic ending or satisfaction from HH’s eventual deterioration and death, and I didn’t get any. It simulates the kind of sentiment that’s left over from any traumatic event, where nobody is happy and lives remain permanently damaged. Credit for that, I think.
I’m content that I finally read it, but I don’t expect to read it again. There wasn’t ever a time in my reading where I could say that I Enjoyed™️ Lolita, but I was affected by it.
Pretty writing, disturbing subject matter, nobody wins.
I don’t speak French.
It probably did what it set out to do. The narrative voice was terribly clear, super unreliable, and made the whole thing that much more disturbing for it, so kudos. There would be passages that would’ve hit me as fairly profound and a little beautiful if they were written about, y’know, a person of consenting age. Prose was great, but it did take getting used to and dragged the flow a couple times. I didn’t go in expecting any sort of cathartic ending or satisfaction from HH’s eventual deterioration and death, and I didn’t get any. It simulates the kind of sentiment that’s left over from any traumatic event, where nobody is happy and lives remain permanently damaged. Credit for that, I think.
I’m content that I finally read it, but I don’t expect to read it again. There wasn’t ever a time in my reading where I could say that I Enjoyed™️ Lolita, but I was affected by it.
Pretty writing, disturbing subject matter, nobody wins.
I don’t speak French.