A review by jcstokes95
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

challenging dark sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

 
Look, it’s not even that I have an issue with the grotesque content. I have no problem with books about morally fucked characters and there is a place for literature even I think it’s subject matter it bonkers. I just do not like this writing style at all. I recognize I am probably in the minority here. But I found this very difficult to get through. 

I don’t have a nice organized through process on this, so let’s do bullet points: 

-> I appreciated the purposeful mix of salacious moments while Nabokov veils the actual act of rape throughout the text. It gives us the sense Humbert knows his crimes are heinous and immoral; he knows his invisible jury would damn him immediately if described. 

-> I found the most interesting portion to be the few end chapters, where Dolores is grown and we get some glimpse into how this ends for her. Part of my reason for reading this text is I would like to read My Dark Vanessa, which is a response to Lolita. I think I will find that more interesting as it promises to get into the head of the manipulated. 

-> While I know “too much French” isn’t a real criticism of a book, I would love if the publisher of my copy had put some damn translations in. Nabokov seems obsessed with puns (like his narrator) and language. Seems a shame to not get the whole of that context. If you can find an edition with notes, that might increase your reading experience of this. 

-> The fact that there are people who actually still read this as a love story or story of mutual seduction is wild. Jail! Prison! Send them to jail! Gross! 

-> I really do find this writing style grating. This is personal preference. I thought it was the narrator’s choices intentionally making it so. But my copy has a letter Nabokov wrote after publication at the end, and I can confirm that was written in a strange style too. Fascinating content though, at the end he seems majorly annoyed that he has to stop writing in Russian, where he thinks he was superior and instead use English for his novels. In general, this makes me more interested in how bilingual novelists feel about writing in various tongues. 

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