A review by theodoreeeeeeads
Ada or Ardor by Vladimir Nabokov

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Armpit fetishes, incestuous threesomes, long-standing ornithological metaphors for vaginas, members-only clubs hosting orgies with harems… any more for any more.

Once again launching into a Nabokov and the brilliance has already begun. 

• theres a lot of couplets which makes sense as it’s about a couple and the title is a couplet.
• long-winded passages with lots of clauses for in-depth description.

Loving the comparison of Aquas’ mental illness to tap water, then likening it to Italian speech, then to bidets when it’s bad news from the doctors she doesn’t like. 

It’s a challenging read this one. He gives the narrative in discrete stories that have lots of imagery, anagrams, parallels with other parts of the book, comedy and reference to obscure French and Russian literature. 

Have to say that is has dropped off. It’s going into detail about sweet nothing. The plot is not really progressing but it’s complex and difficult reading. 

Transformed into a bit of a comedy now. 

Easily the hardest book I’ve ever read and extremely pretentious. 

His half sister just confessed that she used to have sex with her sister as teenage girls and that she gave her tips.

The threesome scene is beautifully well-written. It’s complex… metaphorical and meticulous (couplet).

Recent noteworthy passages

• “Herdsmen, spared by thunderbolts on remote hillsides, used their huge 'moaning horns' as ear trumpets to catch the lits of Ladore. Virgin châtelaines in marble-floored manors fondled their lone flames fanned by Van's romance.”
• “Sounds have colors, colors have smells. The fire of Lucette's amber runs through the night of Ada's odor and ardor, and stops at the threshold of Van's lavender goat.”

The prose is beautiful in places. I think there’s quite a lot of variation in the style. You have to have your thinking cap on at all times to pick up on all the clever symbolism and allegory. 

Ok so he’s duplicitously clever. The chapter on time and space is truly sublime. Nabokov shines. 

It ends beautifully and poetically as you might expect.