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darlingfarthings 's review for:
Lolita
by Vladimir Nabokov
This book was kind of boring tbh... anyways.
I guess part of writing an unreliable narrator is getting your readers to distrust the narrator, and what better way to do so than making the narrator a murderous pedophile?
Nabokov understands this very well. His use of language is elegant and refined, which, in turn, adds to HH’s charm, perhaps the same charm that seduced Dolores in the first place (I should be more careful of men). HH is clearly intelligent, prompting the reader to question him at every moment (Is he actually hot? Dolores isn’t like that).
What I was most fascinated by, however, was Dolores’ loneliness. Her eventual attraction to the theatre was hinted at with her earlier obsessions with movie stars, with stories and comics. My favourite part of Lolita might be the moment where she watches a play performed and is too overwhelmed to tear herself away - something that HH doesn’t seem to realise at all.
However, there are some highly confusing moments in the novel. Rita, for instance, seems to exist solely for the purpose of being a joke character that fills up HH’s life for a few years. The scene in which HH kills Quilty, a key scene in the novel’s denouement, feels as if Nabokov woke up one day, thought “haha pedophiles”, and then got HH and Quilty to wrestle each other naked. The scene with Quilty’s guests who thank HH for killing their host is just as humorous. Was I entertained? Yes. Is that all that matters? No.
Ultimately, though Lolita functions as an excellent example of/introduction to an unreliable narrator, it’s lacking in theme, rather dull and has odd shifts in tone.
I guess part of writing an unreliable narrator is getting your readers to distrust the narrator, and what better way to do so than making the narrator a murderous pedophile?
Nabokov understands this very well. His use of language is elegant and refined, which, in turn, adds to HH’s charm, perhaps the same charm that seduced Dolores in the first place (I should be more careful of men). HH is clearly intelligent, prompting the reader to question him at every moment (Is he actually hot? Dolores isn’t like that).
What I was most fascinated by, however, was Dolores’ loneliness. Her eventual attraction to the theatre was hinted at with her earlier obsessions with movie stars, with stories and comics. My favourite part of Lolita might be the moment where she watches a play performed and is too overwhelmed to tear herself away - something that HH doesn’t seem to realise at all.
However, there are some highly confusing moments in the novel. Rita, for instance, seems to exist solely for the purpose of being a joke character that fills up HH’s life for a few years. The scene in which HH kills Quilty, a key scene in the novel’s denouement, feels as if Nabokov woke up one day, thought “haha pedophiles”, and then got HH and Quilty to wrestle each other naked. The scene with Quilty’s guests who thank HH for killing their host is just as humorous. Was I entertained? Yes. Is that all that matters? No.
Ultimately, though Lolita functions as an excellent example of/introduction to an unreliable narrator, it’s lacking in theme, rather dull and has odd shifts in tone.