Book Review
Aug. 17th, 2006 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariLolita
by Vladimir Nabokov
Nabokov must really be one of the greatest writers ever, because I kept reading this book, and even wanting to read it, despite the subject matter. I can even say I liked it, even though it feels really strange to make such a statement. It is a fascinating book, and well worth reading, but it does require some fortitude. I have many thoughts about this book, so I'll just offer them up, in not very much of an order.
First of all, now that I've read Lolita for myself, I am even more aggravated by the pop-culture image of it: that it's the story of a an oversexed pre-teen who slyly seduces an older man. I fail to see how anyone could read Lolita and arrive at such an inverted interpretation.
H. H. is the most striking example of an unreliable narrator I have ever seen. He's even less reliable than a simple liar or even a delusional person. It's not so much that he lies about some of the events he recounts (although I think he does), it's that he's just not trustworthy because of his warped perspective. I also found it pathetic, horrifying, and even weirdly humorous that throughout the novel, H. H. continually portrays himself as being cultured and refined, utterly above the average person. Yet he's a pedophile who takes both physical and emotional advantage of Lolita. In fact, at the beginning of the book, H. H. even goes so far as to attempt to characterize his pedophilia as a kind of rarefied connoisseurship.
H. H. is also one of the most unsympathetic narrators I've encountered. It's impossible to identify or empathize with him. And just when I thought he had gone as low as he could in his attitudes and reflections, he would sink even lower. There were times I was in fact very angry at him, and at least one point at which I wanted to kill him.
Nabokov gives a very complex and nuanced rendering of Lolita and her situation. What's particularly fascinating is that she doesn't start out as a vestal innocent. She's eleven or twelve when the novel starts and as such has a perfectly normal amount of budding sexuality and curiosity. Nabokov thus avoids both over-simplifying things and blaming the victim. In fact, in some ways, Nabokov injects more horror and revulsion into the situation by showing H. H. as someone who takes terrible advantage of the transitional state between childhood and adolescence, and uses it for his own gratification and gain.
by Vladimir Nabokov
Nabokov must really be one of the greatest writers ever, because I kept reading this book, and even wanting to read it, despite the subject matter. I can even say I liked it, even though it feels really strange to make such a statement. It is a fascinating book, and well worth reading, but it does require some fortitude. I have many thoughts about this book, so I'll just offer them up, in not very much of an order.
First of all, now that I've read Lolita for myself, I am even more aggravated by the pop-culture image of it: that it's the story of a an oversexed pre-teen who slyly seduces an older man. I fail to see how anyone could read Lolita and arrive at such an inverted interpretation.
H. H. is the most striking example of an unreliable narrator I have ever seen. He's even less reliable than a simple liar or even a delusional person. It's not so much that he lies about some of the events he recounts (although I think he does), it's that he's just not trustworthy because of his warped perspective. I also found it pathetic, horrifying, and even weirdly humorous that throughout the novel, H. H. continually portrays himself as being cultured and refined, utterly above the average person. Yet he's a pedophile who takes both physical and emotional advantage of Lolita. In fact, at the beginning of the book, H. H. even goes so far as to attempt to characterize his pedophilia as a kind of rarefied connoisseurship.
H. H. is also one of the most unsympathetic narrators I've encountered. It's impossible to identify or empathize with him. And just when I thought he had gone as low as he could in his attitudes and reflections, he would sink even lower. There were times I was in fact very angry at him, and at least one point at which I wanted to kill him.
Nabokov gives a very complex and nuanced rendering of Lolita and her situation. What's particularly fascinating is that she doesn't start out as a vestal innocent. She's eleven or twelve when the novel starts and as such has a perfectly normal amount of budding sexuality and curiosity. Nabokov thus avoids both over-simplifying things and blaming the victim. In fact, in some ways, Nabokov injects more horror and revulsion into the situation by showing H. H. as someone who takes terrible advantage of the transitional state between childhood and adolescence, and uses it for his own gratification and gain.
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Date: 2006-08-18 03:43 pm (UTC)You said it. Interestingly, after I read this I heard "Don't Stand So Close To Me," which is a good song marred by an idiotic line. The man in the song, who the young girl has a crush on, is "just like the old man in that book by Nabokov"? WRONG ANSWER. SIT DOWN. D MINUS. (And even if he was, why shove the simile in our faces? Would "Hotel California" be improved by adding a line like "In fact, the whole situation is reminiscent of a certain famous play by Sartre"?)