Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

First I want to confess that I, without thinking, brought Lolita as my leisure reading on my recent Disney World vacation, and once I realized the gross irony of that choice, I felt like a horrible, horrible person. (Andy’s teasing didn’t help.)

:(

Second, I found the book to be both well-written and mildly disturbing. Personally I consider pedophilia among the lowest and dirtiest of perversions, so reading the story of Humbert Humbert’s love for 12-year-old Dolores (Lo, Lolita) Haze was quite unsettling. But I wanted to read it since it’s a “classic” of sorts, and since I am working on an unlikeable narrator of my own. To Nabokov’s credit, he never stoops to gratuitous or indulgent sensationalism; that is, he never gets explicit about their sexual activities. He may project a good understanding of the demented mind he attempts to portray, but he does not give any details that would feed similar hungry minds. (In other, more plain words: pedophiles probably wouldn’t get off on this book.)

Nabokov doesn’t quite make me sympathize with Humbert, but he does keep me interested enough to finish reading. In fact, one of his greatest strengths in this is using foreshadowing as a tease, a hook to pull you through to the end. And when he reveals a certain name at the end — for there is, as it turns out, a certain mystery to be solved — I found myself flipping back to see where the clues were, what I had missed.

I did find Nabokov’s/Humbert’s extremely detailed descriptions to be a bit cumbersome at times, but I breezed through the middle 75% of the book. I also appreciated those descriptions when they related to the American landscape; I felt as if Nabokov were giving tribute to the various beautiful (or just interesting) scenes found in this country. I usually don’t like stuff like that, but somehow, with this particular voice, and in juxtaposition to this particular (strange) plot, it worked.

Overall I’d have to say I liked it, though I did not highlight any particular lines or passages as favorites, nor would I probably reread this anytime soon (if ever).