Review: Lolita

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I first read this book as part of a freshman writing seminar at Cornell called Fiction into Film. We read the book and watched and analyzed both movies. I remember preferring the Jeremy Irons Lolita over the Kubrick one, but it's been nine years since.

It's amazing what Nabokov can do in English, and I can't even imagine what his native Russian books are like. This is the only one I've read, and I'm not sure if I will ever read any others. As much as I admire this book, I don't find it a pleasure to read, so I don't feel compelled to try any others.

Rereading this book after nine years, I realize I have forgotten the bulk of what happens in the novel. In fact, it was as if I hadn't read it at all, so I was curious and puzzled throughout. I forgot how complicit Humbert Humbert portrays Lolita to be and was completely surprised by the pacing of the novel. I will probably try to reread this again after a year or so to get more sense of the foreshadowing.

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