Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best books I've ever read, 9 April 2008
Without a doubt, one of the best books I've ever read. It's warm and funny and scary and confusing and (at times) an outright assault on everything polite society brought us up to expect. I liked it so much that the second I finished Lolita, I started right back at the beginning. I was excited... really excited (ok, maybe excited is a poorly chosen word in this case) about what I'd just read, still, I didn't want to hastily declare it one of my favorite novels. So I went back... read it again... re-read my notes and highlighted text, and added even more notes and highlights.
Here are a few random thoughts:
- It seems to be predominately women who love Lolita. I'm thinking this is half because women, by nature, are more likely to romanticize the situation and overlook the pedophiliac angle... and because I imagine very few men are comfortable in any way identifying with the subject matter.
- I agree 100% that Humbert loved Lolita, but I balk at some of the reviews claiming this to be the best love story ever written. Unrequited love? Sure. But reciprocal, healthy and mutual love... what are these people smoking??
- I find it fascinating that a small but vocal faction of women who loved the book feel the need to vilify Lolita for her cruelty to Humbert. It's almost as if - in order to love & approve of Humbert, Lolita must be the persecutor and not the victim. No consideration is given to the possibility that Lolita's circumstances formed her as a person.
- Nabokov is an extremely gifted writer. His long, complicated sentences unfold like exotic hothouse flowers. And kudos to him for taking no prisoners in the telling of a difficult tale. I mean, it took balls to write a story like this. He had to anticipate the backlash. Still, he didn't shy away or give his readers an easy out - a good reason to forgive Humbert. Yet they still did/do. That alone I admire beyond belief.
I honestly didn't feel that Nabokov glorified or sensationalized the subject of pedophilia. He just told a story and told it extremely well. I can appreciate it the same way I appreciate ultra-violent films or novels like A Clockwork Orange: they're all stories that remind us of the fine line between humanity and brutality.
The sexual aspect of Lolita is 100% repugnant, no denying that. And if Nabokov had soft-peddled that part one iota, I'd be pulling up a soapbox decrying the whole thing. Instead what he did was enable the reader to imagine... really imagine... what must go on in the head of a pedophile. He also shows us how these monsters can be (and often are) the school teachers, guidance counselors, Scout leaders, coaches and pastors. They're not all scary, toothless guys in trench coats offering candy to babies in parks. If nothing else, Nabokov shows us this with gusto.
Is it ugly, vulgar at times, and uncomfortable? You bet, and it should be. I'd question it if it were any other way. But it's also beautifully written and something that will stick with you long after you've finished the final page. And that's ok, too. It's possible (though extremely rare) to have both coexist in a kind of uncomfortable harmony... and, credit where it's due, Nabokov, I felt, walked that line better than just about anything else I've ever had the pleasure of reading.
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52 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Disturbing , 21 Jun 2006
I was interested to see how `Lolita' would read, given the current climate, and was worried that Nabokov, writing in the 1950s, would somehow see paedophilia as being less serious than we would view it today. `Lolita' is undoubtedly an uncomfortable read. It is related from the perspective of a relatively unrepentant paedophile, Humbert Humbert. He documents the origins of his obsession with `nymphets' - pre-pubescent girls - and his pursuit of them. Eventually he meets Lolita, his landlady's daughter, and recounts his (eventually successful) plot to run away with her and take her for his lover while pretending to be father and daughter. Humbert's dual roles, as father and abuser, leads him to obsessive jealousy, and Lolita's accelerated adolescence leave her as a precocious adult in a child's body, scarred and cynical. Both lead to tragic consequences, and wasted lives in more ways than one.
Although Humbert is both the villain and narrator, he doesn't hide the sordidness of his crime, and the effects of abuse on Lolita are acknowledged. Nabokov brilliantly treads a fine line between making Humbert human (and seeing the world through his eyes) and recognising the reality of his crimes. Despite Nabokov's choice of making a paedophile his narrator and central character, there is little sympathy for Humbert throughout the book, and paedophilia is presented as being every bit as repugnant as it is generally viewed today. Where Humbert makes excuses for himself, it is clear that they are Humbert's, not Nabokov's, excuses, and we are not expected to sympathise. Humbert's actions are also not presented as being in any way erotic. There are no graphic descriptions either, the suggestion is enough.
Because Nabokov treats his subject so skilfully, `Lolita' was a fantastic book. It was a balanced psychological portrait of a repulsive man, who watches himself destroying lives. The subject matter was difficult, but Nabokov deal with it brilliantly. The language is lyrical and clever, and there is enough black humour to take the edge off an otherwise disturbing book. Deservedly labelled a twentieth century classic, and not a book to be avoided.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
enrapture, 21 Aug 2004
I read this book expecting to be sickened. The story of a 40-year-old's obsession with very young girls (or "nymphets") as said 40-year-old calls them) and in particular the beautiful Dolores "Lolita" Haze, there is certainly plenty of material in this book for controversy. However, as soon as I had read the first page I know that this was no deliberately shocking novel, but instead a subtle, enchanting story of enrapture and lust. Everyone can relate to the longing Humbert feels for someone he knows will never lust after him, and the agony and ecstasy of his forced yet somehow tender affair with 12-year-old Dolores is described in absolutely stunning detail. I finished the novel enchanted but also subtly disturbed, as you have to keep reminding yourself that this man is obviously a ruthless paedophile. Read this and prepare to be both symapthetic and disgusted towards your narrator. A beautiful, daring and subversive work of almost-genius.
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