Jessica
So... I really liked this book.
Anyway, I don't know why the blurb calls it “impossibly funny”, because I don't really think it is (aside from laughing at Humbert's misery when Lolita finally escapes him, of course). However, the use of language is beautiful – so lyrical, my favourite style of writing – and the story it tells may be disturbing, but it's so self-consciously disturbing. I thought it was great.
I did feel it dragged in places, especially around the two-thirds mark. But it ended well. Lolita – who actually, more than once in the course of the novel (accurately) accuses Humbert of having raped her, despite his earlier protestations that it was her who seduced him – manages at last to escape, he is devastated, three years pass, he finally tracks her down and she's perfectly polite but clearly regards him as the pathetic sex criminal that he is. Then Humbert goes and kills the man who helped her to escape, but the point I'm trying to make is this...
Lolita is no mere victim. She pursues what she wants, she escapes, and she's able to build a new and functional life in spite of how Humbert controlled and abused her for so long – and it's him who becomes the wreck. I derived some satisfaction from that.
A closing comment – there HAS to be a TV Tropes page for the wealthy, French-speaking pervert, right? I swear I'm not TRYING to read books about such characters (real life is enough, thanks) but there they appear, again and again and again. This is nothing short of a literary conspiracy.
Sorry for the incoherence of my review; I'll try to fix it up when I'm less sleepy if I remember. Good night!
So... I really liked this book.
Anyway, I don't know why the blurb calls it “impossibly funny”, because I don't really think it is (aside from laughing at Humbert's misery when Lolita finally escapes him, of course). However, the use of language is beautiful – so lyrical, my favourite style of writing – and the story it tells may be disturbing, but it's so self-consciously disturbing. I thought it was great.
I did feel it dragged in places, especially around the two-thirds mark. But it ended well. Lolita – who actually, more than once in the course of the novel (accurately) accuses Humbert of having raped her, despite his earlier protestations that it was her who seduced him – manages at last to escape, he is devastated, three years pass, he finally tracks her down and she's perfectly polite but clearly regards him as the pathetic sex criminal that he is. Then Humbert goes and kills the man who helped her to escape, but the point I'm trying to make is this...
Lolita is no mere victim. She pursues what she wants, she escapes, and she's able to build a new and functional life in spite of how Humbert controlled and abused her for so long – and it's him who becomes the wreck. I derived some satisfaction from that.
A closing comment – there HAS to be a TV Tropes page for the wealthy, French-speaking pervert, right? I swear I'm not TRYING to read books about such characters (real life is enough, thanks) but there they appear, again and again and again. This is nothing short of a literary conspiracy.
Sorry for the incoherence of my review; I'll try to fix it up when I'm less sleepy if I remember. Good night!