Review: Lolita

2023-11-12

I'm not sure what to cover in this review; thousands of people better versed in literature and more competent in writing have dissected and reviewed this book, and I don't intend to enter the competitive ring. I also feel as though a single read wasn't sufficient for me to catch everything required to properly digest it. I'll therefore eschew tackling the moral and philosopical questions both raised in the book, as well as those raised by the book itself, and restrain myself exclusively to the broad experience.

Lolita is a beautifully written, if not verbose, book about a monster of a man. The prose is pretty and plentiful, the imagery, often far more compelling than I'd like, and the overarching plot a nonstop parade of incentives for eyeball bleaching. To me, it's a good book, and a darn good one at that, but I can easily not recommend it to anyone who doesn't want to read about 400 pages of paedophilia, however layered in flowers and strong spices.

On a side note, the scene at Pavor Manor had a certain absurd quality to it, similar to Gravity's Rainbow, which was both surprising and appreciated. It would probably be a stretch to think that the latter, 20 years later, was inspired by a single scene in the former, but I'm curious if this type of comedy bloomed around the time of Lolita, or I'm simply not reading enough to catch it elsewhere.