Lolita. Vladimir Nabokov. Fiction.
Occh. How do I solve a problem like reviewing Lolita?
I have no freaking idea.
Here’s the thing…
1. There’s just no denying it’s brilliant, despite the seriously uncomfortable subject matter. And important serious books should be written about uncomfortable subject matter. However…
2. It’s disturbing to wake up and realize how unqualified I feel to give a significant considered review of said important but disturbing subject matter. It’s complicated and I’m finding it very hard to critique the actual work rather than the subject matter and how I personally feel about it.
Things to consider:
A. I don’t love the way Nabokov writes. Oh I can appreciate the hell out of it, but personally it’s a bit wordy and overly descriptive for my tastes. I get bored quickly with descriptions of things that I don’t think are important (and usually aren’t).
B. I do have to give Nabokov credit however for making me feel for Humbert Humbert without Nabokov begging or whining on his behalf. I didn’t want to like him, and I didn’t, but I also freaking hated Lolita. Perhaps that’s a foregone conclusion since we’re seeing everything from Humbert’s perspective, but I had trouble tapping into his love for Lolita (maybe because I didn’t want to) and could only find annoyance and frustration for her. For me, if there’s a character more unlikable in Lolita than Humbert, it’s Lolita.
C. I also feel compelled to consider all of the Lolita alternate covers and the film…because it’s all an important part I think of how the Lolita…lexicon if you will, has developed over time.
For example, the cover above is the cover from the book I read. I feel pretty blah about it (it was on sale at The Strand). It’s decidedly sexual, but that could be an 18 or even a 25 year-old woman’s skin and mouth on the cover (a 25 year-old woman with decidedly awesome young skin, but still). Whereas this is the cover from the copy Adam was reading.
Which is, to me, decidedly more disturbing…considering it’s Lolita we’re talking about and those legs look very young and awkward and decidedly innocent and unsexy. But look at these other covers….
Some of them are a bit incendiary (considering) and more accurate I think to what is supposed to be going on in the book (#1, #2, #3, and #5) and make me feel slightly different about the content inside. Covers #6 and #7 are decidedly less creepy as the women depicted seem a more appropriate age to be sexually active by choice, and cover #8 is just ridiculous, I mean that woman is like 30 and has a mustache for christ’s sake, I’m sure she’s been sexually active, and rightly so, for ages. Cover #4 is my favorite if only because I like the sketchy quality and because it’s the only one that doesn’t try to specifically put a look or feeling or age to Lolita, it’s abstract enough that I have to use only what Nabokov gives me in the book…which is the way it should be.
What about this one?
It takes the prize as the super creepiest. But maybe the most accurate? Even though it’s a little abstract, knowing what’s on the inside and that the simple line drawing is not a sweet moment between father and child but between sexual predator and child makes it the most disturbing of the bunch (except maybe #8 and her mustache).
I also feel I have to consider the famous film adapted from the novel, by Kubrick and Nabokov himself. THIS is not the Lolita I was picturing while reading.