Review of Lolita

Lolita is a strange beast of a book. The conflicting emotions that ran through my mind make it impossible to place it any specific genre of novel. Mysteries are supposed to surprise the reader, comedies are supposed to delight the reader, dramas are supposed to move the reader and thrillers are supposed to get their pulse racing. Where does that put Lolita? It manages to move, disgust and make me giggle, sometimes all three in the same chapter. No wonder I was confused about how I felt for most of the book.

The second part of the book was somehow more tolerable than the first. The overarching themes of the story - obsession, desperation, isolation and the resulting fear and paranoia make for compelling reading. Compared to the second part, the first part was a confusing jumble of emotions as frivolity and humor mingle with the disgust I felt at the narrator. In retrospect, I think they two halves of the novel necessarily play off each other. The first half is all about the savage and cruel frivolity of narrator's monstrous nature, while the second is all about it's dark and tragic consequences. Even among the doom and gloom, the penultimate chapter made me smile. Like I said, this book will put you through a crazy jumble of emotions.

On reflection, I have to say it's not the book I thought it was, and I suspect that is true of many people who have only heard of it in fleeting. The title has such cultural connotations that are in no way supported by the text of the book itself. The narrator is a cruel and selfish man who destroys the childhood of girl he is obsessed with, and even he realises it. What humanizes him in the end is how pathetic and broken his obsession has made him and the recognition that obsessions tend to do that to the best of us. This is not an easy book to read.

8/10