Lolita

Four books to go! I’m finally making some progress on #11. I just finished Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. This was suggested to me by my friend Sandra, and we are actually reading it at the same time. Of course, I’m on vacation, so I finished it much more quickly. Once we are both done, we are going to have a mini book club to discuss.

First of all, this book was slightly disturbing. A grown man having sex with a 12-year old!?! Somehow he rationalized that this is ok to do. As you read the book, from his point of view, you see how he does this. Even with this level of uncomfortableness, it was a really good book. I don’t want to get into too many of the details, but it’s about this old dude, Humbert Humbert, who marries the mother of the nymhet he is madly in love with. Unfortunately, the mother dies in a tragic accident (not murder) and Lolita is now at the mercy of this man. However, Lolita isn’t as innocent as she seems. But, then again she is 12.

Humbert tells the story from the future after he commits murder. He recaptures his relationship with Lolita as they transverse the US a number of times on a couple of separate trips in the 40s over the course of many years. 

The book is very controversial and I highly recommend it. There also a couple of movies from the 60s and 90s out that I’d like to watch to see how they’ve captured the story.

I started Animal Farm by George Orwell today.

So far I’ve crossed off:

1. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
2. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
4. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
6. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov