Lolita (Biblioteca Visão, #23)
borrowed from jorge paulo on june 5th 2010What is there to say about this book? I honestly still can’t describe it. The story’s pretty well-known: Middle-aged man Humbert Humbert meets 12-year-old Dolores, or Lolita for short. Man falls in love with girl. Man marries girl’s mother to stay close to girl. Man runs away with girl.
While doing some research before reading the book (weird habit), I read most of the reviews on Goodreads and Tumblr, and everyone kept saying how wonderful this book was, and how Nabokov was such a talented writer, etc etc. I could only think I’d dislike it, because well, it’s about child molestation. I started this book with my mind set on hate.
And guess what? I loved it! I really, really loved it! It’s true, Nabokov is a terrific writer. He uses words in ways I’d never thought possible. He actually made me feel sympathy for Humbert, and throughout the novel I understood his actions and thought “no, he totally has a point here, this child is CLEARLY seducing him. He’s not a creep!”. And then I’d smack myself in the forehead.
I have held this book several times in my hands and haven’t bought it because I’d feel weird owning it. It’s about kiddie rape. It’s bad. I now want to buy a pretty brand new edition because it’s that good. And I read it Portuguese, I can only imagine how much more beautiful the words are in English.
Read from June 16th to June 23rd, 2010.