Lolita

I found it difficult to discuss this book with anyone as I had to separate the story from the beauty of the language. Humbert is a pedophile and insane and I think many people focus on the storyline and miss the author's absolutely immense talent with language - a language by the way that was not even his second language but his third or fourth! It blows my mind that be could be so skilled at writing in a language that was not native to him. What I enjoyed about Lolita was certainly not the actual uncomfortable and cruel story, which was extremely disturbing to put it mildly. But Nabokov is an unbelievably gifted writer and his use of language is so skilled and so beautiful, it took my breath away at times. I listened to this book on tape but will have to buy it to study some of his descriptions. I was particularly taken with his description as an Englishman driving through our American countryside - he described the raw, stark beauty of the landscape - so different from Europe. Also, I wonder if people can see past the pervert to the man who was in love (unfortunately) with a child. There are elements of his love that haunt me. His love was unbelievably selfish - like many loves are - but it was also deeper and truer than most. The problem though was that it was all one-sided and as we all know, true abiding love must come from two directions, from two people, not one. After reading this I feel compelled to read some guides about the book so I can explore certain passages that confused me. So much of the story was mired up in Humbert's insanity that it became very difficult to tell what was real and what was just his sickness. This was not an "easy" book to listen to but on my audio book, Jeremy Irons NAILED it. I'm sure it would not have been half so amazing with a lessor actor reading it.

This book discomforted me a lot, part 1 was especially but it also helped me to understand/broaden my views on how art is supposed to correlate/corroborate/confront our lives, and our views. How art breaks taboos and points out the deprivation and dark corners of human nature. Our protagonist has dual nature sometimes he's unsure, apologetic but for the majority of the time he's violent, sly and manipulative to the reader and attempts to lure them into a trance where he is a tragic lover pursuing his moody one true love and surprisingly many readers fall for it, now that sounds like something a propaganda poster would do but seriously I wonder how people defended him even after reading his vague self-confession at part 2 chapter 33 and the latter, unreliable narrator at its finest.
Although I loved the wordplay and literary allusions, sometimes I found them to be too wordy other than that it's one the most perfect book I have ever read.
4 stars/5

p.s- I faced this issue many times while I talked about this book with the general public. Some people think this a literature of paedophile apologists, some think it is paedophile propaganda to decriminalize paedophilia and some peeps think Nabokov is a downright paedophile and it's loosely based on his biography.
I would like to say stop reading this book
1. If you blindly trust unreliable narrators who frequently contradict themselves
2. If you still calling her Lolita even after 100 pages
(copied)

Good Lord, what an emotional roller coaster this book is.

Four stars for the beautiful prose, minus one star, for the obvious.

Lolita explores the relationship between love and obsession. Most distinctly how love becomes an excuse for life-ruining acts. As Hambert Hambert, the narrator, slowly becomes more unaware of his humanity you see him sacrificing his morals in the name of love.