Re: Great Minds Think Alike
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Sun, 20 Sep 1998 14:36:31 +1000
Miranda Poynton wrote:
>
> Matt, I, too, am finger-deep in my first Nabokov! Lolita, "Lo-lee-ta".
> I'm surprised at how compellingly readble it is.
Why surprised ??? I guess you must have got the impression from what
you'd heard about it that it would just be a bunch of sensationalist
clap trap (and you're certainly not alone there). But that's the most
beautiful thing about `Lolita' - *it
isn't*. Nabokov was a genius, and the fact that he makes so sordid a
relationship and topic so lyrical and touching and *un* sensational. It's
quite simply one of the best books ever written, I think, and even more so
because of that fact.
I urge everyone to give Nabokov a go; he's definitely worth a look.
Lolita is of course a good starting point, and Pale Fire a good place to
go after that - in fact, progressing chronologically to Ada and onward,
making a digression to the short stories is highly recommended.
The last time anyone asked Salinger about his reading habits, he refused
to name any living writers, saying he didn't `think it right'. I wonder,
today, whether Nabokov would find a place on said list? We know that
Nabokov was a fan of Salinger, so I can't help musing about whether the
inverse was true too.
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
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