martaportoli

Anyone can tell you that Lolita is a staggering example of virtuosity with the English language (and honestly I'd five-star it just for that alone) but I've read plenty of literary masterworks that I haven't capital L Loved like I love Lolita. Let's put aside the gorgeous, dazzling, mind-bending writing chops of Vladimir Nabakov for a moment and I'll tell you what I really love about Lolita. I love Lolita for the same reason I love A Confederacy of Dunces. Strip away the sensational subject matter of Lolita and the similarities become clear: they're both hilarious accounts of the complaints, observations, and bizarre habits of spectacular misanthropes. Sure, Humbert Humbert is a thousand times grosser than Ignatius J. Reilly (olfactory factors notwithstanding), but both Humbert and Reilly appealed to me through their grandiloquent bitching. By the way, I listened to the audio version narrated by Jeremy Irons and it is sublime, his voice has the perfect balance of the sinister and the sophisticated.

2023-02-03 20:53