Lolita

A book with a split personality. At times, Nabokov’s writing is absolutely beautiful, with a turn of phrase that just stunned me. Unfortunately, nearly all of these beautiful phrases were used when Humbert was describing Lolita, so there was a patina of unwholesomeness overlaying them. As a result, I was simultaneously attracted to and repelled by these passages – interesting, but not a whole lot of fun.
Another split – the first part of the book, where Humbert is pursuing Lolita, is at least interesting. His machinations in order to “obtain” her make for a somewhat interesting plot. Part two, however, is just boring. There’s a little bit of interest around the unknown interloper, but not a lot. Not enough to justify the bulk of this section of the novel.

In the end, I’m glad I read the book, but it’s not something that I really enjoyed, or that I’d recommend to many.