Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov.
I must have read a lot of books in last few years but time and again there comes a book which is a total "Mindf***", a kind of book which takes a huge toll on the reader, a book that I will never be able to forget for the rest of my life. One such book I read a few years ago was from one of my all time favorite Author Gabriel Garcia Marquez "Chronicles of a death foretold". Oh Boy!! I still at times see that haunted scene of a young man moving along the colony with a blood dripping knife in his hands with which he had slithered someone's throat not so long ago. At times I get that scene in my dreams and at times I see it with my eyes open when I am sitting in my office working on something as I take my eyes off the pc to think for a few moments staring at space. Gabo's book I won't call a Mindf*** but was totally mind-blowing. No book or story has come any closer to it so far in last years and then I picked up "Lolita" from Vladimir Nabokov. Damn!! I can't even put it in words what I have gone through reading this and how I am feeling right now (I wish I was writing this in my handwriting, you would have noticed my hands shaking a lot). To put the gist of the book in one sentence I can say it is the wildest imagination ever of the most perverted mind put across in the most elaborate way by any Author that I know of so far. I still remember an episode from my own life when I was a kid in sixth standard, one day I was sleeping besides my cousin (sister) and for some reason I was attracted to her rising and falling breasts, she was hardly an year elder than me. I told my mother about my feelings the same day about those lovely brownish little hair on her arms too. I don't remember what exactly she told me to clear my doubts but I never looked back at her from that angle ever. I guess if my query wasn't answered that day and doubt cleared, I would have certainly become the animal this man was, the protagonist Humbert Humbert as he calls himself. As I firmly believe, we all have that animal in ourselves, it's just that we keep it controlled as we live in a society with man made rules and regulations that we follow. People who do not follow these set rules and do as they wish as per their own instincts, this is how the story of their lives will turn out to be.
I am sure the people who have read Lolita, know what I am trying to say and people who haven't read it, I will seriously advice to stay away from it. Simply a story of incest from a step father's point of view of a twelve year old girl, because of who he marries her good for nothing mother and fulfills his fancies of having a Lolita for life. The man has his own definition of "Lolita" too, there is a certain criteria every girl preferably under 13 has to fall to qualify to be called a Lolita. I just couldn't believe my eyes, my heart kept sinking and brain went numb as I went ahead with the story. The way he keeps opening his cards, page by page, chapter by chapter as where is he narrating the story, if he is any sorry for what he has done or is he proud of what he has done? What kind of ending is he expecting for himself or the reader can fathom how it all will come to an end, it was a total mindf*** as I said earlier. Shocking is the way Author decides to carve out his characters, of-course its a free world and one is totally free to write a work of fiction as they deem fit, it doesn't matter how a reader cries out thinking especially about the little girl, why she was doing what she was doing was totally beyond me. And Mr. Author so aptly puts if not half at-least a good 2/3rd blame on the little girl too, you've got to read to know how he does that, before I guess the realization kicks in and things look like they will go for a betterment.
Not only all that, I was totally shocked, surprised and what not (finding it weird to explain) how he keeps talking to his Publisher, Editor and even the reader for that matter, through his writing. This is definitely a first of its own kinds of book where the Author involves the reader big time in not only trying to convince them of his situation as if the protagonist was totally not wrong and get him judged in a right manner too. Wow! I am totally impressed on that front, he was actually able to keep me glued to the very shocking ending which I totally didn't see coming till I hit the very last sentence. Undoubtedly this is the first of its own kind of story where the animal instincts are bared open by someone in its sheer true form by any one, I haven't read a better account of that in any story yet. Of-course I am yet to read a book based on "Hannibal Lecter" if there is a book on that, this is actually that kind of an instinct but more about sex than about man eating a man but no better.
I will end it here, as it all is making no sense to me and I have no idea if I am able to put my point forward or not. But pray tell me if any of you have read this one? what was the impact, did any of you actually liked it? If there was anything in it to be liked. I would like to read at-least one more book from Vladimir Nabokov before I stay away from his works, do suggest if you have a book to recommend from him that I should read.
PS: I am not in a mood to do any research if this was a true account of someone's life (I pray it isn't) or a confession from the Author of his own life. Even if it is, please do not tell me all that. I will keep imagining that this was the wildest work of fiction and that's that.
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