My new word is "Nymphet"

[bondo_ba]

Everyone seems to be doing it, so I'll pop in with my own new word.  As you can probably tell by the title of the post, I've just finished reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.

This book is often called the greatest novel of the twentieth century, and one can immediately see why.  The brilliant interweaving of colloquial usage and higher-end

Comments

[kimberlywade]

You're on my favorite topic now, and Lolita is indeed one of my favorite books (see my reply to Terri above).

If you just want Nabokov's brilliant prose without the sliminess of Humbert, you should try Palefire, another brilliant novel already mentioned.

English-language novels, i've got to go with Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury or my personal favorite of his, Absolom, Absolom. Jack Kerouac has moments of mind-blowing greatness in everyone of his books, but i don't know if any one of them stands up as a whole. Maybe Dr. Sax. And then there's Burrough's Naked Lunch, but if you couldn't stomach Lolita, well then...

For specifically American novels, Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath takes the grand prize.

[bondo_ba]

That makes three recommendations for Pale Fire so far. I think it goes stright onto my TBR pile as soon as I find it at one of my bookstore haunts.

What I love about this kind of post is how it feeds my next reading cycle.

I stomached Lolita - just wanted to clobber Humbert for being an obsessive!

[ann1962]

Lolita is near the top of my list too. I couldn't finish it when I first tried. But then I did. What I like best is the tossing around of the untrustworthy narrator. Humbert is horrible, we know this, and we still keeps reading. Nabokov tests the reader with this I think, frames us as the jury. He tries to "seduce" us too. We actually learn very little about Lolita, the girl or her mother for that matter. We only see Humbert's view of her, of them. Silence. Tricky.

Pale Fire is amazing too. Interesting structure and weaving of plot.

[bondo_ba]

Yes. It is a completely brilliant weaving of the narrative and narrator. I think I'll have to read Pale Fire, since Nabokov without Humbert might make me want to annoint him my new hero...

[tracy_d74]

The only thing I can say is this, I've had this book on my TBR list for a while. I finally moved it up the list...now I just need to read it. You may have just given me the nudge to get it read within the next two (three) weeks.

[bondo_ba]

I hope you get to it soon. I would absolutely love to see your take on this one.

[tracy_d74]

I'll let you know when I read it.

[bondo_ba]

Oh, yes. There's no question that it's brilliant. My "criticism" was more in the way of awed nit-picking at the flaws. I had to explain in some way why I didn't choose it as "the best".

And Notes on a Scandal has been added to my Wish List.

[kmarkhoover]

Lolita is one of my top ten favorite books ever. Tropic of Cancer is number one:

http://kennethmarkhoover.com/favorites

[bondo_ba]

I tend to agree with your lists... And I SO need to get myself a copy of Tropic of Cancer. And a resounding "Hell, Yes!" to "The Cold Equations".