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.

Ugh. This story is painful to read. I really struggled to finish this. It was interesting in the first part only somewhat, but then tetered off. The novel is really really wordy. It has flowery adjectives and is very descriptive in painful detail.

I feel like I’m in the minority when I say I don’t like this book, so don’t let my feelings deter you from reading it. I’m just glad that I can say I read it. Although I don’t understand why the word “love story” is used to describe this book. It’s a pedophilic obsession, not love. When you love someone, you don’t destroy their life.

Another classic book read under my belt.

I’m too dazed to write anything sensible about it at present. Just…Holy Mackerel.