The Real Lolita

"Reading this book felt like mixture of a true crime book with a twist of literary analysis. The story of Sally Horner is a horrific one, and despite her showing in the title of this book, she’s only talked about in about half of the book. The other half is about Nabokov, and his problematic novel Lolita. It’s an interesting read, but probably could have been a little shorter and more focused on Sally."

"Truly Fantastic!! "

""Knowing about Sally Horner does not diminish Lolita's brilliance, or Nabokov's audacious inventiveness, but it does augment the horror he also captured in the novel." <br/><br/>I had not heard of Sally Horner's case prior to coming across The Real Lolita, so I was really looking forward to this book. I was captivated by the heartbreaking beginning of the book - Sally's story is truly tragic, and I was curious about what all happened. <br/><br/>Unfortunately, there is just not enough information about Sally to fill a book, even though the author did her best. This is the second true crime book I've read this year that really should not have become a book - in both of them, an absurd amount of filler was added in order to pad out the rest of the book. <br/><br/>Only about half of this book was even about Sally - so much of it was speculation & then details about Nabokov. Clearly Nabokov knew about Sally since he mentions her in Lolita, yet a fair amount of the book is spent trying to prove that Lolita is directly based on Sally's story & trying to find out just when Nabokov found out about her. It felt very unnecessary. I don't care when Nabokov found out about Sally because it was obvious that he did - the timing doesn't matter. <br/><br/>I also felt like part of the purpose of the book was to argue that Lolita is problematic. I really don't need someone else to tell me that, and I wouldn't have picked this book up if I knew so much time was going to be focused on Nabokov and Lolita. It ended up feeling like a college paper, which is definitely not what I was hoping for with this book. There was a lot of reaching, and even my final copy could have used more editing. This book could have been an awesome essay or article, but the real story was smothered by unnecessary details & speculation."

"Shocking, what Sally Horner endured. The struggle for normalcy beyond her kidnapping, and the tapestry of folks who were part of her rescue, are heartbreaking. I find myself thinking of who she could have been.<br/><br/>Nabokov was a pretentious true crime buff with his own secrets. The deep dive into his life really slowed the pacing and was oddly unnecessary."

"I haven't read it yet since I've just started my list. Thanks for the review. "

"I had no interest reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. I was always thankful in fact that I never had to read it for required reading in literature. There was always a sense of wrongness that surrounded that book even with the very little I had known about it. As an adult I knew what it was that made me feel so gross and without knowing the context of the case behind the book made me feel that being a girl was something to be afraid of. <br/><br/>The book explains the true crime behind the book that was referenced in the text and may have even influenced the book itself. The author both explains Nabokov's background and writings previous to Lolita and Sally Horner's kidnapping and horrible experiences at the hands of Frank La Salle. It's a horrifying take on what I have often heard of as America's purest Literature. <br/><br/>I would highly recommend this to anyone who follows true crime or has interest in learning more about classic literature authors."