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linnaboobooks's review against another edition
4.0
The rest behind the rating is because I appreciate the extra information both about Nabokov and his wife Vera in relation to his novel, as well as more importantly the story of Sally Horner. I heard of her briefly before in relation to her influence of Lolita but not more than short recaps of information and getting to know the details of the before, what we know of the during, and the after. And it's heartbreaking to know what happened to this young girl throughout that time.
kaleymph's review
4.0
I think a lot of “true crime” authors could take notes. The way the author went about this, and was honest about what they did and did not know. The sources.
Also, comparing the novel to the actual case. This was awesome. It’s unfortunate what happened though, or course. And as a mother, generally terrifying.
Also, comparing the novel to the actual case. This was awesome. It’s unfortunate what happened though, or course. And as a mother, generally terrifying.
madeleinegeorge's review against another edition
4.0
In 'The Right to Sex', which I read yesterday, there was a chapter devoted to teacher/professor-student relationships and the bounds of consent. What I found fascinating was Srinivasan's argument that the failure there is not one of consent, but rather of pedagogy; the theory being that in establishing a sexual relationship-- between two consenting adults (as in collegiate occurrences) or one adult and one child-- the fundamental aim of education and the pure platonic patterns of instruction are violated. This is, of course, in addition to all the power and political pressures that are present there as well, but all the same. It was an angle I hadn't considered, but one that rang true and clear all the same.
After that, I was tempted to reread Lolita, but decided against it because I didn't want to.
Instead I decided to read Weinman's beautiful piece-- and I'm very glad I did. Uniting historical recreation and brilliant reporting (a lá Helen Macdonald), she traces the true-crime case of Sally Horner as it develops alongside Nabokov and his writing + publishing of Lolita. In this excavation, Horner's life is reclaimed from it's double-appropriation: first as she was indelibly tied to the fate of her abuser and then as she was immortalized by V.N. without sufficient recognition. Sally's life was tragically short and unimaginably brutal. But Weinman brings her to life with salient prose, meticulous research, and compassionate sensitivity. Where she was finally rescued from the hands of her kidnapper, her story has now been wrested from the bitter hands of history as well.
a PS on Lolita
It's a novel that everyone-- whether they've read it or not-- has an opinion on. Both filmed versions received meager box office returns (which... who thought putting it on screen would be a good idea? who)((even w Jeremy Irons, but we're moving past that)), as did the aborted musical.
I've read Lolita, but nothing else of Nabokov's. I knew very little (and suspected I wanted to know even less) about the writing process of it. If anything, though, Weinman's dig into their history, both his and his wife's, somewhat lessens the visceral, nervous knot that forms in the throat when attempting to imagine it. The fact that his decade-long compulsion seems to have been a literary and not a physical one is a small comfort, but a welcome one nonetheless.
After that, I was tempted to reread Lolita, but decided against it because I didn't want to.
Instead I decided to read Weinman's beautiful piece-- and I'm very glad I did. Uniting historical recreation and brilliant reporting (a lá Helen Macdonald), she traces the true-crime case of Sally Horner as it develops alongside Nabokov and his writing + publishing of Lolita. In this excavation, Horner's life is reclaimed from it's double-appropriation: first as she was indelibly tied to the fate of her abuser and then as she was immortalized by V.N. without sufficient recognition. Sally's life was tragically short and unimaginably brutal. But Weinman brings her to life with salient prose, meticulous research, and compassionate sensitivity. Where she was finally rescued from the hands of her kidnapper, her story has now been wrested from the bitter hands of history as well.
a PS on Lolita
It's a novel that everyone-- whether they've read it or not-- has an opinion on. Both filmed versions received meager box office returns (which... who thought putting it on screen would be a good idea? who)((even w Jeremy Irons, but we're moving past that)), as did the aborted musical.
I've read Lolita, but nothing else of Nabokov's. I knew very little (and suspected I wanted to know even less) about the writing process of it. If anything, though, Weinman's dig into their history, both his and his wife's, somewhat lessens the visceral, nervous knot that forms in the throat when attempting to imagine it. The fact that his decade-long compulsion seems to have been a literary and not a physical one is a small comfort, but a welcome one nonetheless.
oofrie's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
The Real Lolita talks about two different stories: that of Vladimir Nabokov and his book, Lolita, and that of Sally Horner, whose story the author argues largely inspired the famous Lolita.
Sally Horner was kidnapped at age eleven, taken across the country, and routinely raped and abused for two years before she was able to escape from her captor, Frank La Salle. There's not a lot on her, unfortunately. She never testified in court or wrote of her experiences, so there isn't a lot we necessarily know. And then she died in an accident only two years after returning to her former life. Her story is tragic and really all too short, and the author makes a compelling case for how it mirrors a lot of Dolores' story in Lolita.
There is some exposition on Nabokov as well. The author talks about his cross country trips, his interest in butterflies, his life before and after Lolita is published, and then there are some notes of his as well, such as other famous crimes of the time, which he had written for Lolita.
Overall, I wish there was more on Sally, but I don't think that that's the author's fault. She just largely has faded into history without acknowledgment, and I'm really glad that she at least got this book. I think the author made a compelling case for Sally's story being the basis of that of Lolita. I enjoyed reading this book overall.
Sally Horner was kidnapped at age eleven, taken across the country, and routinely raped and abused for two years before she was able to escape from her captor, Frank La Salle. There's not a lot on her, unfortunately. She never testified in court or wrote of her experiences, so there isn't a lot we necessarily know. And then she died in an accident only two years after returning to her former life. Her story is tragic and really all too short, and the author makes a compelling case for how it mirrors a lot of Dolores' story in Lolita.
There is some exposition on Nabokov as well. The author talks about his cross country trips, his interest in butterflies, his life before and after Lolita is published, and then there are some notes of his as well, such as other famous crimes of the time, which he had written for Lolita.
Overall, I wish there was more on Sally, but I don't think that that's the author's fault. She just largely has faded into history without acknowledgment, and I'm really glad that she at least got this book. I think the author made a compelling case for Sally's story being the basis of that of Lolita. I enjoyed reading this book overall.
alybre13's review against another edition
2.0
Soooo dull. So much filler. The actual story of Sally Horner was interesting, but it should have been a magazine article rather than an entire book.
The author's writing style was also choppy and awkward. I found myself bored and zoning out for over half the book
The author's writing style was also choppy and awkward. I found myself bored and zoning out for over half the book
melissa_who_reads's review
5.0
Fascinating read. She intertwines the stories of Sally Horner, who was kidnapped and held for nearly 2 years, traveling the country as the daughter of a man who called himself her father - while raping her repeatedly; with the story of Nabokov's writing of his novel Lolita. She explores how Sally's ordeal gave Nabokov a structure for his novel - he had been playing around with the idea of the novel, but Sally's ordeal gave him the pieces to put it together. He even throws in a direct reference to her.
Sally's story is ultimately heartbreaking: she survives her kidnapping, only to die in a car crash at age 15. She never got a chance to grow up; she had to live and go to school in 1950's Camden, New Jersey, a town that knew all about her ordeal and blamed her for what had happened to her. After living to see her tormentor put in jail, bravely willing to testify against him at trial - he avoided it by pleading guilty, to have her die so young in such a way that was completely unrelated to her ordeal. Painful.
Sally's story is ultimately heartbreaking: she survives her kidnapping, only to die in a car crash at age 15. She never got a chance to grow up; she had to live and go to school in 1950's Camden, New Jersey, a town that knew all about her ordeal and blamed her for what had happened to her. After living to see her tormentor put in jail, bravely willing to testify against him at trial - he avoided it by pleading guilty, to have her die so young in such a way that was completely unrelated to her ordeal. Painful.
jaredwill_'s review against another edition
4.0
I've somehow managed to avoid reading Lolita and this book makes me glad of that fact. Apparently, Nabokov wrote a number of pieces about grown men raping pre-pubescent girls. Even worse, is that Lolita is based on a real case (that Nabokov names drops in his book) and he uses this tragedy to make a buck and a name for himself.
saranies's review
3.0
I picked this up because I thought it was going to be about Sally Horner. Instead, it's half a true crime book and half a brief biography of Nabokov when he was trying to write Lolita. I do feel that stories like Sally's are overlooked in favor of the salacious focus on the criminal, but I'm not sure that I really learned anything new that I didn't read in the excerpted parts. Sally's story is heartbreaking.