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A review by whatsupelisabeth
Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle by Vladimir Nabokov
3.0
This was a lot, as I am sure it is supposed to be.
The incestuous underage romance goes into way more graphic detail and is way more enthusiastic about the affair than I (and hopefully most readers) would prefer. Yeah, I know - unreliable narrator, Nabokov is so great at shining a sarcastic light on the vices of our world, yada yada.
But man, it takes a good chunk of effort to read the beautiful, romantic descriptions of teenage sibling hook-ups while fully buying that the author kept a healthy emotional distance from his characters. Especially since our male protagonist here, as opposed to his Lolita counterpart, lacks most of the self-awareness one would hope for. Then again, maybe this kind of portrayal is exactly what made Nabokov a master of his craft.
Aside from that:
* The language is beautiful though sometimes exhaustingly so. Also, if you want to brush up on your pretentious French/German/Russian, this is your book.
* The setting in a parallel world to ours that is similar but not the same is a very fun concept but oddly unnecessary.
* The chapter on his philosophy of time felt like the cinema making me begrudingly watch an extended advert just before the climax of a movie.
The incestuous underage romance goes into way more graphic detail and is way more enthusiastic about the affair than I (and hopefully most readers) would prefer. Yeah, I know - unreliable narrator, Nabokov is so great at shining a sarcastic light on the vices of our world, yada yada.
But man, it takes a good chunk of effort to read the beautiful, romantic descriptions of teenage sibling hook-ups while fully buying that the author kept a healthy emotional distance from his characters. Especially since our male protagonist here, as opposed to his Lolita counterpart, lacks most of the self-awareness one would hope for. Then again, maybe this kind of portrayal is exactly what made Nabokov a master of his craft.
Aside from that:
* The language is beautiful though sometimes exhaustingly so. Also, if you want to brush up on your pretentious French/German/Russian, this is your book.
* The setting in a parallel world to ours that is similar but not the same is a very fun concept but oddly unnecessary.
* The chapter on his philosophy of time felt like the cinema making me begrudingly watch an extended advert just before the climax of a movie.