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A review by wildbear
Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov
2.0
A feeble, feeble precursor to Lolita, painfully trite and straightforward in its plotting and dynamics (which is ironic to say, given its similarity to and my love of the later novel, but there is nothing clever in the mapping of Lolita either - only its voice [and meta-textual tension]), elevated only occasionally by its small details and, more importantly, wonderful sense of humor (both this and Lolita are practically a work of farce, in hindsight). Otherwise even the prose isn’t up to par either, as all the evocative often simply fall flat.* Also seems a big miss to purvey the reader with the light bereft of its tragicomic Hero, and the last scene’s wonderfully taut tension perfectly illustrates that.
*To quote a character from the book itself:
‘A writer for instance,’ he remarked, ‘talks about India which I have never seen, and gushes about dancing girls, tiger hunts, fakirs, betel nuts, serpents: the Glamour of the mysterious East. But what does it amount to? Nothing. Instead of visualizing India I merely get a bad toothache from all these Eastern delights. Now, there’s the other way as, for instance, the fellow who writes: “Before turning in I put out my wet boots to dry and in the morning I found that a thick blue forest had grown on them” (‘Fungi, Madam,’ he explained to Dorianna who had raised one eyebrow) ‘and at once India becomes alive for me. The rest is shop.’
*To quote a character from the book itself:
‘A writer for instance,’ he remarked, ‘talks about India which I have never seen, and gushes about dancing girls, tiger hunts, fakirs, betel nuts, serpents: the Glamour of the mysterious East. But what does it amount to? Nothing. Instead of visualizing India I merely get a bad toothache from all these Eastern delights. Now, there’s the other way as, for instance, the fellow who writes: “Before turning in I put out my wet boots to dry and in the morning I found that a thick blue forest had grown on them” (‘Fungi, Madam,’ he explained to Dorianna who had raised one eyebrow) ‘and at once India becomes alive for me. The rest is shop.’