This week’s Banned Books Friday is different for sure.

My hold on Nabokov’s Lolita came up at the library – so it was this week’s first read. I have not read it before.

Like most of us, I am familiar with the subject matter, a adult with sexual attraction to teenaged girls. Beyond that, I did not know much.

I’ve always heard – in defense of this piece – that Nabokov writes so beautifully and also that it’s a psychological exploration of the character of the pseudonymous Humbert Humbert.

I didn’t expect it to be a pleasant experience – but, as an adult, I expected to be able to muddle through.

No.

First, let me say that no amount of “beautiful writing” could camouflage the stomach churning prose I stepped into, detailing an adult man’s lust, sexually deviant behavior, and outright dehumanization of young girls. Humbert, the narrator, is sexually obsessed – and, no, I don’t give a damn his “why” – with those he refers to as his “nymphets,” girls aged 9-14.

I pushed through, perhaps about 20% – before this became my first DNF (did not finish) that I can recall.

But I simply could not.

When I say I was having a very visceral response to this book. . . it was making me physically ill.

(I would caution anyone who has encountered sexual abuse or violence to avoid this if it is assigned. It’s too much.)

After I called it and returned the book, I did read the summary to find out the ending – and discovered how much worse it would have gotten – with Humbert planning the poisoning of his wife with intent to rape his twelve year old stepdaughter.

“Lucky” for him, however, his wife found out his plan, ran from their home, and got hit by a car – leaving the child with him. At that point, he apparently essentially kidnaps her, going around the country in hotels, raping her (yes, Nabokov/Humbert, that is what we call having sex with a twelve year old girl), telling people he is her father.

The story only became more convoluted from there, the quotes I encountered mindboggling – and I don’t even know what to say.

Nabokov, proud of himself, said of this garbage heap, “Lolita is a special favorite of mine. It was my most difficult book—the book that treated of a theme which was so distant, so remote, from my own emotional life that it gave me a special pleasure to use my combinational talent to make it real.” That he never paused to consider that it was a colossal waste of his talent – or shouldn’t have been “real’ in the first place – is stupefying.

End of Lolita sermon.

And, now, that it is finished – Lolita should still not be banned.

Just as I hated it, every adult has the right to decide for themselves if they want to read it and what they think.

Free words and free choice are the whole point. ❤

My second Banned Book this week was much more pleasant: Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.

(I’ve read this once before – but I was very young, perhaps 11? – so it was like reading it anew.)

A classic novel set during World War I, this is the story of Frederic Henry, an American medic who has enlisted in the Italian army, is injured, and falls in love with his nurse, Catherine Barkley. It follows him as he is sent back to the front, where he meets misfortune that causes him to desert. Once reunited with Catherine, it seems they are fated for even more tragedy.

This novel is a brutal look at the futility of war and is said to be a semi-autobiographical work, based partially on Hemingway’s own experiences as an ambulance driver during World War I.

It was a solid read – and I am looking forward to the other Papa Hemingway reads on my list.

For this upcoming week’s Banned Books, I’m on to Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath – but today I’m taking a little break for Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights. 🙂

(This weekend I have a regular book report with several good ones to share. ❤ )

Wishing you all a lovely weekend and happy reading.

Be well, everybody. Take care of yourselves and each other.

Grace and Blessings.