Some of you may have seen my previous post asking if I was misunderstanding the book, etc. So I’ve taken a couple of weeks to think about the book after finishing it. I listened to the Lolita Podcast after finishing and I’ve been letting this all stew for a bit before posting here.
I like and hate the book. The subject matter being super upsetting didn’t improve my experience with the book but it didn’t detract either; kind of like how Schindler’s List is a perfect movie that I hate to watch. The writing itself is wonderful and refreshing after reading Art of the Deal (read that because I let a friend pick).
Knowing the consequences of Humbert Humbert’s actions from the fictional forward made it difficult in the latter half of the book. I so desperately wanted Dolores to get away from him and when she did it felt almost hollow. I thought to myself *Wait why do I feel like I just lost? She had escaped, hadn’t she?*. As I read Humbert’s search I found myself wanting him and Dolores to reunite for closure; when they did reunite it hurt. Humbert mentioning that he had only broken her life and that Quilty breaking her heart was somehow worse than what he put her through was upsetting to read. Humbert had appeared to show regret for what he had done for a little bit until he stated that line that he imposes upon Dolores “He broke my heart, you merely broke my life.” Oh merely? That’s all? You killed her mom, kidnapped her, raped her every day for twenty months, and ruined everything she liked and that’s just merely?
The final part of the novel where Humbert tracks down Quilty and kills him felt almost unnecessary. I understand it’s to garner sympathy from Humbert’s hypothetical jury stating that he tracked down someone just as bad as him and killed him but it felt added on. It does further confirm that I can’t trust what Humbert is telling me because HH claims the people at Quilty’s didn’t care when he admits to them that Quilty is dead.
This book was hard for me; getting sucked into what Humbert was saying, wanting Dolores to escape to then wanting Humbert to find her to resolve that dangling question of what happened was a rollercoaster for me. Anyway I want to talk about it more but I’m curious what you, the r/books community, has to say first.
[Link to Previous post](https://old.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1avnzfm/im_reading_lolita_and_im_confused/)
by stingray20201