The Real Lolita By Sarah Weinman Book Review

I remember reading Lolita in High School and not liking it very much. I found it a tad dull at times and didn’t quite get the appeal. One of the issues was I wasn’t much of a reader at the time and the other issue was Lolita is about a pedophile who ruins a young girl’s life.

I did know a bit about Nabokov and his denial that Lolita wasn’t connected to anyone or anything in real life. This book states otherwise.

The book is focused on Sally Horner, a young 11 year old girl who is abducted by a 50 year old Frank LaSalle from 1948-1950 in Camden, NJ. LaSalle posed as an FBI agent who caught Horner stealing a $.05 notebook. He threatened to put her in jail and to tell her parents unless she boarded a bus with him to Atlantic City. He posed as one of Sally’s girlfriend’s dad to convince Sally’s mother to let her go. Mom dropped her off at the bus stop and Sally was taken for 2 years. Eventually Horner escapes and is tragically killed in a car accident a few years after her escape.

Weinman tells Sally and LaSalle’s story using interviews of living survivors and court records. She also tells Nabokov’s story and where he is during Horner’s abduction, asking did Nabokov know the story, especially since the two stories line up very closely and Nabokov references a Sally in the book?

I read and finished this book in less than a day because it is an interesting story and the book was written like a true crime novel (Weinman’s background). At times, if I am honest, I found Weinman’s narrative a bit self focused, especially the intro, but it was not distracting. It is also difficult to put Horner’s narrative into place since most of it was on the run and LaSalle disappears at moments using aliases.

While Lolita is told through the pedophile’s eyes where he convinces the reader that Lolita is seducing him and makes himself the victim; the Real Lolita paints a picture of a young girl who’s life is stolen from her and is raped repeatedly. I will say, the book did make me want to re-look at Lolita to see some of the connections Weinman proposes.

I would library this one as it is a very quick read.

Washington Black by Eli Edugyan Book Review

I’m back! There were a whole variety of reasons why I stopped book blogging for a bit, but the easiest answer is I made it no fun for myself. When I started requesting more ARCs than I could read, started putting self administered deadlines, and put pressure on myself to produce reviews, I made something which started as a hobby into a job. So, I am not going to do that again. I am going back to my original format of writing reviews for books which I enjoyed when I can post them. No deadlines and back to being a hobby.

The other reason I wanted to restart by book blog was to share this book with as many people as I could, since it is now one of my top 10 favorite books of the year- Washington Black.

I will fully admit when I read the description for this book, I wasn’t sure about it. It was then shortlisted for the Man Booker and more importantly, was available on Litsy the day it was published from my local library, so I grabbed it. I am so glad I did too!

I have been describing the first portion of this book as an adult Huck Finn, if Huck was a British noble named Titch, Jim was a slave who was on the run for witnessing a white man’s suicide (he was going to be accused of murder) named George Washington Black or Wash, and the raft was a hot air balloon! As they adventure in the Sky Cutter, danger is lurking everywhere as a slave catcher is after the two of them. Danger also looms because slavery exists everywhere they travel, so Wash is treated as such everywhere he goes.

The great thing about the book is once one gets a feeling of knowing where the book is likely to head, Edugyan flips the story and takes it a completely different direction. As a wonderful storyteller, she does this a few times too! The other great thing is it all holds together wonderfully.

Let’s just say I loved this book so much that I returned my digital library copy and ran to the local bookstore to purchase a paper copy. It is really that much worth the read. While I have only read one other Man Booker nominee, between the two, this is the one to bet on. The others are on their way from England.

This one is a solid 5 out of 5.