Purging Lo
Saying goodbye to an old favorite
“It’s a beautifully written book about a disgusting subject,” I told my graduate school classmates — who all hated Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita — during a presentation.
I loved it so much I read it repeatedly.
But now?
Not so much.
I began to declutter and finally started throwing away dozens of books I’ve carried around like little erudite albatrosses since college. Did I really still need a PSYCH 101 textbook? Or novels I knew I’d never read again because I hated them the first time? I eventually had to ask: At this point in my life, do I really want to read about, and therefore think about, Lolita’s disturbing plot again? Is the evocative language enough?
The answer led me to the trash bin.
That’s okay, there’s plenty more Nabokov to read.
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