Un hohot în beznă a fost pentru mine ca o revelație — un Nabokov altfel, mai crud, mai nefiltrat, prins într-o fază de formare, dar deja cu temele lui mari bătând la ușă: dorința care distruge, iubirea ca iluzie, cruzimea bine ascunsă sub farmec și ironie. L-am simțit mai direct, mai noir, fără oglinzile și arabescurile stilistice din alte romane, dar cu o ironie rece care face totul și mai apăsător. Un fel de preambul tăcut pentru ce va urma. Cert este că frumusețea și groaza pot coexista într-un zâmbet.

E clar, în romanul ăsta se naște ceva — nu doar o poveste, ci o obsesie. Și o sămânță din care, mai târziu, va crește una dintre cele mai tulburătoare creații literare ale secolului XX - Lolita.

Love is blind.

Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, an expert art critic called Albinus. He lived happily in a big house with his wife and little daughter. He was rich. He was well respected and loved. He had everything.
But he wanted more. He wanted to have a mistress; someone young and lively.
One day, he found his dream lover and he loved her passionately. He lavished her with gifts and money in return for her care and affection.

Death is often the point of life's joke.

Once upon a time, a dupe called Albinus fell in love with a woman, who didn’t love him in return; who mocked him behind his back; who used him to fulfill her own dreams.

Το είχα διαβάσει πριν 30 χρόνια - το υπαινίσσεται η χρονολογία αγοράς στην πρώτη σελίδα της πρώτης έκδοσης -, αλλά στην ουσία ήταν η πρώτη φορά. Αριστοτεχνικό παιχνίδι σκότους και φωτός, τυφλότητας "τα τ' ώτα, τον τε νουν"* αφενός, "τα τ' όμματα" (της σωματικής αναπηρίας) αφετέρου. Μα είναι κι αυτές οι συμβουλές "δημιουργικής γραφής" που χώνονται εκεί που δεν τις σπέρνουν, που με τρέλαναν πραγματικά, για να μην πω την αντίστιξη συγγραφής και ζωγραφικής! Απόλαυση!
*Σοφοκλή, Οιδίπους Τύραννος.

«Μια φορά κι έναν καιρό ζούσε στο Βερολίνο της Γερμανίας κάποιος ονόματι Αλμπίνους. Επρόκειτο για πλούσιο, αξιοσέβαστο, ευτυχισμένο άνθρωπο. Μια ωραία μέρα εγκατέλειψε τη σύζυγό του για χάρη νεαρής ερωμένης. Ήταν ερωτευμένος όχι όμως κι εκείνη. Η ζωή του τελείωσε σε πλήρη καταστροφή.»
Έτσι πολύ απλά μας δίνει ο συγγραφέας την αρχή, μέση και το τέλος του βιβλίου που θα διαβάσουμε.
Αλλά όπως πολύ σοφά συνεχίζει
« Αυτή είναι όλη ιστορία διατυπωμένη σε λίγες γραμμές, που θα μας αρκούσαν αν δεν υπήρχε το όφελος και η απόλαυση της διήγησης.»
Και δεν υπάρχει καλύτερος Μαιτρ σε αυτό το ταξίδι της απόλαυσης από το Ναμπόκοφ

What goes around, comes around—right? Ostensibly a story about a man who forsakes his wife and child for a new model vixen (read: teenager), Laughter in the Dark sets a benchmark on how terrible human beings can be to one another and the very real cost that duplicity can exact on all involved. It had me wincing at points and I don’t wince. I’m incapable of wincing; winceless, wince-free; unwincable. Yet wince I did. Wince.

The novel is excruciating in its escalations of suffering. In a whole mess of betrayals, Nabokov almost seems to be trying to one-up himself on who can be awarded the blue ribbon for all-around shittiest human. There are a few runner-ups, terrible people all. For my reading habits, it is all very straightforward but nonetheless fantastic. Thus far it is my favorite of the Russian novels, though I’d gladly have it usurped (because that would mean an out-and-out masterpiece). Meh, this review sucks. Call me uninspired (I believe ‘working’ is the technical term).

I s’pose there are all kinds of novels out there that deal with this sort of stuff, and I’m sure the depravities have escalated as the public’s bloodlust has proven unslakable. I don’t intend on finding out. My collection of Fabio-adorned romance thrillers is purely for my own aesthetic enjoyment alone, thank you very much.

Back to the Nabo I go-go-go…

Kazdy bohater zachowuje sie jak zjeb, nikogo nie lubie, z kolei zaraz zaczynam kibicować bohaterowi, którego nie lubiłam. Zaraz zmieniam strone? Swietna manipulacja emocjami. Swietna ksiazka, love max. Polecanko

Brutally well-written. Haunting and disturbing. Nabokov's bitter farewell to his uncomfortable decade-plus in Berlin and with a few subtle hints of the madness and decadence to come after he managed to escape with his family to the States.

Disturbing, which is a word that I don't use very often and am consistently annoyed with the causal employment of, but in this case, yeah. Made my flesh creep even as I couldn't tear my eyes away from it.

Bought in a Camden bookstore, read largely in Atlanta airport. Simple premise, precise execution. More of an elongated story than a novel despite the sinister conclusion.

کل داستان همان اولین پاراگراف کتاب است و این ضعف کتاب نیست. به قول خود نویسنده: " گرچه چکیده زندگی انسان را می‌توان بر سنگ قبری پوشیده از خزه جا داد، نقل جزئیات همواره لطفی دیگر دارد."
در کل داستان متوسطی بود، نه خیلی خوب نه خیلی بد. اواسط کتاب یک مقدار داستان کسل کننده است اما فصل‌های آخر کتاب جذابیت بیشتری دارد و سریع‌تر پیش می‌رود.

اردیبهشت۹۵

Mi primer Nabokov y buen comienzo.

Escogí esta novela porque dicen que es la menos "Nabokov", la más sencilla y una buena puerta de entrada y desde luego cumple con esas expectativas. Se lee sólo, es un buen thriller (no ha envejecido bien en cuanto a originalidad) y es corto. Es cómo una buena película de domingo por la tarde, que la disfrutas y te da lo que quieres pero que no te va a marcar para toda tu vida.
Así que cumple con creces con mi objetivo de meter la patita en su mundo y ver si me apetece o no seguir en él, que es un claro si.

More reviews can be found on my book blog.
---

This was written twenty-three years before n  Lolitan and also deals with a relationship between an older man and a younger woman. These are the only two Nabokov novels I've read so far, so I'm hoping he does branch out a bit in his other novels, but this was still a much different story than what happened between Humbert Humbert and Dolores.

Where Humbert is a calculated predator, Albert Albinus, this story's older man, is a fumbling and naive fool. He's a well-off art critic living in Berlin who meets Margot, a seventeen-year-old girl, and becomes obsessed with her. He meets with her on a few occasions and eventually - 'seduces' is not the right word here - convinces her to have an affair with him. She is in control from the very beginning, manipulating him every step of the way to get what she wants while slowly dismantling his life. We watch as this relationship progresses and becomes shockingly toxic.

All of the characters are completely unlikable in this. Albinus is truly pathetic and Margot is just a vile human being from the very beginning of the story, to the point where it was difficult to imagine what Albinus saw in her, although she does get some sympathy being the target of a man too old for her. I don't need characters to be likable, but it's nice to know what others see in them. Yes, she's (too) young and beautiful, but even the most beautiful people will become unattractive to you over time if they're shallow and unbearable. It's really Nabokov's writing, though noticeably less polished than Lolita, that pulls you through the middle of this novel.

Laughter in the Dark really shines in its last third, where it becomes delightfully demented. I was not expecting the story to go the way that it did, and it was a lot of fun. It almost felt like a pulpy movie, ending in an unrealistic situation that still managed to be horrific and entertaining to read.

This was first translated to English in 1936, but Nabokov is said to have disliked that translation so much that he decided to translate it himself again two years later. I feel like we don't often get the chance to read a translation done by the original author, so it's a bit of a rare treat. It looks like the rest of his Russian novels were translated either by him or his son.

A certain man once lost a diamond cuff-link in the wide blue sea, and twenty years later, on the exact day, a Friday apparently, he was eating a large fish - but there was no diamond inside. That’s what I like about coincidence.

I'm looking forward to reading more of his novels and curious to see what other subjects he tackles in those stories.

Πίστευα ότι θα του βάλω 4 αλλά οι τελευταίες 30 σελίδες με διέψευσαν.
Το θέμα του βιβλίου γνωστό για όποιον έχει διαβάσει τη Λολίτα του Nabokov, ένα από τα πιο αμφιλεγόμενα βιβλία του 20ού αιώνα και προσωπικό αγαπημένο μου. Ένας μεσήλικας παντρεμένος ερωτεύεται ένα 17χρονο κορίτσι που σιγά σιγά του καταστρέφει τη ζωή. Βέβαια, το βιβλίο αυτό προηγείται της Λολίτας και γι'αυτό δεν έχει αναπτυχθεί στον ίδιο βαθμό.
Η πανέξυπνη γραφή του είναι και εδώ παρούσα, το παιχνίδι του με τις λέξεις, το παράξενο χιούμορ του, ο ευφάνταστος τρόπος του να σε σοκάρει, όλα παρόντα. Το λάτρεψα αυτό το μυθιστόρημα και ανυπομονώ να διαβάσω και άλλα δικά του από την πλούσια εργογραφία που έχει αφήσει.