Book Review: ADA, by Vladimir Nabokov

I tried, I really did. I loved Lolita: I had some steadfast determination to finish the book and when I finished it, I ultimately loved the novel itself, if not the content.I admired very much Nabokov's skill in handling such a disturbing subject. Nabokov's prose is beautiful and lovely to read, even when he writes of the most awful things.

Somehow, though, I did not have the determination to make it through ADA--and so I gave up. The budding relationship between Ada and Van made me uncomfortable in a way I just didn't feel like dealing with, and so I put the book down, marked where I left it, in case I muster up some determination to finish the book later. The writing is still beautiful, and ADA is apparently one of Nabokov's finest novels, published near the very end of his life--but it just wasn't what I wanted to read right now. So I shrugged and plunged happily back into The Chronicles of Narnia instead.

RATING: 2