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A review by danikass
Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle by Vladimir Nabokov
1.0
I have been waiting forever to write this review, because this book took forever to read, and I recommend it to no one. The premise is clearly cringe, but I thought it would be interesting to try Nabokov's most difficult book (it wasn't) and I had a used copy I got for cheap/free withought reading the back because it was the perfect book texture.
Some books are difficult and add complexity and that makes it worth it. Some are difficult because the author gets off on being sufferable and their ego has been stroked for decades. This is the latter. If you need to include an appendix to explain every little wordplay, you are not doing well. The plot was absolutely wild, in a way that wasn't compelling. Van is this weird renaissance man fuck boy, and it didn’t make sense, but the Lucette plot is what really pushed me over (yikes, that wording was not on purpose). It was constantly misogynist and, not shockingly, racist. The world building was bizarre and barely drafted. It's post electricity, but also older, and what happened with the countries and the language, and if these are so important you gotta give us something. And to top it off, IT WAS INSUFFERABLY BORING.
I'm also EXTREMELY concerned about how children are depicted. Despite pop culture's take, Lolita does an incredible job at making clear the man is a creep and what he's doing is not consensual and that Lolita is a child. But here... it just read like he really, really, enjoyed sexualizing children. It was extremely disturbing and not adding to anything. I'll defend Lolita til the end, but this felt like a pedophile writing a book (I really should have trusted my gut and put it down after like two chapters, because once I was in I was too stubborn with the challenge).
And just when you think the book is done, there is an entire section that's pure philosophy. I skimmed through a lot of the later chapters, but couldn't even pretend here. If there were themes that tied to book together in it, I do not care enough.
This is possibly the only book I actively regret reading.
Some books are difficult and add complexity and that makes it worth it. Some are difficult because the author gets off on being sufferable and their ego has been stroked for decades. This is the latter. If you need to include an appendix to explain every little wordplay, you are not doing well. The plot was absolutely wild, in a way that wasn't compelling. Van is this weird renaissance man fuck boy, and it didn’t make sense, but the Lucette plot is what really pushed me over (yikes, that wording was not on purpose). It was constantly misogynist and, not shockingly, racist. The world building was bizarre and barely drafted. It's post electricity, but also older, and what happened with the countries and the language, and if these are so important you gotta give us something. And to top it off, IT WAS INSUFFERABLY BORING.
I'm also EXTREMELY concerned about how children are depicted. Despite pop culture's take, Lolita does an incredible job at making clear the man is a creep and what he's doing is not consensual and that Lolita is a child. But here... it just read like he really, really, enjoyed sexualizing children. It was extremely disturbing and not adding to anything. I'll defend Lolita til the end, but this felt like a pedophile writing a book (I really should have trusted my gut and put it down after like two chapters, because once I was in I was too stubborn with the challenge).
And just when you think the book is done, there is an entire section that's pure philosophy. I skimmed through a lot of the later chapters, but couldn't even pretend here. If there were themes that tied to book together in it, I do not care enough.
This is possibly the only book I actively regret reading.