Chasing Lolita

June 16, 2008
For 50 years, the nymphet Lolita (whose real name is Dolores Haze) has existed in the collective imagination. This sleek and knowing book takes an activist approach rather than a voyeuristic one to search out, first, the sources of Nabokov's once-censored novel, and then its impact and all the misunderstandings surrounding his celebrated character. Vickers (coauthor, Neal Cassady: The Fast Life of a Beat Hero
) examines the possible sources of inspiration, from Alice Liddell of Lewis Carroll fame to Fanny Brice's Baby Snooks; from an obscure German writer with the suggestive name von Lichberg to Edgar Allan Poe; from Chaplin's life story to a then unpublished novella by Nabokov himself. Most of the book is a romp through popular culture: the Stanley Kubrick film and Adrian Lyne's remake—the release unfortunately coincided with the murder of JonBenet Ramsey—as well as dismal stage adaptations; Brooke Shields's roles and ads and Japanese gothic Lolita fashion. Vickers succeeds admirably and entertainingly in his goal of separating Nabokov's character from “the many copied and counterfeited Lolitas.” 27 b&w photos.

June 15, 2008
Forty-two years after the 1955 publication of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, as Adrian Lyne's adaptation of the novel was screening in U.S. theaters, Nabokov's son commented that someone could write a book on the title character's many permutations. Vickers ("Key Moments in Architecture") took that comment as inspiration to write this quirky title, in which he attempts to give a more objective view of Nabokov's nymphet than Nabokov's narrator was able to provide. However, his insistence that he is offering "facts" about Dolores Haze (Lolita's "real" name in the novel) suggests a blurring of the distinction between fact and fiction; at one point, he even advises readers to look to the novel itself to find the "real" Lolita. Further, Vickers's discussion of every film and stage adaptation of Lolita is excessive. Far more valuable and compelling are his examination of society's changing perspectives of young girls through the years and his discussion of what constitutes art vs. what is merely perverse. Although this book tells us more about Lolita than we might want to know, it also tells us more about ourselves than we might want to admit. Recommended.Anthony Pucci, Notre Dame H.S., Elmira, NY

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