I read Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov

Well, Laughter in the Dark was by far the worst novel I’ve read by Nabokov. And that’s to say that it was a solidly good, funny, and engaging book. Like many of his novels, the plot is your basic old- man- obsessed- with- inappropriately- aged- girl -who -also -happens -to -be -evil -and -this -as -you -might -guess -ends -in -tragedy and the tone is the only one you can have with such a plot: it’s a very dark comedy. I hope.

I found that this book fell into the same category as his other early work that I’ve read, Despair (you can read my review here), in that it seems to be an illustration of the timeless author learning the ropes and beginning to understand his interests and abilities. Although it’s no masterpiece, Laughter in the Dark is still a pleasure to read and a great window into how Nabokov developed both his life-long themes and writing tools.

To those Nabokov snobs who might say, “Laughter in the Dark is nothing more than a shoddy rendition of Lolita,” I say to you, how many novels did you write in your mother tongue when you were thirty and then translated into a foreign language two years later? I mean, of course it’s not as good as Lolita, which is one of the best books of our time and written in the prime of Nabokov’s genius. But it can still be good.

In fact, more than anything, I’d recommend this book to anyone about to board an airplane. The whole time I was reading it, I was almost wishing I had saved it for my next trip.

1. It is printed in a big, easy-to-read font that makes it hard to lose your place even when you get distracted by airplane stuff.
2. It only takes about 3 or 4 hours to read.
3. It has a very fast-moving and weird, deviant plot - so deviant, in fact, that you could probably forget you are flying through the air at dangerous speeds.
4. It makes those around notice that you are interested in early-era Nabokov, which makes you really smart and interesting. They don’t have to know that it’s a pretty easy, fun read filled with weird sex.