LAUGHTER IN THE DARK by Vladimir Nabokov
“I ask myself where lust comes from / Is it something to use / Or to overcome” Lyrics by Matt Johnson from The The’s ‘Bluer Than Midnight’ on the album ‘Dusk’
There is no laughter but plenty of darkness to be found in this sadistic and mean spirited novel which Vladimir Nabokov originally wrote in Russian in 1933 (he did his own English translation five years later).
As a life spirals out of control, Nabokov lingers upon premeditated evil as a source of entertainment. This trait according to Craig Raine, in his after word, is why many regard Nabokov as a “connoisseur of pain”. The short novel dwells on human weakness in the face of lust and the capacity for cruelty motivated by greed.
None of the small cast of characters has many redeeming qualities and so it’s hard to feel any sympathy for their fates. Continue reading
