Her Name Was Lola

by Russell Hoban

'This is it ...this is my destiny woman,' Max blurted out when he first met Lola at the Coliseum shop. Not only was she aristocratic and wild at heart, but the two discovered an uncanny convergence of musical tastes. Soon they were converging at every level - Lola filling Max's emptiness and vice versa. But Max had also always craved the recognition of another sort of woman, the sort who had been Homecoming Queen at her high school - just as the tempting Lula Mae Flowers had been back in Texas. Why did Max have to meet Lula Mae just when he'd found his destiny woman in Lola? And if Lola embodied everything Max longed for, how could there be anything left over for Texan ex-Homecoming Queens?

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Novels

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 3, 2003

About the author

Russell Conwell Hoban was an American expatriate writer. His works span many genres, including fantasy, science fiction, mainstream fiction, magical realism, poetry, and children's books. He lived in London, England, from 1969 until his death. (Wikipedia)

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

This brisk novel from Hoban is lighter fare than his 1970s big-hitters, but serves up a deliciously witty slice of skewed contemporary fiction in his own magical and surreal style. Nothing else to add. Except The Kinks are amazing and one should listen to Lola vs. Powerman, Muswell Hillbillies, and Arthur tomorrow.

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Max is an author, struggling with writers block. He meets Lola in a record store. She is his dream woman, and they start a relationship.

Then it gets complicated as Max meets Lula Mae, and starts an affair with her too. He gets them both pregnant and loses both of them - Lola finds out about Lula Mae and dumps him, Lula Mae moves back to the States.

From being blessed he is now bereft. He got greedy and suffers for it.

As ever with Hoban there is playfulness in the tale, with a sprinkling of erudition and an unsettling sense of unreality. Not sure about the cameo from the Hindu god of forgetfulness though

[Suz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Possibly referenced in the most recent Arctic Monkeys album, a good read, characters aren't very realistic but it is a story after all.

[Keiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

One fine Sunday afternoon when I was out at the Savlos store, I found a book. A pretty little hardcover book with a nice cover and a dust jacket that wasn't torn. Naturally I bought it for a lovely couple of dollars and read it when I got home. I read this a month ago and I'm still not quite sure what I think of this book. It's the sort of book you're never really sure what you think of and maybe that's for the best. It has a sort of charm, this book. But I have no damn idea whether or not I like it. I think I'm okay with it.

Max is a writer who writes children's books that sell and novels that don't. He meets, and quickly falls in love with, a girl named, you guessed it, Lola. Then he meets Lula Mae and then there's cheating and scandal and everyone loses their memory and Max carries around a dwarf for a while.

Let me start with this: I hate Max. Hate him. Hate hate hate. The way the blurb is written, it makes Lola out to be the bad one. She's not. I quite like Lola. I do not like Max though. He's a liar, a cheat and honestly? A bad person. He claims Lola is his destiny woman, then jumps in the sack with Lula Mae, knocking both of them up and not thinking anything of it. The characters in this novel have a disturbing lack of emotion. It's like no one knows how to be upset or angry or anything. Except Lola. Once. And a grudge that lasted a few years. I liked that bit. I just like Lola.

Okay now let's actually talk about Lola. Lola is the only character in this book that I like. Because she's somehow more real than the others, and gives less of a disturbing feeling of trance than the others do. Plus she says some of my favourite quotes from the book. The main one being Sad stories make good novels. She's pretty cool. And she has the only emotional reaction to anything anyone has in the book, not when Max informs her he slept with another woman, but only when he admits that she is also pregnant (Lola had just informed Max she was pregnant).

Lula Mae...well I don't really have an opinion one way or the other. She's not a good person and she promptly runs off to another country after becoming pregnant, marries someone else and stops contacting Max. Which is probably for the best, Max is a jackass. She was pretty damn boring.

My basic feelings towards this novel can best be described by one of the characters, Lola herself, who at the very end of the novel says this to her now husband, Max:

I love you, but you don't deserve me.

To which Max replies:

I know.

[Darlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stagnating self-absorbed writer Max Lesser has conversations with his own mind and with his developing protagonist as he wrestles with blighter's rock. Max also has a wayward two-timing penis; the real Lola and Lula morphing into Lulu and Linda as he writes from life. A quirky comical quick read.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

fun, inventive but less satisfying than I'd have liked...

[Sue Kozlowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really bizarre. British writer. Max loves Lola but he sleeps with Lula Mae. Both have his child on the same day. He talks to himself. An Indian dwarf climbs on him. Too weird for me!

[Anne Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loving, straying, and trying to hold on while trying to forget, 'Her Name was Lola' would make a terrific screenplay for a rom-com. Part fantasy and mostly identifiable experiences that come from that heightened state of being in love. Hoban has woven in many themes and experiences into an engaging story.

[shiza · Rating 3 out of 5]

“There are so many Lolas! Flashes of her revolve in Max's head from the glitterball of moments past. So many Lolas, so many moments. Gone.”

♫ And I never thought, not in a million years
That I'd meet so many Lolas ♫

Read just cuz of AM and American Sports. Did enjoy even tho it was quite weird. I’m glad it ended with Max knowing Lola is too good for him

[Terry Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've now read ten novels by Russell Hoban and is now officially my second favourite author behind Graham Joyce. All of RB's books are very surreal but also warm and very creative and this one is no exception.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was slow to begin, but eventually picked up and came full circle.

[Misty · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this at the Library at the college where I work. I read the inside of the dust jacket and thought it would be a great story to read...boy was I wrong. I guess this really doesn't belong on my 'read' shelf because I didn't make it all the way through it. I couldn't even force myself to make it even halfway through. Some people find it intriguing and even comic, I thought it was completely ridiculous. This definitely ranks up there with Beloved by Toni Morrison on my "I hated it" list. This is making it's way back to the library tomorrow. I definitely don't recommend it unless you feel like wasting your time. Why don't they have 1/2 star ratings. I don't even want to give it one, ugh.

[Kate Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never read any Russell Hoban before but saw this in the library, thought it sounded reasonably intriguing and glad I borrowed it. Really like his style of writing and always like a book with short chapters that you can dip in and out of! Although the ending wasn't quite as satisfying as the beginning promised, I still really enjoyed this and will be checking out more of his work.

[Nieo · Rating 2 out of 5]

When i picked it up from a Used-book store i was attracted to its cover. I still think it had a beautiful cover. Sad to say the plot is cliched to say the least.
The story did give me some delight but looking back i didnt learn something new like great books should.

[Sandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea. Too magic-realism for me.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A trip through Hoban's surreal and magical world is always worth undertaking, but this book felt a little too long and lacking in focus, with a conclusion that was to me unsatisfying.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange read. The language was nice. A good voice. But even now, with it finished, I don't really know what to think about it.

[Caitlin Stark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is slight, but overall enjoyable. I'd never read anything by him before, but I'm going to read his other adult books now.

[Mary Carol]

Meh...I think I'll stick with Mr. Hoban's fabulous picture books. I'll always love them.