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Nabokov famously disowned “Laughter in the Dark” and one can see some of the reasons why-it lacks the vivacity and verve, the poetic cadence of Nabokov’s prose, however it contains most of the themes which dominate Nabokov’s works; the vicissitudes of reality, of cruelty, the burgeoning sexuality of adolescence, solipsism and unreliable narrators. Some of the descriptions can be cloyingly clichéd and it lacks perhaps the complexity of his great novels, however traces of his genius and lyricism a
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Meh.
I'm truly shocked to have this opinion of a Nabokov novel, but there it is. While there are some interesting elements, this book lacks any of the wordplay or passion of his previously written titles so far (I'm reading them all in order of publication), as if Nabokov was just phoning it in (also of note is that this is the first of his titles without a foreword, as if even he didn't want to have to think about it again). Albinus is a naive fool, Margot is an utterly unsympathetic leech, and ...more
I'm truly shocked to have this opinion of a Nabokov novel, but there it is. While there are some interesting elements, this book lacks any of the wordplay or passion of his previously written titles so far (I'm reading them all in order of publication), as if Nabokov was just phoning it in (also of note is that this is the first of his titles without a foreword, as if even he didn't want to have to think about it again). Albinus is a naive fool, Margot is an utterly unsympathetic leech, and ...more
Nabokov uses the cinematic motif quite a bit here. The title Laughter in the Dark is twofold: at first it conveys a rather sinister image of someone cackling evilly but where else do people "laugh in the dark"? Movie theatres. The original Russian title is Kamera Obscura which is more of a direct hint. Throughout the novel, Margot tries to be an actress, and the characters are arranged in a movie-like fashion, with a camera-like omniscient view (which is not that common for Nabokov) which the re
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