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September 2017

Favorite Banned Books: Lolita

September 25, 2017

It’s officially banned books week and that makes me smile as most of my favorite books are ones that were banned at one time or another. This week, I’ll be talking about some of my preferred banned books. After much thought I have determined that my favorite banned book is Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. According to Wikipedia (yes, I know it isn’t the best source, but…) Nabokov’s 1955 novel was banned in multiple locations all over the world, “French officials banned it for being ‘obscene,’ as did the United Kingdom, New Zealand (uncensored 1964), and South Africa.”

Lolita, for me, was a horror novel because it humanized a deviant pedophile and almost made me believe that his was not a story of an opportunistic monster, but a man finding love. While I hated Humbert for being the manipulative and sick predator that he was, his narrative allowed the reader an intriguing three-dimensional understanding that we often (and rightfully so) avoid with pedophiles in real life.

If you haven’t read Lolita, it’s a great tale for fall reading.

Jean Nicole Rivers

Jeannicolerivers.com

@jeannicole19

https://www.facebook.com/JNicoleRivers/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5832487.Jean_Nicole_Rivers