Laughter in the Dark
Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster.
This is the whole of the story and we might have left it at that had there not been profit and pleasure in the telling; and although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man’s life, detail is always welcome.
That is the start to one of the best novels I have read in years, Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov. First published in 1932 in Russian, Nabokov translated the English version in 1938. Later Nabokov wrote in great detail on the theme of unwieldy passion and its consequences in Lolita, but I preferred the sparse style and quick pace of this story.
books posted by: dan @ 25 May 2007 23:28