Lolita in the Afterlife: On Beauty, Risk, and Reckoning with the Most Indelible and Shocking Novel of the Twentieth Century

by Jenny Minton Quigley (Editor)

Overview

A vibrant collection of sharp and essential modern pieces on Vladimir Nabokov’s perennially provocative book—with original contributions from a stellar cast of prominent twenty-first century writers.

In 1958, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita was published in the United States to immediate controversy and bestsellerdom. More than sixty years later, this phenomenal novel generates as much buzz as it did when originally published. Central to countless issues at the forefront of our national discourse—art and politics, race and whiteness, gender and power, sexual trauma—Lolita lives on, in an afterlife as blinding as a supernova.

Lolita in the Afterlife is edited by the daughter of Lolita’s original publisher in America.

WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY
Robin Givhan • Aleksandar Hemon • Jim Shepard • Emily Mortimer • Laura Lippman • Erika L. Sánchez • Sarah Weinman • Andre Dubus III • Mary Gaitskill • Zainab Salbi • Christina Baker Kline • Ian Frazier • Cheryl Strayed • Sloane Crosley • Victor LaValle • Jill Kargman • Lila Azam Zanganeh • Roxane Gay • Claire Dederer • Jessica Shattuck • Stacy Schiff • Susan Choi • Kate Elizabeth Russell • Tom Bissell • Kira Von Eichel • Bindu Bansinath • Dani Shapiro • Alexander Chee • Lauren Groff • Morgan Jerkins

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781984898838
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/16/2021
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	392,278
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

JENNY MINTON QUIGLEY is a writer and editor. She is the series editor for The Best Short Stories of The Year: The O. Henry Prize Winners, and the author of a memoir, The Early Birds. She is the daughter of Walter J. Minton, the storied former president and publisher of G. P. Putnam's Sons, who first dared to publish Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov in the United States in 1958. A former book editor at several Random House imprints, Minton Quigley lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, with her husband, sons, and dogs.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Jenny Minton Quigley

Witness for the Defense: My Father and Lolita, Emily Mortimer
Véra and Lo, Stacy Schiff
On the Road with Humbert and Lolita, Ian Frazier
Ugly Beautiful, Roxane Gay
Badge of Honor, Susan Choi
Watching the Detective, Laura Lippman
Lolita Diary, Alexander Chee
Delectatio Morosa, Lauren Groff
Lolita, #MeToo, and Myself, Morgan Jerkins
Lolita, Chamonix, France, 2018, Andre Dubus III
The Showgirl Who Discovered Lolita, Sarah Weinman
Fashion’s Lolita; Fragile, Subversive, and a Paean to White Femininity, Robin Givhan
Lolita and the Empathetic Imagination, Jim Shepard
How Lolita Freed Me from My Own Humbert, Bindu Bansinath
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, Christina Baker Kline
Charmed, Victor LaValle
They Stay the Same Age, Sloane Crosley
Dear Sugar, Cheryl Strayed
What We Talk About When We Talk About Lolita, Lila Azam Zanganeh
Nabokov’s Rocking Chair: Lolita at the Movies, Tom Bissell
Lo and Behold, Jill Kargman
Acquiring Lolita’s Language, Aleksandar Hemon
Charlotte’s Complaint, Jessica Shattuck
Lolita in the Time of Trigger Warnings, Erika L. Sánchez
Maison Nymphette, Kate Elizabeth Russell
A Living Story of Lolita in Iraq, Zainab Salbi
The Lollipop Room, Kira von Eichel
The Anti-Monster, Claire Dederer
Lolita in Lockdown, Dani Shapiro
I Cannot Get Out Said the Starling, Mary Gaitskill

Acknowledgments
About the Editor
About the Contributors

Editorial Reviews

One of the Best Books of the Year by Library Journal

"An engrossing collection of smart and thoughtful essays. . . . A number of books about Nabokov and Lolita have been published in the last few years, but Lolita in the Afterlife seems to be the first to wholly reassess the work’s legacy as our society grapples with the harm caused by white male privilege and the age-old propensity to look the other way. All tallied, the book’s 30 essays (as well as Quigley’s own incisive introduction) are, by necessity, contradictory, bracing, uncomfortable, thought provoking, informative, entertaining and, in the end, inconclusive—not unlike Lolita itself."
—BookPage

"In the six decades since its publication, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita continues to fascinate and disgust. Editor Quigley’s father took the risk in 1958 of publishing Lolita in the United States despite backlash and censorship threats. The 30 essays in this work present various aspects of Lolita, including a profile of the showgirl who first introduced the book to the American publishing world, its two film adaptations, its influence on modern music, and online message boards devoted to “nymphet culture” inspired by the novel. . . . The superb essays found in this book demonstrate the enduring impact of this novel. Highly recommended for readers interested in Lolita and Nabokov."
—Library Journal (starred review)

"A sparkling collection of essays about the controversial novel. Lolita is personal for Minton Quigley, a writer, editor, and daughter of Walter Minton, the Putnam president who first published the novel in the U.S. in 1958. . . . A compendious, wide-ranging collection of sharp, thoughtful essays." 
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Jenny Minton Quigley brings together many of the most accomplished scholars of today in her new collection dedicated to deciphering the long-term impact of the 20th century’s most controversial novel. Featuring essays from Sarah Weinman, Roxane Gay, Kate Elizabeth Russell, and many more, Lolita in the Afterlife is a thoughtful new addition to Nabokov scholarship that reaches deep into the American psyche."
—Crime Reads

From the Publisher

★ 02/01/2021

In the six decades since its publication, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita continues to fascinate and disgust. Editor Quigley's father took the risk in 1958 of publishing Lolita in the United States despite backlash and censorship threats. The 30 essays in this work present various aspects of Lolita, including a profile of the showgirl who first introduced the book to the American publishing world, its two film adaptations, its influence on modern music, and online message boards devoted to "nymphet culture" inspired by the novel. Numerous essays discuss the frequent disregard for the protagonist's victim. Contributors include Stacy Schiff, Andre Dubus III, Erika Sánchez, and Cheryl Strayed. An essay by Ian Frazier describes his nostalgia for a vanished "Motel Age" preserved by the novel's road trip scenes. Jessica Shattuck's powerful essay offers the point of view of Lolita's wronged and victimized mother. Many essayists recognize the novel's brilliance despite the ugliness of its subject matter. They also question whether Lolita could even be published today in the era of #MeToo, trigger warnings, and cancel culture. VERDICT The superb essays found in this book demonstrate the enduring impact of this novel. Highly recommended for readers interested in Lolita and Nabokov.—Erica Swenson Danowitz, Delaware Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Media, PA

Library Journal

★ 2020-12-19
A sparkling collection of essays about the controversial novel.

Lolita is personal for Minton Quigley, a writer, editor, and daughter of Walter Minton, the Putnam president who first published the novel in the U.S. in 1958. Like many of the contributors, actor Emily Mortimer wonders if a novel about the sexually explicit confessions of a middle-aged pedophile could be published today. In “Véra and Lo,” Stacy Schiff incisively explores the significant role of Nabokov’s wife, who “stood as the firewall between” her husband and Humbert Humbert in the book’s genesis and reception. Roxane Gay explores why Lolita, with its “tension between the beauty of the novel and the ugliness of its subject matter,” is a “book I love and hate in equal measure.” Crime novelist Laura Lippman writes that she’s “always approached Lolita as a detective story,” revealing Clare Quilty as “our culprit, hidden in plain sight.” Lauren Groff considers the “ways in which Nabokov sets out to seduce his readers,” and Sloane Crosley considers Lolita’s impact on popular culture. “In the new millennium,” she writes, “Lolita is a lazy euphemism for any relationship between a younger woman and an older man.” Jessica Shattuck gives voice to Charlotte Haze, Lolita’s mother, and Mary Gaitskill confronts the thorny issues of art, love, and morality. Zainab Salbi bemoans the situation of women in Iraq, where “Humbert Humbert is not some fictional character but a living one, and his right to have sex with underage girls is established both religiously and thus far politically.” Readers will also learn how Stanley Kubrick transformed the novel into what Tom Bissell describes as a “ferociously psychological” film and why, as Christina Baker Kline explains, we read Lolita for its language, characters, humor, pathos, and, yes, “its unsettling depiction of a sociopath.” Other contributors include Alexander Chee, Ian Frazier, Morgan Jerkins, Andre Dubus III, and Aleksandar Hemon.

A compendious, wide-ranging collection of sharp, thoughtful essays.

Kirkus Reviews