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Lolita, the Bible or Dr No? ...
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Complete article at following URL:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/26/hay-festival-book-changed-life
The book that changed my life
Lolita, the Bible or Dr No? We asked writers
to reveal their literary inspirations ...
by Nicole Jackson
The Guardian, Tuesday 26 May 2009
[ ... ]
Jacqueline Wilson
I'd have to choose Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov, which I first read when I was 13. My dad bought it eagerly but gave up on it a few chapters in. My mum had a go then, but found Nabokov's baroque style irritatingly impenetrable. I asked to read it and my parents said absolutely not. I didn't waste my breath arguing. I simply waited till I had the opportunity to whip the distinctive yellow dustwrapper off Lolita and rejacket it with the Catherine Cookson novel I was reading. I spent the next week reading in the bath, in bed, at playtimes, at school. It was a total revelation to me. I hadn't realised you could use language in such a rich and elegant way, and I was amazed at the subject matter. I thought it the most wonderful and exciting book I'd ever read. I realised that literature could be outrageous and mind-stretching and utterly extraordinary.
[ ... ]
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