Subject
SIGHTING: Billy Collins on Lolita
From
Date
Body
[EDNOTE. Sandy Klein sends a link to the following book review in the Jewish Exponent, which quotes former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins's remarks on Lolita, which he "read secretly while ensconced in a Jesuit college." Collins is actually an alumnus of Holy Cross College, where I teach. Readers of contemporary poetry will know that one of his books is entitled "Picnic, Lightning." -- SES]
I'm a complete sucker for books about books, whether they're written by dedicated collectors or by passionate readers who talk about the works they love above all others. So when I was browsing recently in a bookstore and came across the title The Book That Changed My Life, I decided to shell out the $18 -- a bargain by today's prices -- and test the waters.
[ ... ]
Probably the strangest combination of titles came from poet Billy Collins, who chose Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's The Yearling and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. His explanation of this odd coupling illustrates what's best about The Book That Changed My Life:
"As far as geographical tourism goes, The Yearling, which my mother first read to me, lifted me out of a childhood in New York City and set me down in the scrubland of north Florida, where a barefoot boy was free to roam an exotic terrain of palmetto, orange groves and alligator swamps. Lolita, which I read secretly while ensconced in a Jesuit college, took me on a tour of an America I hadn't seen yet: a land of billboards, western scenery and cheesy motels. And, of course, a tour of strange love.
http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/12628
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
I'm a complete sucker for books about books, whether they're written by dedicated collectors or by passionate readers who talk about the works they love above all others. So when I was browsing recently in a bookstore and came across the title The Book That Changed My Life, I decided to shell out the $18 -- a bargain by today's prices -- and test the waters.
[ ... ]
Probably the strangest combination of titles came from poet Billy Collins, who chose Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's The Yearling and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. His explanation of this odd coupling illustrates what's best about The Book That Changed My Life:
"As far as geographical tourism goes, The Yearling, which my mother first read to me, lifted me out of a childhood in New York City and set me down in the scrubland of north Florida, where a barefoot boy was free to roam an exotic terrain of palmetto, orange groves and alligator swamps. Lolita, which I read secretly while ensconced in a Jesuit college, took me on a tour of an America I hadn't seen yet: a land of billboards, western scenery and cheesy motels. And, of course, a tour of strange love.
http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/12628
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm