1. "If Vladimir Nabokov had created a female Holden Caulfield, he might have written this delightful fiction debut." (The Dalls Morning News);
2. "Her exhilarating synthesis of the classic and the modern, frivolity and fate - Pnin meets the O.C - is a poetic act of will... And this skylarking book will leave readers salivating for more." (The New York Times Book Review);
3. "A satiric tour de force...at once funny and dark, Marish Pessl's high-spirited first novel is an atypical coming-of-age novel...The flesh of the novel, line to line, presents a knowing, sardonic picture of contemporary American surfaces and styles, people and al, highly reminiscent of Nabokov's in, say, Lolita..." ( The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Nabokov's novel Pessl explicitly mentions right at the beginning in "Core Curriculum (Required Reading)" is Laughter in the Dark." *

It's too early to opine ( I'm on page 34), but I'm already pining and pained, after having started in high-spirits and musical expectations.

I haven't yet waded thru its wholesome Americana background of Sandra Dee, Swoonatra and frosted angel-cake to reach the promised detective story, but I know I'll get there in time.

Marisha's Holden-Nabokov is clogged and cloying by excessive analogies (praised in the beginning as representing something good and clever), status-conscious judgemental talk and too little orange sunbursts. Marvellous little finds, though, clever descriptions.Good sporadic laughs with a charming papa and his orphaned sultry precocious daughter pairing while travelling the states...

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* Pessl's book, as a sighting, with positive and negative reviews, was brought up in the List: NABOKV-L Archives - August 2006 listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A1=ind0608&L=nabokv-l NABOKV-L Archives -- December 2006 (#68) (#79) ; Special Topics in Calamity Physics By : Marisha Pessl : 4/8/08 A ... listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A3=ind0804&L...) re

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