Wakashima, Tadashi. Rorita, rorita, rorita [Lolita, Lolita, Lolita]. 2008

The book is a companion piece to Wakashima's new translation of Nabokov’s Lolita. Though the author downplays his own work as “the guidebook,” it leads not only lay readers but specialists through the wonderland of Lolita. Wakashima, known not only as a prominent Americanist but also as a first-rate composer and International Solving Master of chess problems, begins the book with an analysis of Nabokov’s own chess problems. He then shows through a particularly close reading of part 1 chapter 10 his profound knowledge of American mass culture (e.g. the advertisement for the perfume Taboo), following this up with a detailed comparison between the novel and the screenplay. In my opinion, the gem of this book is his idea concerning Nabokov’s crafty use of free indirect speech. Fortunately, we can easily access a part of this multilayered work online as Jeff Edmunds’ English translation: “Double Exposure: On the Vertigo of Translating Lolita”.