Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0002720, Tue, 13 Jan 1998 15:50:32 -0800

Subject
New Statesman on A.A. Holmes THE END OF ALICE(fwd)
Date
Body
From: Suellen Stringer-Hye
stringers@library.vanderbitl.edu

With this headline:

Despite appearances, 1997 was a good year for artistic freedom,
argues Anthony Julius, but a rotten year for art



Anthony Julius in a December 19, 1997(p.40) article in the
_New Statesman_ has this to say about AM Homes
_The End of Alice_

a novel about paedophilia, written from a paedophile's
perspective. Though it asks to be related to Nabokov's Lolita,
it suffers by the comparison. It is repulsive in its
identification with its subject. A convicted child molester
describes his life in prison and his correspondence with a young
woman who is seeking to seduce a younger boy. The great humanist
declaration - nothing human is alien to me-- becomes in this
novelist's hands the more questionable affirmation: the cruelly
inhuman is embraced by me.

Suellen Stringer-Hye
Jean and Alexander Heard Library
Vanderbilt University
stringers@library.vanderbilt.edu