On the other hand, students find it easy to fall into the trap of imagining
> that they "really" know Lolita from their own lives, not just from Nabokov's
> book.    (Zoran Kuzmanovich)


Dear Zoran,

Funnny, I was just thinking the other day that I do know a real-life Lolita. Her step-father abducted her after her mother's suicide and he actually managed to marry her morganatically (is that the word?) in Texas. She was even younger than Lolita, eleven, when this happened. She was with him for two years before she managed to escape.

I always adored her. She was fourteen when I first met her. A close friend of mine was trying to adopt her and though that was unsuccessful she did foster Tammy through middle and high schools.

Her story has a happier ending than Lolita's. Tammy is now more or less happily married with two sons. She is a wonderful mother and I am terribly proud to have had some small part in her upbringing.

I am amazed that Nabokov could have "known" Tammy years before I did.

Carolyn