On Beauty, Risk, and Reckoning with the Most Indelible and Shocking Novel of the Twentieth Century
by Jenny Minton Quigley
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Mar 2021
464 pages
Genre: Essays
Publication Information
A vibrant collection of sharp and essential modern pieces on the perennially controversial Lolita, by a wide range of celebrated writers, edited by the daughter of Lolita's original publisher.
In 1958, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita was published in the United States to immediate controversy and bestsellerdom. More than sixty years later, this phenomenal novel generates as much buzz as it did when it was originally published. Now, having commissioned original contributions by Cheryl Strayed, Roxane Gay, Erika l. Sánchez, Sloane Crosley, Andre Dubus III, Ian Frazier, Lauren Groff, Stacy Schiff, Emily Mortimer, Victor LaValle, and many more, Jenny Minton Quigley examines how we read Lolita today.
Central to countless issues at the forefront of our national discourse--art and politics, race and whiteness, gender and power, sexual trauma--Lolita lives on, in an afterlife as blinding as a supernova. With original contributions from a stellar cast of prominent twenty-first century writers and edited by the daughter of Lolita's original publisher in America, Lolita in the Afterlife is a vibrant collection of sharp and essential modern pieces on this perennially provocative book.
"[S]parkling...Lolita is personal for Minton Quigley, a writer, editor, and daughter of Walter Minton, the Putnam president who first published the novel in the U.S. in 1958...contributors include Alexander Chee, Ian Frazier, Morgan Jerkins, Andre Dubus III, and Aleksandar Hemon. A compendious, wide-ranging collection of sharp, thoughtful essays." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The superb essays found in this book demonstrate the enduring impact of this novel. Highly recommended for readers interested in Lolita and Nabokov." - Library Journal (starred review)
"Former book editor Minton Quigley brings together 30 thought-provoking essays inspired by Nabokov's famous 1955 novel to provide 'an enduring road map of how we think and talk about Lolita' in a post-#MeToo world...The essays are uniformly enjoyable, and readers will find this collection full of welcome perspectives on a literary classic." - Publishers Weekly
This information about Lolita in the Afterlife was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jenny Minton Quigley is a writer and editor. She is the series editor for The Best Short Stories of the Year: The O. Henry Prize Winners, and the author of a memoir, The Early Birds. She is the daughter of Walter J. Minton, the storied former president and publisher of G. P. Putnam's Sons, who first dared to publish Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov in the United States in 1958. A former book editor at several Random House imprints, Minton Quigley lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, with her husband, sons, and dogs.
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