Online Reading Challenge discussion

This month the Online Reading Challenge travels back in time to the 1940s. Our Main title for April is The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World by Sarah Weinman. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is one of the most beloved and notorious novels of all time. And yet, very few of its readers know that the subject of the novel was inspired by a real-life case: the 1948 abduction of eleven-year-old Sally Horner.

Weaving together suspenseful crime narrative, cultural and social history, and literary investigation, The Real Lolita tells Sally Horner’s full story for the very first time. Drawing upon extensive investigations, legal documents, public records, and interviews with remaining relatives, Sarah Weinman uncovers how much Nabokov knew of the Sally Horner case and the efforts he took to disguise that knowledge during the process of writing and publishing Lolita.

Sally Horner’s story echoes the stories of countless girls and women who never had the chance to speak for themselves. By diving deeper in the publication history of Lolita and restoring Sally to her rightful place in the lore of the novel’s creation, The Real Lolita casts a new light on the dark inspiration for a modern classic. - Ecco/Harper Luxe

Looking for some other books set in the 1940s? Try any of the following.

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman
The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!

How did your reading go in April? Did you read something set in the 1940s that you enjoyed? Share in the comments!

I had previously read The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman, our main title, for a book club a couple years ago, so decided to give it a re-read. Overall, I enjoyed this book - it read like narrative nonfiction.

Quick overview: The Real Lolita covers the 1948 abduction of eleven-year-old Sally Horner by Frank LaSalle, a man pretending to be an FBI agent. In addition to that traumatic event, Weinman also discusses Vladimir Nabokov's writing and publication of Lolita, which he published seven years after Sally's abduction. These two concurrent narratives are presented elegantly, factually, and with an incredible amount of researched detail. Readers learn about Sally and all the people in her circle, at the same time as they learn about Nabokov and all the people in his circle. It's an interesting juxtaposition. Seeing how Sally's story may be mirrored in Lolita was compelling. I enjoyed the crossovers between the two worlds and have more questions than answers.

I am *almost* done with this title and still plan on finishing. Even though this is a re-read, I am still finding content that I didn't remember from my initial read. This title admittedly covers multiple decades starting in the 1940s and then heading into the 1950s, but the main events happened in the 1940s. Those key events influenced later events, books, movies, etc. greatly. As a librarian and as someone researching their family's history, I resonated a lot with the author's frustration at not being able to find primary source material. The Real Lolita has been an engaging narrative nonfiction read so far and I can't wait to finish this again. I haven't read Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and honestly can't say if I want to after reading this title. I'm torn. What are your thoughts?