The Panting Maniac: Chasing Lolita on a Grim 50-Year Anniversary

By Rodger Jacobs

What the author finds on the bottom end of American pop culture in 1958 is an environment ripe and primed, no matter how subconsciously or keep-it-in-the-family quiet, for the sexual exploitation of youth. [15 August 2008]

(more Deconstruction Zone)

The Original of Laura by Vladimir Nabokov

By Michael Antman

As a reminder of a great writer's genius and obsessions, for its historical value, for its fragments of beautiful prose, and as a objet d'art, this book is a ten. As an actual work of literature, it's no more than a four. [20 November 2009]