Customer Reviews

Roger Fishbite: A Novel

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Prager modernizes LOLITA and rewrites it from the nymphet's perspective. The heroine is a joy to "listen" to and gives a very funny story with serious overtones that develop later on. Kudos to the author for tackling child sexuality with maturity and avoiding a 90's reactionary attitude. I think this novel will appeal to fans of Amanda Filipacchi who took on a similar subject in NUDE MEN. While not as riotous (or as heartbreaking) as that novel, it is still affecting and memorable.

_Roger Fishbite_ tries, and fails, to recreate _Lolita_ from the child's point of view. It fails, in my opinion, because only the absolute genius of Nabokov can make this genuinely repellent subject matter appealling. Prager is certainly a good writer, but her protagonist speaks with the voice of a mildly unappealing teenage girl. In the end this book fails to maintain the balance between comedy and tragedy that Nabokov so artfully maintains, and _Roger Fishbite_ plunges into the realm of bathos. This is the stuff of which Jon-Benet Ramsey was made.

Ugh. Roger Fishbite left me feeling cheap and used. I can't fathom how in the world this recent wave of authors (Praeger, Pia Pera, etc.) could have such hubris as to ape/parody Nabakov's masterpiece "Lolita". I imagine that they would argue that they're giving voice to the voiceless nymphet. But really, after reading several of these novels, in portraying Lucky, Lo, etc. as such charmless little harpies, I can honestly say they sure aren't doing the girls any favors.

Praeger is obviously a talented, funny and clever writer, but this was a ridiculous project. I hope to read something else of hers wherein she has not hitched her wagon to someone else's star as she has here with Nabakov.