<i>Laughter in the Dark</i> by Vladamir Nabokov

Throughout the majority of the book, I thought the title referred to the start of the story, where Albinus meets Margot in the cinema. After completeing the book, though, it more obviously refers to Albinus's cuckold position later in the novel and his blindness. Though, beyond the more obvious poetic justice of a man being cukolded by his lover after leave his wife, it may also reference how the relationship began in the dark and tended to stay that way for Albinus.

There were two parts to this story that I particularly liked: the first few and the last few sentences. The first few reminded me of How to Read a Book (in which I checked and found no reference to it), in that it gives us the whole story in two sentence, but concludes by noting:

This is the whole of the story and we might have left it at that had there not been profit and pleasure in the telling; and although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man's life, detail is always welcome.

The last few sentences describe the last scene in terms of stage directions, which is very effective since the beginning of the chapter was told from Albinus's blind point of view. since we are seeing with him, we have a limited understanding of the room and the actions within it. With the stage directions, we get to see the results of the last actions, giving us a better understanding of how Albinus, Margot and the room interacted.

The story, overall, was very good, though I am generally frustrated by stories where people seemingly effortlessly remove themselves from long held relationships. I find the section where Albinus was blind and the conclusion of the story to be a bit rushed after the long set up between Rex and Margot.

Rex was a despicable character---pretty much a conman who can draw. His amiability for life, seen most easily in how he teases Albinus, was very amusing to watch, but painful to think about in reference to Albinus.

The sympathies of this story are reverse to those in Lolieta. To HH, one is more sympathetic at the start, but less sympathetic later in the book. Here, as Albinus is planning his infidelity, I was must less sympathetic as his actions were rather pathetic. But, as Rex and Margot start conning him and he becomes blind, my sympathies for him increased greatly.

A very good read.

8/10