El Funeral de Lolita

El funeral de Lolita (Lolita’s Funeral)

Helena, a successful food-critic and journalist, first learns that her high-school English teacher, Roberto, is dead when she gets a message from an old friend on social media. The message tells her about the arrangements for Roberto’s funeral, and, Helena decides to go. She has been hiding from this time in her past since she left school and the news of Roberto’s death disturbs her. She had been in love with him; they’d had an affair; she’d been fifteen at the time.

As the title of the novel suggests, this book revisits Nabokov’s classic exploration of sexual abuse. However, this takes a distinct perspective in that it gives Lolita the voice she was never allowed in the original. Of course, Nabokov’s Lolita is already dead by the end of his tale, but this is her funeral in the sense of laying to rest the myth of the sexually precocious teenager, the seducer of a hapless older man. This is the story of a Lolita who has the opportunity to come to terms with her past and find some sort of peace.

…In addition, the author is very conscious of word choice and sentence structure. Sentences are short and certain words are clearly repeated for effect and indeed, many of the passages would work well read aloud as pieces of poetry. However, the effect of this device is not simply for artistry, it heightens the emotional impact on the reader since this strategy is used most frequently in passages concerning Helena’s sexual experiences. It is a very skilfully deployed and speaks directly to the psychological impact of trauma giving the sense of how certain uncomfortable thoughts can become distressingly insistent.

Luna Miguel has written a powerful novel that is sensual and often disturbing in its exploration of sexuality and sexual abuse. Although it pays tribute to the original Lolita it is utterly original in terms of approach and style. The novel convincingly portrays both the girl and the woman in its main character, Helena, showing her both as victim and survivor of abuse. It forces us to examine our own perceptions of sexual politics and the impact of these on young girls growing up and the women they become.

From the reader´s report by Hebe Powell.