Blurp: De lach in het donker is Vladimir Nabokovs kleine wrede meesterwerk. De eerste alinea van deze roman geeft reeds alles weer wat ons te wachten staat: 'Er was eens een man, Albinus genaamd, die in Duitsland woonde, in Berlijn. Hij was rijk, respectabel, gelukkig; op een dag liet hij zijn vrouw in de steek voor een jonge maîtresse; hij had lief; werd niet liefgehad; en zijn leven eindigde rampzalig.' De Nederlandse vertaling is bezorgd door Peter Bergsma.
Samenv.: Nabokovs bekendste roman is ongetwijfeld "Lolita" (1955). Een twaalfjarige 'Lolita' is ze niet, het bioscoopoevreusetje waaraan de hoofdpersoon van "De lach in het donker" (1932) zich verslingert. Maar erg jong is ze toch, met haar 17 jaar, en ook verder lijkt de roman al een voorzichtige vooroefening op het Lolita-motief. De eerste alinea vat het verhaal al samen: 'Er was eens een man, Albinus genaamd, die in Duitsland woonde, in Berlijn. Hij was rijk, respectabel en gelukkig. Op een dag liet hij zijn vrouw in de steek voor een jonge maîtresse. Hij had lief, werd niet liefgehad en zijn leven eindigde rampzalig'. Met recht een hartverscheurend boek. Het demonisch egoïstisch, eisende karakter van zijn liefje wordt voor Albinus pas zichtbaar, wanneer hij écht (fysiek) blind is geworden. Een roman die op verschillende niveaus te lezen is en niet alleen een literair georiënteerd publiek zal aanspreken. De van oorsprong Russische schrijver Nabokov (1899-1977) woonde en werkte sinds 1940 in de USA en behoort tot de belangrijkste schrijvers van de 20ste eeuw.

One of Nabokov's several novels about a sordid affair ending most bizarrely, and of course thoroughly enjoyable throughout. For instance, a favorite sentence(?) that has seemingly nothing whatsoever to do with the flow of the book:
"An electric milk van on fat tires rolling creamily."
It's a 5-star 3-star book. That is, for a 3 star book, it gets five stars. The best kind of weekend read.

after having fallen in love with nabokov's invitation to a beheading, i found laughter in the dark to be a bit of a disappointment. while i'm sure i have met a more pathetic, hapless protagonist than albinus, i can't think of one off the top of my head. reading this novel was like slowing down to watch a train wreck, only worse because i couldn't even find it in myself to feel sorry for the poor sap. this anti-hero is worthless - so utterly oblivious that you can't help but feel like he deserves everything he gets, even while at the same time hating the people who so opportunistically take advantage of him. maybe there is a bit of this in all of us - a willful ignorance of what is really going on, of what people truly think of us, but if albinus is a metaphor for the rest of us, it's done in too heavy-handed a manner to have great literary force. not a favorite. ( )

In his introduction, John Banville described Laughter in the Dark as a prototype for Lolita. Laughter is the story of a mature, older man (Albinus) who has independent means, dabbles in art history and selling, is happily, if not excitedly, married with an eight year old daughter, who fantasizes about a more active and more exciting sex life, and who then throws his whole life to the winds to live with a beautiful young girl (16-17 years old) who satisfies all his carnal fantasies, and with whom he believes himself to be in love, not knowing that she (Margot) is simply playing him for his money and his connections (she aspires to be an actress) while shagging an old boyfriend who turns up again (Rex Axel) and who builds a close relationship with Albinus. Albinus had never been lucky in love or lust: "Blunders, gropings, disappointment; surely the Cupid serving him was lefthanded, with a weak chin and no imagination." Towards the end of the book, Albinus is blinded in a car accident which is a nice physical metaphor for the complete moral and intellectual blindness of his life with Margot, not to mention the fact that Margot and Rex carry on literally right under his eyes (even when he does have his eyesight) and even when he stumbles upon evidence of her cupidity and deception, Albinus is only too willing to believe her entreaties of fidelity.

Rex is a psychopath who delights in tormenting people whether they are aware of it or not: "His culture was patchy, but his mind was shrewd and penetrating, and his itch to make fools of his fellow men amounted almost to genius."

It's almost hard to dislike Margot. Even though she is completely amoral, she is using what attributes she has to get what she wants, and those attributes are pretty well restricted to her looks, her body, her youth, her sexuality. The book certainly doesn't go on that long, but you know that Margot is not going to end up with a happy life. She is calculating in the extreme, but least she does not take pleasure in torment, as does Rex.

Albinus is sad. He becomes conscious of the "thin, slimy layer of turpitude which had settled on his life", but cannot rouse himself to correct it, even though there are a couple of chances to do so. You know from the very beginning that this is not going to turn out well, and not just because of the striking first paragraph of the book: "Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he love; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster."

Banville describes Nabakov's style as limpid and it is a good word. Wonderful descriptions such as:

"Berlin West, a morning in May. Men in white caps cleaning the street. Who are they who leave old patent leather boots in the gutter? Sparrows bustling about in the ivy. An electric milk van on fat tires rolling creamily. The sun dazzling in an attic window on the slope of a green-tiled roof. The yong fresh air itself was not yet used to the hooting of the distant traffic; it gently took up the sounds and bore them along like something fragile and precious. In the front gardens the Persian lilac was in bloom. Despite the early coolness white butterflies were already fluttering about as though in a rustic garden. All these things surrounded Albinus as he walked out of the house in which he had spent the night."

And later:

"It was thawing. Bright motorcars were splashing their way through the puddles; at the corner a ragged rapscallion was selling violets; an adventurous Alsatian was insistently following a tiny Pekinese, which snarled, turned and slithered at the end of its leash; a great brilliant slice of the rapid blue sky was mirrored in a glass pane which a bare-armed servant girl was washing vigorously."

And this I love because it captures the image so perfectly: "It was a sunny evening and a little party of midges were continuously darning the air in one spot."

Nabokov also finds time to expostulate on the state of writing at least in Germany , where he was living when he wrote the book in the 30s, when a minor character states that, "if the art of writing and reading is not quite forgotten by then; and I am afraid it is being rather thoroughly forgotten this last half century, in Germany."

Finally, you can't say Nakokov didn't have a sense of humour. When Margot acts in a movie (that Albinus finances) she does so (spectacularly badly)with a blowsy lead actress who glories in the stage name Dorianna Karenina. She says the name was suggested by a boy who committed suicide and when Albinus asks if she has ever read Tolstoy, she replies, "Doll's Toy? No. I'm afraid not. Why?"

Of all Nabokov's varied novels, this one might best be summarized with the single thought, "page-turner." And what a page-turner it is!
When a respectably-married and wealthy middle-aged man catches sight of an attractive 16-year-old female usher in a Berlin movie house, all life changes and is no longer the same for anyone. As friends and relatives, crooks and scam artists, bus drivers and acquaintances enter the picture, and plot twists and surprises follow one another on nearly every page, the reader soon finds himself almost breathless trying to keep up with the perfidy that unfolds.
In this book, in a different narrative style from many of the author's other novels, the story emerges rapidly and moves right along in short clear sentences. Nabokov allows the point-of-view to shift quickly among the principal characters as we catch them in mid-conversation and hear their thoughts directly in first-person. Soon enough, we know all about the good guys and the bad guys and, in effect, we see all the plot puzzle-pieces face up on the table. When a gun suddenly appears, then the stakes are raised, and it becomes a serious task for the reader to try to foresee the end of the story and how the puzzle will all fit together.
Come then, if you wish, and try your hand against the Master Puzzler. Guess the end, if you can -- before he tells you, of course. ( )