Lost in the Stacks

It's been ten years since I read any Nabokov, but I seem to remember in Look at the Harlequins!, a list of books: they were Nabokov's books, but with alternate, dare I say truer, titles, that they were given in the alternate universe of the novel.

Somewhere there is an alternate universe. This book is there. It is titled: The Apocalypse: You're Doing It Wrong.

I've written elsewhere on my fascination with feral children. Their freedom from authority. These two kids, Nell and Eva, are far too civilized for their lack of parental supervision. They lack imagination and forethought and are ridiculous cowards, until, as is mentioned in another review, the plot demands they not be. The reckless abandon of unsupervised children strikes them at the most inappropriate time: after their civilization has gotten the best of them. One fears they are goners.

My enjoyment of the first few chapters of this book (Jean Hegland, for all my griping, can write wonderfully moving things: see the bit about Nell giving Eva Eva's shoes for Christmas) was also tempered later by the realization that I am, for the second time in six weeks or so, reading a new version of [b:Housekeeping|11741|Housekeeping|Marilynne Robinson|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41G0oKjirOL._SL75_.jpg|1056302] (See here.), offering further support for my theory that Housekeeping is really a post-apocolyptic novel.

All-in-all: great start, good-bordering-on-very writing, but left me a little flat and disappointed.