If you really want to read it, you probably will end up doing so. I read an uncomplimentry review of the book in the Washington Post, but proceeded to buy and read the book anyway. I think the concept is what is so intruiging - who has read Lolita and not wondered what was going on through little Lo's head the entire time? But having read Lo's Diary I found it terribly dissapointing, so unimaginative and lacking in great prose - especially compared to Lolita! - that it becomes worthless. I read the entire thing, and although there were a few good parts (the part that is quoted on the back of the book is one of the few exceptional lines) there is truly nothing in it that sheds any more light on Lolita.

I just finished Lo's Diary last night, and my reaction from page one was purely delight that Pia Pera was able to so perfectly give voice to Lolita. I think this is the best example of a continuum of a familiar story that I have ever read. In my opinion, Ms. Pera is quite successful in her portrayal of Lo as a misguided but intelligent nymphet who knows exactly what she is doing, yet is too hardened to have any idea that she is being cheated and used.

I fell in love with her character, in the sense that she needed so desperately to be loved. Although I don't possess a degree in psychology, I think it is clear that Humbert, Filthy and Lo are all perfectly drawn profiles of the pedophile, the troubled and desperate child, and the hedonist. I would rush to the nearest bookstore to read a further account of Lo's life if Pia Pera ever decided to carry on with her interpretation.

I am rather appalled by the reviews posted here concerning Ms. Pia Pera's novel. They are caustic, nasty, giving the impression that this is infact a badly-written, unrealistic piece of trash. Which it is anything but. Sure, it is not quite of the caliber of Nabokov's original story, but then, what is?

As a sequel, and by its own merits, 'Lo's Diary' is a wicked-good piece of literature. Pera's Dolores is charming and sadistic, a very particular, though not wholly unrealistic, protagonist. Some may say that she sounds too sophisticated for her age in Pera's version....Too cold and calculating, too aware of her own power. And while it is true that most children that age are not as worldly as little, red-lipped Dolly Maze, she is not supposed to represent your average adolescent.

Rather, she is nymphet incarnate. And Pera's is a very convincing portrait of a nymphet.

Read it. Read it.