http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/arts-blog/2008/11/published-paint-campaign 
 

Sons and Lovers

 

It must be hard being the son or daughter of a famous writer, particularly when you inherit all their old papers. Bonfire or book: this is the dilemma faced by David Rieff, son of the late Susan Sontag, and Dmitri Nabokov, son of Vladimir; both have gone for the second option.
 
On the BBC's Newsnight Nabokov stated why he has decided to publish his father’s last novel, entitled 'The Original of Laura', written on 138 index cards as he lay dying in a Geneva hospital. “He would have reacted in a sober and less dramatic way if he did not see death staring him in the face”, said Nabokov fils, defying his father’s wish for the cards to be burnt. The novel, whose central characters are reputedly an unattractive, suicidal academic called Philip Wild, and his “wildly promiscuous” wife Flora, is said to echo some of the themes of 'Lolita' (1955). It will be published next year.
 
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