Several months ago I mentioned references to V.Nabokov in na American TV series called "Little Liars". In "Lost" we find "Laughter in the Dark"... Cf. http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Laughter_in_the_Dark  when " Charlie found the book amongst Sawyer's stash. Hurley is later shown reading the it. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes")."

Trivia

* The novel was originally published in 1932, under the Russian title: Ка мера Обскура. It was translated into English as Camera Obscura in 1936 and then released again with the name Laughter in the Dark in 1938.

* The novel’s history is complicated. It was first written in Russian by Nabokov and published in 1932 and 1933. It was later translated into English by Winifred Roy. Nabokov was tormented by the translation and was contracted to re-translate it.

* The contract read that he was to "translate the said novel into the English Language"; the irony being that the version he was translating was in fact an English rewrite of his original book.

Literary techniques

* The book's beginning two paragraphs comprise a prologue, an epilogue and a summary, giving away the ending at the start "so as to not be what motivates the reader". (Flashbacks)  (Flashforwards)

* This non-linear storytelling is something the novel holds in common with Lost.

* Hurley is seen with the book. The book's name, "Laughter in the Dark", alludes to Hurley's less serious character.

Shared themes

* A passage in the book makes references to polar bears in a tropical location, a theme also present in Lost: “As in his most reckless visions, everything was permissible; a puritan's love, priggish reserve, was less known in this new free world than white bears in Honolulu."