One of Vladimir Nabokov‘s earlier works, Laughter in the Dark tells the story of a respectable, middle-aged man who abandons his wife for a lover half his age. This affection results in a mutually parasitic relationship. The themes Nabokov would revive in many of his later works, and most notably in Lolita. This novel interests me for several reasons. I have enjoyed everything I have ever read of Nabokov’s. This story is set in the film world of the 1930s Weimar Republic Berlin. And the book appeared as a minor plot device in LOST.

I think any one of those is reason enough to read it, don’t you?