Laughter in the Dark: a simple review

I had not read any Nabokov. A simple fact that astonished a family friend of mine, and he insisted I do so right away. He retreated to his study and returned with the 1938 English translation(a translation done by the author himself) of Nabokov’s 1932 novel, Laughter in the Dark (previously, Kamera Obskura). 

Having just finished John Kennedy Toole’s, A Confederacy of Dunces, I was ensured a smooth transition from Toole’s protagonist: the horribly entitled and pompous fat man, Ignatius Reilly, to Nabokov’s lead role: Albert Albinus, the socially blind and lascivious middle-aged art critic. Both heinously flawed characters, Albinus’s voyage into idiocy is a bit more gradual than the outspoken and ever-aggressive Reilly whose constant threats to have his adversaries, “lashed until they collapse!” are slathered upon us from the opening paragraph.

Although we are informed of his ill-advised decisions almost immediately,

“He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster.”