Lo's Diary

Pia Pera. Lo's Diary. Ann Goldstein, tr. New York. Foxrock. 1999. x + 292 pages. $22.95. ISBN o-9643740-1-3.

For those who did not read (see the New York Times Book Review of 26 September 1999) the polemics surrounding Pia Pera's novel Lo's Diary, the preface by Dmitri Nabokov is sufficient to understand that the present translation met some obstacles on the grounds of copyright. When Pera's novel appeared in Italy, in 1995, she received plenty of positive reviews. This, combined with the fact that it was loosely based on Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, must have encouraged translations into other languages.

From the preface, we get the idea that Dmitri Nabokov considers remakes, parodies, or adaptations of his father's novel an infringement on copyright and a possible form of undermining his father's masterpiece. The content and tone of the preface which precedes the author's three epigraphs and a foreword by a fictitious editor named John Ray may even appear as an editorial scheme - or, as Genette would call it, as a peritextual strategy.

Parodies or rewritings of masterpieces, especially after Borges's famous short story "Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote," are read within the various forms of exploitations and narrative strategies related to intertextuality. Is Lo's Diary meant to be a parody, a remake, or even a tribute to...