Leslie Daniels (1)

“Cleaning Nabokov's House,” the 2011 novel by Leslie Daniels, amounts to a modern Cinderella story, although instead of a glass slipper there are, as Daniels tells us in the opening lines, a blue pot floating in a lake, a house where Vladimir Nabokov once lived, a book, a lawyer, a whorehouse, science and from there the world.

As the story opens Barb Barrett, pushing 40, has lost everything — her husband, her two children and her self-respect. She left her home of her own will and now show more cannot return. Her husband has already found another woman and has won custody of the children.

She finds herself living in a house where the author of “Lolita” once lived (as did the author herself, it turns out), and there she finds scraps of a novel, perhaps a draft written by Nabokov himself. The novel is about Babe Ruth, hardly a likely topic for the author more interested in butterflies than baseball. But perhaps he did write it. Can she turn the book into enough money to win back her children?

Barb does make enough money to resuscitate her life, but it comes not through the book but through that whorehouse. She notices that the town where she lives seems to be full of bored housewives, and so she hires college men to be her whores, who mostly just listen to the women talk. She manages to turn it into scientific research. The fact that the judge who decides her custody appeal has been one of her clients helps her win her case. And, yes, there is a charming prince.

As with Cinderella, not much here is convincing, yet readers get the happy ending they desire. And unlike Cinderella, this story is hilarious. Daniels is a wonderfully comic writer whose sentences dazzle. Yet I can find no trace of a second Leslie Daniels novel. Too bad. show less

Barb Barrett lost everything after she walked out of her marriage - job, self-esteem, home, but worst of all, the one thing she didn't expect to lose - custody of her children. In an attempt to be close to them, she has relocated to the small New York town of Onkwedo. She moves into a home once lived in by the author Vladimir Nabokov. It is while cleaning out the house, she discovers a series of index cards behind a drawer. It seems to be a story about Babe Ruth - and is it possible it was show more written by Nabokov?

Leslie Daniels paints an excellent portrait of a mother dealing with loss. The impetus used to ignite her (the maybe Nabokov story) is unusual and quirky. The path taken by Barb to reclaim her life is perhaps best described by Barb herself...

"I knew I could stay in this town when I found the blue enamel post floating in the lake. The post led me to the house, the house led me to the book, the book to the lawyer, the lawyer to the whorehouse, the whorehouse to science and from science I joined the world."

I enjoyed Barb's quite funny view of life and her very sardonic sense of humour. I applauded her attempts to reclaim her life and children. But....she lost me at the whorehouse. If this was a chick lit book, I could have bought it - maybe. But if this is a woman seriously looking to reclaim her children, does she honestly think opening a male staffed whorehouse for the lonely women of Onkwedo is a good move?

Cleaning Nabokov's House is written in first person narrator style - one I find a bit tedious after a while. It leads to a one sided story and I would have liked to hear from other characters. I found the ex-husband to be more of a caricature than a person. Her children were cute, the daughter a little too much.

I enjoy books about women 'finding' themselves and regaining control of their lives. I enjoyed Daniels' freshman effort - I think she has a bright future as an author. But, for me this was just an okay read. The detour into the cathouse bumped this down to a three show less

Cleaning Nabokov's House went a completely different direction than I was expecting. I thought it would be mostly about Barb finding the manuscript and trying to get it published but that was only a small part of the story. It's about her trying to become a functional human being again after getting divorced and losing her kids. She starts an unorthodox business in the sleepy little town she lives in which was a surprise to me although now I know it's foreshadowed in the very first sentence show more of the book. Throughout it all she maintains a wry sense of humor that is probably what keeps her from going completely insane.

I think one of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much is that Barb reminded me of one of my friends after her divorce. I could imagine my friend thinking and saying a lot of the things that Barb did. Barb has some really great lines. For example, after she finds out her ex-husband has a girlfriend:

I asked myself sternly, "Why shouldn't he be happy?" I answered myself like this: "Why shouldn't he be dead?"

The book is full of this kind of wry humor, which helps provide relief when Barb's situation feels utterly bleak. Even though Barb is fairly socially inept and just plain weird sometimes, I found myself rooting for her on all fronts. I thoroughly enjoyed Cleaning Nabokov's House. show less

Very unconventional story told through detail."I'd bought a push-up bra. It's strange to have your breasts suddenly closer to your face, like you are trying to get your own attention." "The crease between her eyes that showed up every six weeks between botox began to ease."
The narrator has just gone through a terrible divorce where the "experson" gets everything and she is living in a motel. The judge is a friend of the "experson", and the court-appointed counselor ends up living with the show more "experson". She is allowed one week-end a month with her kids. She also has one pair of pants that she can be seen in. While the plot is sometimes implausable and things turn out for the narrator, the tale is worth the read. show less