article label
Darius Sanai is the editor in chief of Condé Nast contract publishing and a contributing editor for GQ. He has been writing and editing for Conde Nast for many years and is an expert in luxury travel.
Darius’ pick: ‘Laughter in the Dark’, by Vladimir Nabokov
laughter in the dark
summary
‘Laughter in the Dark’, or ‘Camera Obscura’, to give it the title Nabokov originally wanted, is a bleak, black hole of a book, an observation of humanity so cruel yet compelling and (and this is part of the essence of its cruelty) funny that its sale ought to be by prescription only to people who have access to remedial Prozac. The first sentence encapsulates it: “Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. 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.”
why this is my travel fuel
The book is set in Berlin, and (if I remember correctly) parts of Switzerland, but that’s incidental: every time I think of it, I want to get in a car and drive down California’s Pacific Coast. Not just the coast of hippy lore, the soulful dreamscape of Carmel, Big Sur and Golden Gate: but the bleaker, dramatic, northern stretches of the coast, where waves, weather and vineyards battle for supremacy at what feels like the edge of the world. That’s where I read Laughter in the Dark, half a life ago, alone amid the fallout of family tragedy and teenage trauma: and that’s where I will one day return.
You can buy ‘Laughter in the Dark’ here.
For tailor made travel to North America, click here.
Click here to go back to Travel Fuel
enquire here or
