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| Author | Emily Prager |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | November 1999 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 187 |
| ISBN | 9780679410539 |
| OCLC | 39143159 |
| 813.54 | |
| LC Class | PS3566.R25 |
Roger Fishbite is a novel by the American writer and journalist Emily Prager, which was published in 1999.
The novel was written partly as a literary parody of Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel Lolita , partly as a "reply both to the book and to the icon that the character Lolita has become." [1] It tells the story of thirteen-year-old Lucky Lady Linderhoff, and her mother, and their lodger, whom Lucky calls Roger Fishbite. [2]
While taking its inspiration from Nabokov's Lolita, Prager's novel is narrated by Lucky, not Fishbite, and displays a number of twists and turns that differ from the original text. Prager also updates the story, setting it in the modern-day period, rather than choosing to set it in the 1950s. [3]
At the heart of the novel is the issue that Lucky raises constantly throughout: The way in which children in America (and western society in general, I would add) are hated and feared by a society that seeks to eroticise them whilst at the same time destroying them. [4]
What prevents the novel from devolving into an inside joke is the enthralling voice of Lucky Linderhof, who, at nearly 15, tells her tale with the world-weariness befitting an elder statesman of child abuse. [5]
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