Roger Fishbite

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Roger Fishbite
AuthorEmily Prager
LanguageEnglish
GenreFiction
PublisherRandom House
Publication date
November 1999
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint
Pages187
ISBNLua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
OCLC39143159
813.54
LC ClassPS3566.R25

Roger Fishbite is a novel by the American writer and journalist Emily Prager, which was published in 1999.

Themes and literary connections

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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]

Reviews

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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]

References

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  1. ^ Author's Note, Prager, Emily - Roger Fishbite, Vintage: 1999
  2. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  3. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  5. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
[edit | edit source]