But how magically his singing violin can conjure up a tendresse, a compassion for Lolita that makes us entranced with the book while abhorring its author!
A child of the 1960s counterculture, he abhorred materialism and lived in simply furnished houses in part because he was too picky to decide on furniture.
We might at the same time realise that we abhor what news and social media do to our minds and — like a cowardly sheep finally kicking the farmer — delete everything, until our phones can barely tell the time any more.
He has also explored the possibility of releasing audiobook editions but said his father abhorred the idea of his books being performed or interpreted in any way in another medium.