Pin

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, 1955

1 part gin

1 part pineapple juice

1 part soda water

2 dashes of simple syrup

1 pineapple slice, for garnish

Fill a mason jar with ice.

Add all of the ingredients and stir until chilled.

Garnish with the pineapple slice and enjoy.

The sun made its usual round of the house as the afternoon ripened into evening. I had a drink. And another. And yet another. Gin and pineapple juice, my favourite mixture, always doubled my energy.

Lolita has been a controversial book since it was first published, and became even more so after Stanley Kubrick made a film adaptation in 1962. The story of a middle-aged professor who becomes infatuated with a twelve-year-old girl was and remains too much for many critics and readers, though the book was meant as a critique, not an endorsement. The author even referred to the novel’s depraved narrator, Humbert Humbert, as “a vain and cruel wretch.”

The word “Pin” is the narrator’s portmanteau of “pineapple and gin” and is his favorite drink. It’s a refreshing concoction, sometimes made with the addition of simple syrup and soda water. And don’t worry, it can be enjoyed on its own, without any concerns about its affiliation with one of modern literature’s most unsavory characters.