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如果沒記錯的話
差不多一、兩年前就有網友留過悄悄話推薦這本書
那時我在書店翻過中文版幾頁便沒再看下去
幸好這樣
所以這兩個禮拜才有動力一股作氣把英文版看完
(基於新鮮感喪失如果先看了中文版我就不會再看原文的了)
好~~~久沒這樣把一本英文小說從頭好好看到尾了
嗯…不瞞大家說上一本是快六年前看的The Devil Wears Prada
在倫敦我幾乎天天看書報雜誌、教科書
但那種片段式的閱讀是很輕鬆隨性也不需要花什麼力氣的
長篇小說需要一定的吸引力才能讓人一頭栽進去
看"The Thirteen Tale"就像在解謎團
舊書店經營者的女兒Margaret愛書成痴
某天她接到英國國寶級小說家Vida Winter來信邀她替自己作傳
由於Vida深居簡出、極度神秘
Margaret在躍躍欲試之餘
也不免對對方的真正用意以及是否會吐實抱持著懷疑
然而她終究接下了這個工作
而且初步查證顯示Vida所述似乎不假
但隨著故事進展疑點卻愈來愈多
自己心中也帶著傷痕的Margaret一步步陷入這團迷霧……
對我來說這本小說最強力的hook並不是故事性
可能我這個人比較實事求是加上文化隔閡吧
杜撰的故事對我來講就是虛構的無法太投入
但某些人類情感跟心理則是放諸四海皆同的
所以我很喜歡第一章裡作者對於書、寫作、閱讀的闡釋：
"People disappear when they die. Their voice, their laughter, the warmth of their breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living memory of them ceases. This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an exception to this annihilation. For in the books they write they continue to exist. We can rediscover them. Their humor, their tone of voice, their moods. Through the written word they can anger you or make you happy. They can comfort you. They can perplex you. They can alert you. All this, even though they are dead. Like flies in amber, like corpses frozen in ice, that which according to the laws of nature should pass away is, by the miracle of ink on paper, preserved. It is a kind of magic." (p20-21)
"And every day I open a volume or two, read a few lines or pages, allow the voices of the forgotten dead to resonate inside my head. Do they sense I, these dead writers, when their books are read? Does a pinprick of light appear in their darkness? Is their soul stirred by the feather touch of another mind reading theirs? I do hope so. For it must be very lonely being dead." (p21)
人死而無知
但文字卻是永恆
肉體終會腐朽毀敗
筆墨流傳卻可能傳頌千年
每次講到這個我就一定會想起「正氣歌」、「出師表」之類的千古佳文
為發生在遙遠時空但依舊栩栩的剎那低迴不已
"What better place to kill time than a library? And for me, what better way to get to know someone than through her choice and treatment of books?" (p50)
愛書人看到這段一定都會覺得親切
殺時間我一向去兩個地方：賣衣服的跟賣書的
要待多久就待多久絕對不無聊
而每個人的私房書單確實就像個性一樣迥異
我爸買了一堆日本史書而且最近超迷「龍馬傳」
我則一點兒興趣都沒有
不過老實說書這幾年我很少買
因為買了頂多看一次就捐圖書館太浪費
"Readers, are fools. They believe all writing is autobiographical. And so it is, but not in the way they think. The writer’s life needs time to rot away before it can be used to nourish a work of fiction. It must be allowed to decay." (p57)
我想我無法當個好小說家的原因
就是不懂如何將生活經驗好好消化再重組成另一個故事
這幾年嘗試寫過一些短篇
但都是男女主角換個名字然後就完全按照史實記錄
以手法來講
"The Thirteenth Tale”是用故事包著另一個故事
有Margaret這條近代的線
還有Vida Winter口述的過去
兩者穿插交錯又隱隱相呼應
架構上富有層次感卻不至於紛亂
其他細節我就不多說了因為怕雷到大家
最妙的是其實Vida最初講的版本有所隱瞞所以漏洞百出
經過Margaret鍥而不捨地搜證加上豐富想像力
後來才拼湊出一個完整的故事
這個過程讓讀者就像坐雲霄飛車一樣
本來愈看愈迷糊
等謎底揭曉才忍不住拍案叫絕
以情節來講
Vida為主角的那段故事充滿了"Jane Eyre"的味道
(事實上"Jane Eyre"確實被提到數次而且扮演了一角)
腦中畫面就是家道中落的貴族住在一座鬼影幢幢(ghost haunted)的古老莊園
整個籠罩在一股奇幻而超現實的氛圍裡
作者用了不少灑狗血的元素：近親相姦、遺傳性精神病……
但真正把過去與現在兩條線串起來的是「雙胞胎」
Margaret和Vida都擁有雙胞胎姐妹
而這本書對這種特殊的手足之情著墨也最深
"Twins, always together, always two. If it was normal in their world to be two, what would other people, who came not in twos but ones, seem like to them? We must seem like halves, the Missus mused. And she remembered a word, a strange word it had seemed at the time, that meant people who had lost parts of themselves. Amputees. That’s what we are to them. Amputees." (p103-104)
基於對雙胞胎行為和心理的深入刻畫與剖析
我相信作者若非具有心理學或醫學背景
就一定曾在寫這本書以前研讀過相關領域的書籍
雖然不是看完會有什麼大啟發的小說
但絕對是引人入勝的
然後它也讓我重拾了唸英文小說的樂趣
其實唷可以的話小說還是看原文的比較貼近作者的原意
譯者的翻得再好讀來仍有種隔靴搔癢的遺憾
我的英文能力雖然還有極大的進步空間
很慶幸要讀懂大多數的小說已算是綽綽有餘了
立志接下來要再多讀幾本英文小說!!
差不多一、兩年前就有網友留過悄悄話推薦這本書
那時我在書店翻過中文版幾頁便沒再看下去
幸好這樣
所以這兩個禮拜才有動力一股作氣把英文版看完
(基於新鮮感喪失如果先看了中文版我就不會再看原文的了)
好~~~久沒這樣把一本英文小說從頭好好看到尾了
嗯…不瞞大家說上一本是快六年前看的The Devil Wears Prada
在倫敦我幾乎天天看書報雜誌、教科書
但那種片段式的閱讀是很輕鬆隨性也不需要花什麼力氣的
長篇小說需要一定的吸引力才能讓人一頭栽進去
看"The Thirteen Tale"就像在解謎團
舊書店經營者的女兒Margaret愛書成痴
某天她接到英國國寶級小說家Vida Winter來信邀她替自己作傳
由於Vida深居簡出、極度神秘
Margaret在躍躍欲試之餘
也不免對對方的真正用意以及是否會吐實抱持著懷疑
然而她終究接下了這個工作
而且初步查證顯示Vida所述似乎不假
但隨著故事進展疑點卻愈來愈多
自己心中也帶著傷痕的Margaret一步步陷入這團迷霧……
對我來說這本小說最強力的hook並不是故事性
可能我這個人比較實事求是加上文化隔閡吧
杜撰的故事對我來講就是虛構的無法太投入
但某些人類情感跟心理則是放諸四海皆同的
所以我很喜歡第一章裡作者對於書、寫作、閱讀的闡釋：
"People disappear when they die. Their voice, their laughter, the warmth of their breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living memory of them ceases. This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an exception to this annihilation. For in the books they write they continue to exist. We can rediscover them. Their humor, their tone of voice, their moods. Through the written word they can anger you or make you happy. They can comfort you. They can perplex you. They can alert you. All this, even though they are dead. Like flies in amber, like corpses frozen in ice, that which according to the laws of nature should pass away is, by the miracle of ink on paper, preserved. It is a kind of magic." (p20-21)
"And every day I open a volume or two, read a few lines or pages, allow the voices of the forgotten dead to resonate inside my head. Do they sense I, these dead writers, when their books are read? Does a pinprick of light appear in their darkness? Is their soul stirred by the feather touch of another mind reading theirs? I do hope so. For it must be very lonely being dead." (p21)
人死而無知
但文字卻是永恆
肉體終會腐朽毀敗
筆墨流傳卻可能傳頌千年
每次講到這個我就一定會想起「正氣歌」、「出師表」之類的千古佳文
為發生在遙遠時空但依舊栩栩的剎那低迴不已
"What better place to kill time than a library? And for me, what better way to get to know someone than through her choice and treatment of books?" (p50)
愛書人看到這段一定都會覺得親切
殺時間我一向去兩個地方：賣衣服的跟賣書的
要待多久就待多久絕對不無聊
而每個人的私房書單確實就像個性一樣迥異
我爸買了一堆日本史書而且最近超迷「龍馬傳」
我則一點兒興趣都沒有
不過老實說書這幾年我很少買
因為買了頂多看一次就捐圖書館太浪費
"Readers, are fools. They believe all writing is autobiographical. And so it is, but not in the way they think. The writer’s life needs time to rot away before it can be used to nourish a work of fiction. It must be allowed to decay." (p57)
我想我無法當個好小說家的原因
就是不懂如何將生活經驗好好消化再重組成另一個故事
這幾年嘗試寫過一些短篇
但都是男女主角換個名字然後就完全按照史實記錄
以手法來講
"The Thirteenth Tale”是用故事包著另一個故事
有Margaret這條近代的線
還有Vida Winter口述的過去
兩者穿插交錯又隱隱相呼應
架構上富有層次感卻不至於紛亂
其他細節我就不多說了因為怕雷到大家
最妙的是其實Vida最初講的版本有所隱瞞所以漏洞百出
經過Margaret鍥而不捨地搜證加上豐富想像力
後來才拼湊出一個完整的故事
這個過程讓讀者就像坐雲霄飛車一樣
本來愈看愈迷糊
等謎底揭曉才忍不住拍案叫絕
以情節來講
Vida為主角的那段故事充滿了"Jane Eyre"的味道
(事實上"Jane Eyre"確實被提到數次而且扮演了一角)
腦中畫面就是家道中落的貴族住在一座鬼影幢幢(ghost haunted)的古老莊園
整個籠罩在一股奇幻而超現實的氛圍裡
作者用了不少灑狗血的元素：近親相姦、遺傳性精神病……
但真正把過去與現在兩條線串起來的是「雙胞胎」
Margaret和Vida都擁有雙胞胎姐妹
而這本書對這種特殊的手足之情著墨也最深
"Twins, always together, always two. If it was normal in their world to be two, what would other people, who came not in twos but ones, seem like to them? We must seem like halves, the Missus mused. And she remembered a word, a strange word it had seemed at the time, that meant people who had lost parts of themselves. Amputees. That’s what we are to them. Amputees." (p103-104)
基於對雙胞胎行為和心理的深入刻畫與剖析
我相信作者若非具有心理學或醫學背景
就一定曾在寫這本書以前研讀過相關領域的書籍
雖然不是看完會有什麼大啟發的小說
但絕對是引人入勝的
然後它也讓我重拾了唸英文小說的樂趣
其實唷可以的話小說還是看原文的比較貼近作者的原意
譯者的翻得再好讀來仍有種隔靴搔癢的遺憾
我的英文能力雖然還有極大的進步空間
很慶幸要讀懂大多數的小說已算是綽綽有餘了
立志接下來要再多讀幾本英文小說!!
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