[2009.01.29]Simon Mawer’s dream palace 西蒙•马维尔的梦之殿

New fiction

Simon Mawer’s dream palace
西蒙•马维尔的梦之殿

Jan 29th 2009
From The Economist print edition

THE notion of a house, or more specifically a room, as the principal character in a novel is an odd one. But this is the case in Simon Mawer’s eighth work of fiction, “The Glass Room”, which is inspired by the Tugendhat Villa in Brno and spans 60 years of Czechoslovakia’s turbulent history.

一幢房屋或更确切地说是一个房间，作为“主人公”出现在小说中是一个异数。但这确实在西蒙•马维尔的第八本小说《玻璃屋》中出现了，其创作灵感源自伫立在布尔诺市的图根哈特别墅，描述了捷克历时60年的风风雨雨。

In 1929, newlyweds Viktor and Liesel Landauer employ Rainer von Abt to design them a house that becomes a masterpiece of modernist architecture. The centrepiece is the glass room; an open space filled with light that reflects their dream of living in “a state in which being Czech or German or Jew would not matter”. Yet, as a result of Viktor’s Jewish heritage, in 1939 the Landauers are forced to flee the country in the face of a Nazi invasion.

1929年，新婚燕尔的维克多和莉赛尔•兰道尔聘用了雷内•冯•阿伯特来设计他们的住所，后来它成为了现代主义派建筑的杰作。其中最引人注目的是玻璃房；一个空旷而光线可以完全穿透的空间，表达了他们梦想住在“一个无论是捷克人还是德国人或是犹太人都享有人身自由的国度”。然而由于维克多的犹太人血统，在1939年，兰道尔夫妇不得不逃离这个面临纳粹入侵的国度。

The family moves first to Switzerland, then slowly across Europe towards Bilbao, before sailing to America. Meanwhile, the house changes occupiers as fast as the country changes names. The glass room becomes a scientific centre for racial studies where a Nazi scientist, Werner Stahl, attempts to discover “the systematic measurement of what defines human and subhuman”. The space then provides a refuge from bombing raids, is liberated by the arrival of the Soviet army and, during the communist era, acts as a rehabilitation unit for children with polio. Each new occupant is affected by the glass room’s quiet power; as lives are shattered around it, it remains a place of dreams. With the fall of communism the house becomes a museum, where the ghosts from its past can finally be reunited.

这个家庭最先搬到了瑞士，然后在整个欧洲内走走停停来到毕尔巴鄂，最终仍横渡去了美国。与此同时，这幢房子如同这个不断改朝换代的国家一样马不停蹄地变更着主人。玻璃屋（先）成为了一个进行种族研究的科学中心，在那里，一位纳粹科学家威尔内•斯塔尔，试图探索“定义人类和次人类的规则尺度”。这个空间随后变成了一个躲避炸弹袭击的避难所，再后来随着苏联军队的到来它被解放了，在共产主义时代，它的新身份是一家患有小儿麻痹症儿童的康复中心。每一任新主人都被玻璃屋散发的安谧力量所影响着；在它的周围生灵涂炭，而它始终是梦想的栖息地。伴随着共产主义的谢幕，这个房子成为了一间博物馆，而来自过去的灵魂们终于能在这里聚首。

Mr Mawer likes to write about ideas, which makes him unusual among British novelists. “The Glass Room” is a carefully constructed book, beautifully written. If there is a flaw, it is a lack of contact with the characters—the only figure portrayed with feeling is the flippant and omnisexual Hana Hanakova, who becomes the real survivor of the story. However, this narrative distance emphasises the fact that to the glass room, indifferent and ageless, people pass through “like summer mayflies with their gossamer wings and delicate tails and ephemeral lives”. The novel succeeds as a reminder of the transient nature of human existence.

马维尔擅长思想创作，这使得他在英国小说家中独树一帜。《玻璃屋》是一本精心构造，语言曼妙的作品。如果有什么不足的话，那就是对角色的描写过去死板—唯一令作者倾尽全部感情描写的哈那·哈那克夫却不妙是一位轻浮的全性恋者。然而，这叙述方式营造的距离感强调了这个事实即对在玻璃房里，逝去的人们度过了“如夏日里扑闪着轻薄的翅膀，摆动着纤细的尾巴的蜉蝣们那般短暂的一生。”小说提醒人们生命短暂，且行且珍惜。

The Glass Room
By Simon Mawer

Little, Brown; 405 pages; £16.99

Buy it at
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Amazon.co.uk

 

译者：春菲天   http://www.ecocn.org/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=16868&extra=page%3D1