New American fiction
新美国小说
A dog in the night-time
黑夜里的老狗
Jul 24th 2008
From The Economist print edition
PAUL AUSTER’S new novel is a curious jeu d’esprit-though the jeu isn’t much fun and the esprit is pretty gloomy. “I am alone in the dark,” it begins, “turning the world around in my head as I struggle through another bout of insomnia, another white night in the great American wilderness.” The narrator is August Brill, an elderly book reviewer living out his days and sleepless nights in a house in Vermont that he shares with his daughter, Miriam, and granddaughter, Katya. Brill is kept awake by the memory of his loving but troubled marriage to Sonia, who is now dead. The girls in the house have troubles of their own, too, particularly Katya, whose boyfriend was recently killed in Iraq.
保罗·奥斯特尔的新小说机智精巧、妙语如珠–尽管那些妙语并非那么好玩，那些机智也显得太过阴郁。小说开篇讲述说：”黑暗中我茕茕孑立，辗转难侧，失眠又一次让我备受煎熬，美洲荒野上壮丽的白夜再次让我心焦，世界在我的头脑中无休止地萦绕。”故事的叙说人奥古斯特·布瑞尔是个有点年纪的图书评论家，他和女儿米兰姆、孙女卡蒂亚一起居住，在佛蒙特州打发那些失眠的日日夜夜。布瑞尔深爱着已经过世的索尼亚，虽然他们的婚姻磕磕畔畔，但是这些过往的记忆仍然使他无法安眠。一起居住的姑娘们各有各的烦心事，特别是卡蒂亚，她的男朋友最近在伊拉克被杀。
Brill and Katya spend all day watching films. At night, to keep his mind off Sonia, Brill tells himself stories-or rather, one tale in particular, which he develops in several instalments. This second storyline opens up a parallel world. It concerns a young man, Owen Brick, who wakes up one day to find his familiar world strangely unfamiliar and his formerly peaceful country in the middle of a bloody civil war. Brick is able to distinguish between his two worlds, and to move between them. Against his will, he is recruited to assassinate the man responsible for the conflict: an elderly book reviewer living in Vermont who tells himself a war story at night when he can’t sleep. Brill puts an end to this slightly goofy parallel-worlds device when he abruptly kills off Brick before Brick does for him.
布瑞尔和卡蒂亚把白天的时间消磨在看电影上。到夜间，为了把思绪从索尼亚身上移开，布瑞尔就自己给自己讲故事–换句话说，他讲述了一个颇有篇幅的特殊传奇故事。这条副线索展现了一个和主线相平行的世界。在这个世界里，年轻的欧文·布莱克一觉醒来，发现他所熟悉的一切变得奇怪而陌生，曾经宁静的故土笼罩着内战的血雨腥风。布莱克没有被这两个世界搞混，而是融入了其中。他不情愿地被征募入伍，受委派去刺杀造成内战冲突的关键人物：一个居住在佛蒙特州的图书评论家，这个人总是在晚上失眠的时候自言自语地讲述战争故事。在布莱克杀死图书评论家之前，布瑞尔匆忙地结果了布莱克的性命，为这个略显笨拙的并行世界的构思画上了句号。
Meanwhile, the conversations between Brill and Katya turn from films to the ups and downs of Brill’s marriage to Sonia. “You’re one tough cookie, kid,” Katya tells him. “No, I’m not,” he replies. “I’m a big soft jelly doughnut.” The novel is a bit of a tough-cookie/jelly-doughnut hybrid too. Unfortunately, the author’s big political themes-the self-consciously “timely” meditation on an America at odds with itself, and the madness of war-lack crunch, while his family dramas are, as Brill puts it, “all ooze and mush”. Mr Auster is a fine writer, but this is not his best work.
同时，布瑞尔和卡蒂亚交谈的主题也从电影转移到了他和索尼亚的婚姻转折点上。卡蒂亚对他说：”大男孩，你肯定是天底下最难啃的窝窝头。””不，我不是，” 他回答说，”我是个又大又松软的果冻甜甜圈。”这本小说也有点硬窝窝头和软甜甜圈搀杂的味道。遗憾的是，当家庭戏”熬成一锅粥”时（布瑞尔这么形容），作者重大的政治主题–适时地反思造成美国内部冲突的原因，思索战争的疯狂–却显得缺乏挖掘。奥斯特尔是个出色的作家，但这本书不是他最好的作品。
Book details:
Man in the Dark
By Paul Auster
Henry Holt; 192 pages; $23. Faber and Faber; £14.99
译者：tiannale http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=12930&extra=page%3D1
反映了民众内心深处对战争的反感。