During the summer of the compulsive attraction between Hal Robinson and Barry Gorman, Hal's curiosity with death leads the boys to enter a pact. Whoever dies first, the other must dance on his grave. Aidan Chambers masterfully traces the relationship from friendship to overwhelming obsession in a commanding, ruthless, roller-coaster ride of narration.
The Dance Sequence
A word about the NOVELS. There are six books in this section. I
think of them as 'The Dance Sequence'. A dance because it was while
I was writing DANCE ON MY GRAVE that I realised there would be six
novels. And because I think of them as an intricate kind of dance - a
dance of stories and of characters, a dance of incidents and ideas
and experiences, and fundamental to everything else, a dance of
words, of language. A sequence because they are like members of a
family. Each one is an individual and has its own separate personality,
standing on its own feet, so to speak; but each is genetically related
to the others. They share much in common while also seeing the
world through their own eyes.
Together they paint a portrait of a certain kind of youthful life, of
becoming adult in the last years of the twentieth century and the
first of the new millennium. Each is especially concerned with
particular kinds of experience. BREAKTIME, for example, seems to me
to be very preoccupied with physical experience - the life of the five
senses. DANCE ON MY GRAVE is to do especially with emotions and
personal obsessions. NOW I KNOW dwells on the dramatic clash of
belief and rational thought. THE TOLL BRIDGE is a 'recognition story'
that speaks of discovering the friendship of platonic love which young
people often call soul mates. The characters in POSTCARDS FROM NO
MAN'S LAND are constantly crossing boundaries. - Just one way of
thinking about the stories, there are others, but this will do for a
start.
The family was completed in 2005 with publication of the sixth book,
THIS IS ALL: THE PILLOW BOOK OF CORDELIA KENN. It is called This
Is All not only because it is the final book in the Sequence, but also
because it sums up, adds to, and revises all that has been described
in the previous five novels. No wonder it is 816 pages long! It is also
the only book in the Sequence which has a girl as the main character.
As epigraphs in the books put it: All writing is drawing. All writing is
memory. All writing is a gift.
For a critical study of all six novels in the Dance Sequence see: Betty
Greenway, Aidan Chambers: Master Literary Choreographer, The
Scarecrow Press, 2006, 133pp, ISBN 978-0-8108-5087-3.
See READERS WRITE for an essay by Kate Smith on 'Meeting and Rescue' in the novels in the Dance Sequence.
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这本厚厚的小说,初拿到手时,那种油墨和纸张混合的气味就带着一股久远的、带着灰尘感的历史气息,仿佛能闻到故事里那些经历过风霜的角色留下的印记。我是在一个连续阴雨的周末一口气读完的,它完全占据了我的注意力,让我暂时忘记了窗外的湿冷。叙事节奏的处理极其精妙,作者似乎深谙如何用微妙的停顿和突然的爆发来牵引读者的心弦。故事的主线,关于一个年轻人如何在巨大的社会压力和自我认同的困境中挣扎,呈现出一种令人心碎的真实感。特别是对家庭内部那种微妙的、几乎是无声的权力斗争的描绘,简直是教科书级别的。你会看到那些我们都熟悉的、试图用“爱”的名义来控制他人的复杂关系,而主角的每一次微小的反抗,都像是用尽了全身的力气。我特别欣赏作者对环境细节的捕捉,那些老旧的家具、光线透过百叶窗投下的斑驳影子,都成了人物内心世界的延伸。读到中间部分时,我甚至需要停下来,合上书本,在房间里踱步,消化掉那种压抑的情绪,这绝不是一本可以轻松翻过去的读物,它要求你全身心地投入,去感受那些人物在命运的齿轮下被碾压的疼痛与挣扎。那种沉浸式的体验,让我仿佛亲身站在了故事发生的那个逼仄、充满秘密的房间里。
评分从纯粹的阅读体验来说,这本书的“氛围感”营造达到了令人窒息的程度。它成功地将一个看似日常的场景,转化成了一个充满象征意义的舞台。光线的运用尤其值得称道,很多关键的场景都发生在黄昏或深夜,那种界于光明与黑暗之间的模糊地带,完美地烘托了人物心理的摇摆不定和道德的灰色地带。而且,这本书的背景设定——无论是地理上的偏僻小镇,还是心理上的情感孤岛——都服务于主题的表达。它不是一个故事发生的“地方”,而是故事本身的一部分。这种对环境与情感深度绑定的处理,让读者在阅读时不仅仅是在看故事,更是在体验一种强烈的情绪气候。每当我读到某个特定的场景时,我仿佛能听到那种只有在寂静中才能听见的、来自内心的低语,那是一种对存在意义的探寻,是这本书带给我最深刻的共鸣。它绝对不是一本让人读完就扔掉的消遣之作,更像是一次深入自我的精神探险。
评分我必须强调这本书的配角群像塑造得极其成功,他们不是故事的附属品,而是与主角同样具有复杂灵魂的个体。比如那个总是保持沉默、眼神中藏着无数故事的邻居大叔,或者那个表面光鲜亮丽实则内心空洞的“闺蜜”,每一个次要人物的出现,都像是一次精心布置的化学反应。作者没有浪费笔墨去描绘他们宏大的背景故事,而是通过一两个极具代表性的动作、一句不经意的嘟囔,就将人物的本质刻画得入木三分。这种“少即是多”的描写哲学,让读者得以将更多的精力集中在核心的情感张力上。我尤其喜欢那种,看似与主线无关,却在微妙之处呼应主题的小插曲,它们就像是散落在迷宫里的面包屑,虽然微小,却指引着我理解这个世界更深层次的逻辑。这本书的群像描绘,展现了一种对社会生态的深刻洞察,每个人都在扮演着自己的角色,带着面具生活,而面具下的真实表情,才是最动人心魄的部分。
评分当我翻到后记,才意识到自己已经沉浸了将近十个小时,眼睛有些酸涩,但内心却有一种奇异的满足感。这本书的语言风格非常大胆,充满了现代年轻人那种直白到近乎粗粝的表达方式,毫不掩饰欲望、迷茫和愤怒。它不是那种用华丽辞藻堆砌起来的“文学作品”,它更像是一份手写体的、充满激情和混乱的日记,直接剖开了人性的幽暗角落。最让我震撼的是,作者没有提供任何简单的答案或廉价的救赎。角色们在经历了种种磨难后,最终选择的道路充满了模糊性,甚至有些悲观的宿命感。这使得整个故事的余味悠长,迫使读者离开书本后,仍旧需要花时间去整理自己的思绪。我反复咀嚼了几段关于“选择与代价”的对白,它们像冰冷的刀片一样,精准地切开了关于自由意志的讨论。从文学手法上来说,这种对白式的叙事推进,避免了冗长的心理描写,而是通过人物间的激烈碰撞来展现内在的冲突,高明至极。它成功地构建了一个封闭却又无限延展的心理空间,让人在阅读时不断地感到被挑战和审视。
评分这本书的结构设计简直鬼斧神工,它巧妙地运用了非线性叙事,时间线在不同的章节之间跳跃、交织,如同一个复杂的挂毯,初看时有些零乱,但当你把所有的线索拼凑起来后,会发现每个看似随机的碎片都在为最终的高潮蓄力。我得承认,在读到四分之一的时候,我有些困惑,需要频繁地回顾前面的章节来确认人物关系和事件的先后顺序。但正是这种略带“烧脑”的阅读过程,极大地增强了阅读的参与感。作者似乎故意将一些关键信息藏匿起来,直到最后一刻才突然揭示,那种恍然大悟的感觉,比直接告知要强烈百倍。特别是关于那个核心秘密的揭露,简直是神来之笔,它不仅解释了之前所有的怪异行为,更瞬间颠覆了你对某些主要人物的认知。这种叙事上的把戏,需要极高的技巧来平衡,稍有不慎就会显得刻意,但在这本书里,一切都水到渠成,浑然天成,让读者在智力上得到了极大的满足。
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