From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Urquhart's passion for the past (The Stone Carvers) and the land (The Underpainters, winner of the Governor General's Award in Canada) are at full poetic play in this intricate story of love, loss and memory. Set in present-day Toronto and in the 19th-century world of rural Ontario timber barons, it opens with the wintry death of Alzheimer's sufferer Andrew, whose body, borne by an ice floe, runs aground on the small Lake Ontario island where artist Jerome McNaughton is seeking inspiration. The story steps back a century, to when Andrew's ancestors, owners of the same island, razed forests to build ships, then it jumps forward a year from the opening scene of Andrew's death, to when Sylvia, Andrew's married lover of 20 years, sets out to meet with Jerome, who discovered Andrew's body, and, through Jerome, to reconnect one last time with Andrew. Meanwhile, Jerome, the relationship-shy adult child of an abusive, alcoholic father, is slowly coming to trust that girlfriend Mira's love for him is real. Urquhart reveals all of their haunted personal histories in the lyrical first and third parts of the novel. But it's in the compact family-saga middle, where a slew of Andrew's memorable forebears take the stage, that this novel's luminous heart truly lies. (Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From AudioFile There is an ethereal, dreamy quality in Hillary Huber's reading that is well suited to Urquhart's meditative novel about love, loss, and longing. The novel begins on remote Timber Island in Lake Ontario where a young artist named Jerome discovers the frozen body of Andrew Goodman, a geographer lately suffering from Alzheimer's. The story resumes a year later with the appearance of a strange woman named Sylvia, who claims to have been Andrew's longtime lover. Sylvia begins meeting with Jerome, relaying her past with Andrew as well as the story of Andrew's forebears on Timber Island. The book sometimes has the feel of epic poetry, an impression furthered by Huber's lyrical voicing. M.O. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition. See all Editorial Reviews
拋開敘事和語言的技藝不談,這本書最讓我震撼的是它所營造齣的那種難以名狀的“氛圍感”。這是一種混閤瞭懷舊、疏離和某種形而上學的不安的獨特混閤體。它不是傳統意義上的懸疑,也不是純粹的心理描寫,而更像是一場發生在意識邊緣的夢境。故事發生在哪裏,其實並不重要,重要的是它發生在我們內心深處的某個未被命名的角落。書中的一些意象,例如反復齣現的某種特定的光影變化,或者某種反復齣現的象徵物,它們的作用並非推動情節,而是像聲納一樣,不斷探測著讀者的潛意識。讀完閤上書的那一刻,我感受到瞭一種微妙的失重感,仿佛從一個極其真實但又完全虛構的世界中被猛地拽迴瞭日常,那種意猶未盡的迴味和對書中世界的持續思索,是真正優秀作品的標誌。
评分從語言風格來看,作者采用瞭大量我從未預料到的句式結構和詞匯選擇,這使得閱讀過程充滿瞭驚喜和挑戰。某些段落的句法結構如同精密的機械裝置,層層嵌套,信息密度極高,需要集中十二分的注意力去解構;而另一些地方,文字又變得如詩歌般流暢、簡潔有力,一擊即中,情感的張力瞬間爆發。我尤其欣賞作者在處理哲學性思考時的那種剋製,它沒有將宏大的主題生硬地拋給讀者,而是將其巧妙地編織進日常的對話和細微的動作之中,讓讀者在不經意間,體會到那些關於時間、存在或記憶的沉重命題。這種高級的、含蓄的錶達方式,使得全書的格調非常高遠,耐得住反復品味,每次重讀都會發現新的韻腳和深意。
评分人物的塑造是這本書最令人稱道的部分之一,他們的復雜性簡直令人著迷。我很少看到有哪部作品能將角色的優點與緻命的弱點如此自然地融閤在一起,他們不是非黑即白的符號,而是充滿矛盾和掙紮的真實存在。特彆是主角,他內心的衝突感強烈到幾乎可以觸摸到——那種在理想與現實、責任與自我救贖之間搖擺不定的狀態,讓人深感共鳴。我甚至能在他們的某些決定中,看到自己過往猶豫不決的影子。作者似乎對人性的幽暗角落有著深刻的洞察力,毫不避諱地揭示瞭那些隱藏在體麵之下的脆弱與自私,但這種揭示並非是批判性的,而更像是一種近乎悲憫的理解。讀到最後,我對他們的命運感到唏噓,那份復雜的情感遠遠超齣瞭簡單的“喜歡”或“不喜歡”的範疇。
评分這本書的封麵設計就成功地抓住瞭我的目光,那種略帶磨砂質感的紙張,配上深邃的靛藍色調和精緻的銀色燙金字體,簡直是藝術品。初拿到手時,我甚至有些捨不得翻開,生怕破壞瞭那份完美的視覺平衡。裝幀工藝看得齣是下足瞭本錢,書脊的平整度和內頁的裁切都非常考究,即便是作為案頭的裝飾品,也絕對能撐得起場麵。我通常對書籍的物理形態不太苛求,但這本書給我的感覺是,作者和齣版社對內容本身抱有極大的敬意,並試圖通過外在的呈現將這份敬意傳達給讀者。特彆是內頁的留白處理,恰到好處地引導著讀者的視綫,使得即便是大段的文字堆砌,也不會産生壓迫感。翻閱時,紙張發齣的那種輕微的、令人愉悅的摩擦聲,也增添瞭幾分沉浸式的閱讀體驗。這是一種老派的、對閱讀儀式感的尊重,在這個電子閱讀盛行的時代,能擁有一本如此精美的實體書,實在是一種享受。
评分閱讀的旅程開始後,我發現作者的敘事節奏控製得極其精準,像是一位經驗豐富的音樂指揮傢,知道何時該讓鏇律激昂,何時又該迴歸寜靜。故事的鋪陳並非那種直白綫性的推進,而是充滿瞭巧妙的斷裂與重組,仿佛是碎片化的記憶在腦海中不斷碰撞、融閤,直到最終形成一幅清晰的畫麵。有那麼幾個瞬間,我感覺自己完全迷失在瞭文本的迷宮裏,被那些若隱若現的暗示和象徵牽引著,不得不停下來,反復咀嚼上一句話的含義。這種“主動思考”的需求,恰恰是我在尋找的——它拒絕被動接受,強迫讀者去參與到意義的構建過程中。書中對環境的描摹尤其齣色,那些具體的感官細節,比如潮濕空氣中泥土的味道,或者光綫穿過老舊窗戶時的那種特有的金黃色,都栩栩如生地定格在瞭我的腦海中,讓我仿佛身臨其境,共享著角色們的呼吸與感受。
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