From Publishers Weekly Northern Irish author Azadeh's first collection, five near-novella-length stories, exhibits a deliberate yet serpentine lyricism, a perfect style for her tales of world-travel and world-weariness. The stories are unlinked, yet follow a kind of ideological trajectory: characters journey from conformity to independence, from safety to identity-forging challenges. The first tale, "The Country Road," movingly conveys an eight-year-old girl's fearful sense of "inconsolable defeat" after she realizes that her overworked, exhausted mother and dying laborer father will never fulfill the dream of emigrating to America from their 1950s rural town; the closing, title story concerns an Arab woman discovering that the marriage arranged for her years ago can never make her happy. The latter narrative takes place on the C?te d'Azur, and the author describes the Mediterranean as a "saucer of blue varnish under a benign sky." Such sparkling language appears throughout, often acquiring the powerful fluidity found in "Bronagh." Here the eponymous protagonist, newly graduated from Cambridge, spends a summer in an Andalusian village, where she nearly falls in love with an idealistic farm girl named Pilar. Looking back on that time, Bronagh recalls recoiling from Pilar's touch, a fearful retraction that besmirched their friendship, and which she still regrets. The politics and history of the regional settings are impressively but not ostentatiously woven through the characters' lives. In "A Recitation of Nomads," a 30ish unmarried couple (she English, he American) travel to Morocco where their compatibility, patience and love are tested. This journey is especially gripping, as the English woman deals simultaneously with her identity as an artist and as a tourist, enduring gender-based rough treatment from Marrakech locals. Azadeh's prose is euphonious and beautifully evocative of her settings, and the organic progression of the collection spotlights the female narrators' transforming abilities to cope with autonomy and responsibility, risk and romance. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition. From Library Journal Like her short story characters, Azadeh has lived in Ireland, England, and France. In this first book, she focuses on the feelings of those traveling to alien environments, trying to blend into foreign cultures but never belonging. These semi-misfits who appear not to fit in always hope that the next place will be better than the place they call home. Eight-year-old Cathy lives in Ireland but yearns to leave; Bronagh travels far from her native Ireland but belongs nowhere; an English painter and her American writer boyfriend build a relationship on too little and travel far, trying unsuccessfully to make their elusive dreams a reality; a young Muslim wife in Antibes is trapped in a dying marriage, far away from everything she ever considered normal. In stark prose, Azadeh portrays strangers who never really belong and never achieve the happiness they feel they deserve. For larger collections.AEllen R. Cohen, Rockville, MD Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. See all Editorial Reviews
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读完这本厚厚的书,我感觉自己像是刚刚结束了一场漫长而又迷离的梦境,醒来后空气中似乎还残留着某种香水的味道,久久不散。这本书最让我震撼的是它对“时间”概念的解构与重塑。叙事结构极其大胆,它不断地在过去、现在和近乎未来的片段之间跳跃,但奇妙的是,这种跳跃非但没有造成混乱,反而营造出一种宿命般的循环感。作者似乎在探讨,那些我们以为已经尘封的往事,其实从未真正离开,它们只是潜伏在日常生活的缝隙中,伺机而动。我特别欣赏作者对环境的运用,那些在书中反复出现的意象——比如一个生锈的铁门、一株过度生长的无花果树——都成为了推动情节发展的关键符号。它们不仅仅是背景,它们是活着的角色,记录着人物的兴衰荣辱。阅读过程中,我常常会停下来,合上书本,对着天花板发呆,努力去厘清那些人物复杂的动机和多重的时间线。这本书的对话也极具特色,充满了暗示和未尽之言,你必须全神贯注,否则就会错过那些隐藏在唇齿之间的真正意图。它不是那种能让你在公交车上轻松消遣的小说,它需要你投入全部的智力和情感,回报你的是对人性深处复杂性的深刻洞察。
评分初读这部作品时,我立刻被它那种扑面而来的、略带湿润的、地中海式的光影所吸引。作者的笔触极为细腻,仿佛能捕捉到空气中漂浮的微尘和远方海浪拍打礁石的微弱声响。故事的主线围绕着一个错综复杂的家族秘密展开,那些隐藏在光鲜外表之下的暗流涌动,简直让人看得喘不过气来。尤其是对人物内心世界的刻画,简直是教科书级别的。主人公A,那位看似冷静自持的雕塑家,他每一次眼神的闪烁,每一次不经意的停顿,都暗示着内心深处翻腾的巨大波澜。我记得有那么一个场景,他在暴雨中独自站在露台上,手里握着一块冰冷的石头,那一刻,他的孤独感仿佛穿透了纸面,直抵读者的心房。这本书的叙事节奏张弛有度,高潮部分的处理尤其精彩,不是那种廉价的戏剧性冲突,而是建立在多年情感积累上的必然爆发,像火山喷发前地壳的微妙隆起。配角的塑造也毫不逊色,尤其是那位总是带着一丝嘲讽微笑的邻居老太太,她的几句寥寥数语,往往能一语道破核心的矛盾,为整个故事增添了一种旁观者的清醒与冷峻。总而言之,这是一部需要细细品味的佳作,每一次重读都会有新的发现,如同剥洋葱般,层层递进,引人入胜。
评分这本书的文体实验性极强,它拒绝被简单归类。如果说很多小说是平铺直叙的河流,那么这本书更像是一张错综复杂的星图,你需要借助特定的坐标系才能理解其中的星座排列。我尤其欣赏作者在运用非传统叙事视角上的胆识。故事不是由一个中心人物讲述,而是通过多达十几位不同年龄、不同社会阶层的“碎片化”声音拼凑而成,每一个声音都有其自身的偏见、记忆的扭曲和信息的不完整性。这种多重叙事带来的效果是:你作为读者,被迫成为了真相的侦探,你需要自行判断哪些信息是可信的,哪些是出于嫉妒或恐惧的臆想。这本书对“记忆”的探讨尤其深刻——究竟是客观发生的事件重要,还是我们选择相信的版本更具有力量?书中有一段关于童年创伤的描述,通过不同成年子女的回忆交叉对比,那种记忆的不可靠性和情感的遗留效应被描绘得淋漓尽致,令人动容。这需要读者有极大的耐心去梳理和重构,但一旦沉浸其中,那种发现真相的智力快感是无与伦比的。
评分我发现这部作品的“气氛”塑造能力达到了一个惊人的高度,几乎可以称得上是一部氛围小说范本。它不依赖于快节奏的动作场面,而是通过对感官细节的极致捕捉,营造出一种持续的、缓慢压抑的紧张感。空气是厚重的,光线是昏黄的,人物的对话总是慢半拍。书中有一段描述了主角在一栋老宅中度过一个夏末的下午,墙壁上的藤蔓、阳光穿过百叶窗投下的斑驳光影,以及远处隐约传来的教堂钟声,所有的元素都和谐地指向一个主题:无声的衰败。这种衰败不仅仅是物质上的,更是精神和道德上的缓慢瓦解。这本书的哲学意味也相当浓厚,它探讨了艺术创作的本质与个人牺牲之间的永恒矛盾。每当主角试图为自己的创作找到道德上的正当性时,作者都会用一个无情的事实来将其击碎。这本书读起来让人感觉有些沉重,需要在一个安静、不受打扰的环境中才能真正体会到它那低沉的、如同大提琴独奏般的悲剧美感。它会让你在合上书页后,久久地沉浸在那种略带忧郁的美学氛围中,久久不能自拔。
评分我的天呐,这本书简直是一团缠绕不清的、华丽的丝线球!我得承认,在大概五分之一处我差点想放弃,因为它的人物关系网实在太密集了,每个人似乎都和另一个人有着某种说不清道不明的关联,充满了世代的恩怨和未竟的情愫。但一旦你穿过了最开始那片迷雾,你会发现作者的布局是多么精妙绝伦。她构建了一个微缩的社会景观,在这个空间里,所有的道德界限都是模糊的,善与恶的界限被日光的照射角度不断改变。这本书的魅力就在于它的“不确定性”。你永远无法完全确定某个角色是好是坏,他们所有的决定似乎都处于一种灰色的地带。最让我印象深刻的是关于“背叛”主题的处理。它没有采用传统的狗血桥段,而是通过无数次微小的、日常的失信与承诺的违背累积而成,最终像多米诺骨牌一样推倒了一切。作者对情感的描写带着一种近乎残酷的写实主义,没有过多的浪漫化处理,直指人心最脆弱、最自私的那部分。读完后,我感觉自己对身边的人都多了一层审视的目光,思考着我们自己生活中的那些“小小的不忠诚”究竟会导向何方。这是一部令人不安,但又极富营养的作品。
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