From Publishers Weekly Many of the nine stories in Crittenden's debut collection explore the hurt of family life from a child's perspective, describing the moments when young people are catapulted into the adult world. In the title story, nine-year-old Robin gets a distressing glimpse of adult mysteries on a family visit to an uncle's home. Robin dimly perceives the circumstances of her uncle's divorce ("It seemed like a dirty word... that she wasn't supposed to know"); her mother comes home drunk from a party one night; and a teenage babysitter steals her parents' condoms. The moon landing seen on TV seems as unreal to her as life in scorching hot and smoggy L.A. In "What Her Sister Wanted," Jamie misses her dad and blames her mother for leaving him, and a birthday trip to Marine World provides the setting for a painful deception where she and her sibling suffer for their parents' animosity. Intricately detailed West Coast settings and a supple range of characters display Crittenden's poignant comprehension of the fragmentation of memory and how early bonds of love reverberate throughout a lifetime. Other stories feature adult protagonists, such as "Careful," where sexual compatibility reveals a missing component in the fragile relationship of a young couple, and the resolution is unexpected and moving. Like conversations that are left unfinished, Crittenden's stories stir up more than they resolve, but readers will appreciate the author's dexterity with imperfect intimacies and untidy emotions. Agent: Susan Schulman. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist These are small stories: no more than a vignette, usually. Their subjects tend to be mournful: loss or separation, often between brother and sister. Crittenden has an eye for what makes siblings one flesh and bone, for the pulse and rhythms that keep them together no matter what life has brought about to separate them. There are other separations, too: parents divorced or dead, echoing down the days of the protagonists. In "Away from Trees," an archaeologist mourns her brother, dead in a rock-climbing accident, overshadowing both her search for obsidian and a tentative step into a lover's embrace. In "Like This," a crack addict thinks he sees his sister on the street and delineates the immensity of the difference between them in a fragment of memory and a sandwich. The final story packs a particular punch: a mismatched couple tries to tell each other their story away from the carnal desire that licks at them, so that his science and her art might come together. GraceAnne A. DeCandido See all Editorial Reviews
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这本书的叙事节奏像一条缓慢流淌的河流,不急不躁地将你带入一个既熟悉又疏离的世界。作者在构建人物群像时,展现了一种近乎手术刀般的精准度,每一个角色的动机、每一次踌躇,都像是被精心放置在沙盘上的棋子,看似随意,实则暗藏玄机。我尤其欣赏作者在描绘日常生活细节时的那种细腻入微,那些关于光线如何穿过布满灰尘的窗棂,或是清晨厨房里咖啡壶发出的嘶嘶声,都不仅仅是背景音,它们是烘托情绪的绝佳道具。读到中段,我甚至产生了一种错觉,仿佛自己真的搬进了故事里那个有些霉味的小镇,能闻到雨后泥土的气息。然而,这种沉浸感并非建立在戏剧性的高潮之上,而是源于对“存在”本身状态的深刻反思。它更像是一部用散文笔法写成的内心史诗,探讨的是那些我们习惯性忽略的微小瞬间如何汇集成我们对世界的全部认知。对于那些期待爆炸性情节的读者来说,这可能略显平淡,但我更愿意将其视为一种温柔的抵抗,是对快餐式阅读文化的一种优雅回击。文字的韵律感是其最迷人之处,读起来犹如聆听一曲悠扬的大提琴独奏,低沉而富有磁性,每一个句子的断句和停顿都仿佛经过了诗人般的斟酌。
评分如果用一个词来形容我的阅读感受,那一定是“压抑的宏大”。这本书的视角非常独特,它似乎是从一个极高的地方俯瞰整个世界的运作机制,但同时又将笔触聚焦在那些最微不足道的个体命运上。作者似乎对人类的集体无意识有着异乎寻常的洞察力,他描绘的群体行为,无论是狂热的追随还是无声的背叛,都显得无比真实且令人不安。我仿佛能感受到那种潜藏在社会肌理之下的、持续不断的焦虑感。叙事者采用了一种几乎是记录片的口吻,客观到近乎冷酷,然而正是这种冷静,反而放大了事件背后的悲剧性。书中对环境和地貌的描写达到了诗意的极致,那些被遗弃的工厂、被侵蚀的海岸线,它们不再仅仅是背景,它们成了角色情感的延伸和命运的预兆。很多章节的结尾都戛然而止,留下了巨大的悬念,但这些悬念并非情节上的钩子,而是关于存在意义的诘问。这本书强迫你直面那些不适的真相,它不提供廉价的安慰,只提供一个更清晰、也更令人心碎的观察角度。
评分我不得不承认,初读这本书时,我的体验是有些挣扎的。它的开篇异常缓慢,像是在一片浓雾中摸索前行,直到第三个章节才逐渐显露出清晰的轮廓。这本书的结构极其复杂,它采用了一种非线性叙事,时间线在过去、现在和一种近乎预言的未来之间来回跳跃,这要求读者必须时刻保持高度的注意力。有那么一刻,我感觉自己像是在拼凑一幅被打乱的马赛克,所有的碎片看似无关,却又隐隐约约指向一个共同的中心点。但一旦你适应了这种叙事节奏,并开始理解作者在不同时间点之间埋设的那些微妙的呼应和伏笔时,那种豁然开朗的体验是极其令人满足的。作者的语言风格极其冷峻和克制,情绪的宣泄总是被包裹在理性的分析之下,这使得故事的力量积蓄到了最后才猛烈爆发。它并非通过大声疾呼来表达痛苦,而是通过沉默和留白来制造张力,这种“反向操作”显得尤为高明。我尤其喜欢作者对“记忆”这一主题的处理,它被描绘成一种流动的、不可靠的实体,每一次回忆都伴随着新的扭曲和重构,这让我对自身的经历也产生了新的审视。这本书需要耐心,但它给予的回报,是远超预期的智力上的愉悦和情感上的共鸣。
评分这本书的哲学思辨色彩非常浓厚,与其说它是一个故事,不如说它是一场关于“边界”的深度探讨。作者反复审视着人与自然、个体与集体、真实与虚构之间的那条模糊界线。角色们似乎总是在某个临界点上徘徊,他们所做的每一个选择,都像是在测试既有规则的承受极限。我特别欣赏作者如何运用那些晦涩难懂的专业术语,但却能将其巧妙地融入日常对话中,使得原本高深的理论变得触手可及,却又保持了其应有的复杂性。这绝不是一本可以放松阅读的书籍;它需要你在阅读时不断地停下来,对着空白处喃喃自语,试图解析那些隐藏在字面意义之下的更深层次的隐喻。这种阅读体验是耗费心神的,但它带来的思想上的拓展感是无与伦比的。与那些直抒胸臆的小说不同,这本书的魅力在于它的“拒绝被完全捕获”,它总是在你以为抓住核心时,又悄然溜走,留下了一片广阔的、等待读者自己去填补的空白地带。它像是一面极其复杂的棱镜,将我们习以为常的光线折射出千百种不同的色彩。
评分这本书像是一场精致的解谜游戏,但谜题的答案并不在于“谁做了什么”,而在于“我们为什么会如此”。我特别欣赏作者在构建世界观时所展现出的百科全书式的知识储备,无论是古代神话的引用,还是对现代心理学理论的化用,都处理得浑然天成,没有丝毫堆砌感。故事的推动力来自于人物之间微妙的权力角逐和信息不对称,每个人都在努力解读另一个人的意图,却又常常陷入自我设限的囚笼。全书的对话充满了机锋和潜台词,你必须仔细品味每一个词语的选择和语气的微妙变化,才能捕捉到真正发生的事情。这是一种需要全神贯注、甚至需要反复回读的文学体验。它对传统叙事结构的颠覆是彻底的,故事的逻辑更多是情感上的关联而非时间上的线性推演。最终读完后,留下的不是一个完整的故事结局,而是一系列闪烁着智慧光芒的碎片,它们在你脑海中继续碰撞、组合,久久不能平息。这本书成功地将高雅的文学追求与对人性深处的探究融为了一炉,是一次极具挑战性但回报丰厚的阅读冒险。
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