4月22日寫完毛姆的《刀鋒》讀後感，本打算歇一歇，做點別的事，卻不料沒有小說的日子，覺得好像缺點什麽。故在書架上找到這本在圖書館門口花了一刀買的John Steinbeck的《伊甸園之東》 East of Eden。

作者Steinbeck是土生土長的北加Salinas人, 曾於1962年獲諾貝爾文學獎。我讀過他的另一部並不十分出名的小說遊記Travel with Charley--in Search of America。拿起這本《伊甸園之東》之時，並不知道這是他傾其一生打造的一部巨作(magnum opus), 一部他自認為是裏程碑似的小說，小說裏有一段他的家族史，人物Samuel Hamilton的原型是他的外祖父。當我翻開它，吸引我的是開篇濃濃的鄉土氣息，那一段段Salina Valley真實形象的描寫，在我腦海立即化成了一幅幅圖畫，與自己曾經目睹、認識的北加山巒交織在一起，再一次把連綿不絕的荒山帶到自己眼前，它的貧瘠、遼闊、荒涼，映襯著山腳下灌溉的廣袤農田曾經讓我感慨，它的再現讓我對作品產生興趣，產生好奇，非常想了解作者筆下的Salinas Valley會如何，會有什麽故事。而當我翻到第二頁時，看到作者對加州州花--罌粟花的獨特比喻和描寫時更是喜出望外。如果說，拿起沉甸甸的600頁書時我尚有片刻猶豫，那麽這種猶豫立即被這自然準確形象的文字所驅散。作者在這篇小說裏說到，"人們隻對自己感興趣，一個故事如果不是關於聽者的，不是聽者熟悉的，他們不會去聽"，"一個經久不衰的故事是跟每個人有關，否則不會永世流傳"，這種說法有它一定的道理。

故事發生在十九世紀末至二十世紀初，從南北戰爭到第一次世界大戰，兩個家庭三代人的故事，故事裏的地域橫跨東西，時間上下五十年。Samuel Hamilton一家是小說裏的其一家庭。Sam早年從愛爾蘭移民，在Salinas荒涼的山穀裏紮根，他雖然擁有很大的農場，育有九個子女，每生一個子女拓寬一片宅院，然這不毛之地終究沒能給勤勞、睿智、能幹的Sam帶來富庻，他日日耕作，依然清貧如洗。

小說的重點是另一個家庭，Adam一家，他的原生家庭--父親和弟弟，和他後來自己的家庭--一個拋家棄子做了妓女/老鴇的妻子和一對雙胞胎。故事從美國東岸康州麻省到西岸，很長。我想就圍繞著小說的題目寫一點點讀後感。

《伊甸園之東》這個名字源於《聖經》《創世紀》裏第四章。亞當和夏娃生下長子Cain該隱和次子Abel亞伯，該隱務農，亞伯放牧。因著耶和華偏愛亞伯的祭物，該隱妒火中燒殺了弟弟亞伯。耶和華要懲罰該隱，在他身上做了記號，該隱最後離開了耶和華，搬到伊甸園之東諾得住下來。該隱後來生育了兒子，而亞伯卻死後無子。

回到小說。小說主人公的名字也叫亞當Adam，他有一個同父異母的兄弟Charles。 Charles因為嫉妒他父親偏愛哥哥Adam, 一個晚上將他約出家門，把Adam打得鮮血淋漓，還返回家中拿來斧頭要砍了Adam。Adam躲在草堆後的水塘裏逃此一劫。後來Adam愛上一個極品女子Cathy, 被她的表象所迷惑，兩人結婚, 生下一對雙胞胎，取名為Caleb和Aron。Cathy後來坦承，這一雙胞胎的生父不是Adam, 是他的兄弟Charles，這個疑問在小說中沒有得到最後證實，但是如果真如Cathy說的那樣，那麽Adam沒有後嗣，而Charles雖然後來病逝了，卻留下了後代。

Adam的兩個兒子Cal和Aron雖然是孿生兄弟，長相和性格卻迥異。Cal膚色黝黑，個性粗獷，弟弟Aron長得白淨精致，小巧的嘴巴，深邃的大眼 ，一頭金發，像極了當年的母親。或許是這個原因，父親偏愛Aron。17歲那年，Aron提前高中畢業，離家去斯坦福大學讀書(讀神學)，Cal則在家一邊打理農場，一邊繼續他的學業(注意: 這兩個人物其實也是一個務農，一個"放牧")。感恩節到了，Aron回到家中過節。Cal把自己做大豆期貨賺的$15，000現金包好，送給父親做禮物，不料卻遭到父親的拒絕。父親說，他更希望Cal能像弟弟一樣學有所成，而不是去發因戰爭造成大豆奇缺這樣的不義之財。憤怒沮喪無比的Cal一把火燒了這疊嶄新的鈔票，連夜帶著Aron去見他們的親身母親，他明知Aron無法接受這個事實，明知這麽做會毀了Aron, 但是他就是要報複父親對他的冷漠拒絕。麵對親身母親是妓院老鴇這個事實，Aron純真的世界頃刻塌陷。他絕望地離家出走，謊報年齡，參了軍，上了前線，最後戰死沙場。

消息傳來，Adam中風癱瘓在床。Cal愧疚難當，覺得是自己殺了Aron, 在管家Lee的勸說下，Cal來到父親床前，祈求父親原諒。父親蠕動著困難的雙唇，說出一個字: Timshel.

小說從《聖經》故事衍生，擴展開來，又以一個希伯來語結束，可謂匠心獨運。如果說這兩代人，Adam和兄弟Charles, 他(們)的雙胞胎兒子的遭遇和命運，和聖經裏的故事有相似之處，有輪回之嫌，那麽小說結尾的最後一個字就耐人尋味了。

Timshel的英文意思是thou mayest (you may)，在小說裏提到好幾次，它想表達的意思是，人有選擇權，能愛能恨，天地之寬，道路是敞開的，人可以選擇行善，也可以選擇行惡，這種選擇權是人獨有的權利，區別著人和獸的不同。在這一點上，作者或許隱約在挑戰著有神論，質疑人是否生而有罪，祖先(該隱)的罪孽是否流淌在我們這些後代人的血液裏。作者通過這個字是想告訴讀者，人是可以逃脫命運掌控的，因為我們被賦予了選擇權。

就像小說的扉頁裏寫的，人的一生不停地在盒子裏存放著東西，裏麵有苦痛，有激情，有美好，有醜惡，有設計(盒子)時的愉悅、絕望，有製作盒子時無語言喻的喜悅，還有盒子最上層覆蓋著的愛和感激...... 但即便如此，盒子依然沒有裝滿。作者把這個盒子、這部小說獻給太太，也借此把這部展現人生五彩紛呈的巨著留給我們讀者，讓我們品嚐其中的酸甜苦辣，五味雜陳，讓我們讀者在各自的人生盒子裏繼續盛裝我們的精彩和無奈.....

小說摘抄

“I remember my childhood names for grasses and secret flowers. I remember where a toad may live and what time the birds awaken in the summer -- and what trees and seasons smelled like -- how people looked and walked and smelled even. The memory of odors is very rich.”

"These too are of a burning color--not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of the poppies.”

“And, of course, people are interested only in themselves. If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen.”

“If a story is not about the hearer he [or she] will not listen . . . A great lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting--only the deeply personal and familiar.”

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.”

“I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one. . . . Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil. . . . There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well—or ill?”

“We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.”

“But I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed - because 'Thou mayest.”

“Perhaps the less we have, the more we are required to brag.”

“..it's awful not to be loved. It's the worst thing in the world...It makes you mean, and violent, and cruel.”

“It’s a hard thing to leave any deeply routine life, even if you hate it.”

“Man has a choice and it's a choice that makes him a man.”

“Time interval is a strange and contradictory matter in the mind. It would be reasonable to suppose that a routine time or an eventless time would seem interminable. It should be so, but it is not. It is the dull eventless times that have no duration whatever. A time splashed with interest, wounded with tragedy, crevassed with joy - that's the time that seems long in the memory. And this is right when you think about it. Eventlessness has no posts to drape duration on. From nothing to nothing is no time at all.”

“The Hebrew word, the word timshel - 'Thou mayest' - that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open...Why, that makes a man great...He can choose his course and fight it through and win...I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed - because 'Thou mayest'. ch 24”

“I am sifting my memories, the way men pan the dirt under a barroom floor for the bits of gold dust that fall between the cracks. It's small mining-- small mining. You're too young a man to be panning memories, Adam. You should be getting yourself some new ones, so that the mining will be richer when you come to age.”

“But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man. A cat has no choice, a bee must make honey. There's no godliness there.”  

“For the world was changing, and sweetness was gone, and virtue too. Worry had crept on a corroding world, and what was lost- good manners, ease and beauty? Ladies were not ladies anymore, and you couldn't trust a gentleman's word.”

“I remember clearly the deaths of three men. One was the richest man of the century, who, having clawed his way to wealth through the souls and bodies of men, spent many years trying to buy back the love he had forfeited and by that process performed great service to the world and, perhaps, had much more than balanced the evils of his rise. I was on a ship when he died. The news was posted on the bulletin board, and nearly everyone recieved the news with pleasure. Several said, "Thank God that son of a bitch is dead."

Then there was a man, smart as Satan, who, lacking some perception of human dignity and knowing all too well every aspect of human weakness and wickedness, used his special knowledge to warp men, to buy men, to bribe and threaten and seduce until he found himself in a position of great power. He clothed his motives in the names of virtue, and I have wondered whether he ever knew that no gift will ever buy back a man's love when you have removed his self-love. A bribed man can only hate his briber. When this man died the nation rang with praise...

There was a third man, who perhaps made many errors in performance but whose effective life was devoted to making men brave and dignified and good in a time when they were poor and frightened and when ugly forces were loose in the world to utilize their fears. This man was hated by few. When he died the people burst into tears in the streets and their minds wailed, "What can we do now?" How can we go on without him?"

In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror....we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world.”

“The greatest terror a child can have is that he is not loved, and rejection is the hell he fears. I think everyone in the world to a large or small extent has felt rejection. And with rejection comes anger, and with anger some kind of crime in revenge for the rejection, and with the crime guilt—and there is the story of mankind. I think that if rejection could be amputated, the human would not be what he is.”

“Dear Pat,

You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and you said, ‘Why don’t you make something for me?’

I asked you what you wanted, and you said, ‘A box.’

‘What for?’

‘To put things in.’

‘What things?’

‘Whatever you have,’ you said.

Well, here’s your box. Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts—the pleasures of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation.

And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you.

And still the box is not full.

John”

“During the dry years, the people forgot about the rich years, and when the wet years returned, they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.”

“Sometimes in the summer evenings they walked up the hill to watch the afterglow clinging to the tops of the western mountains and to feel the breeze drawn into the valley by the rising day-heated air. Usually they stood silently for a while and breathed in peacefulness.

“Old Sam Hamilton saw this coming. He said there couldn’t be any more universal philosophers. The weight of knowledge is too great for one mind to absorb. He saw a time when one man would know only one little fragment, but he would know it well.”