讀書心得：“Everything Is Illuminated” by Jonathan Safran Foer

“Everything Is Illuminated” by Jonathan Safran Foer

因為太喜歡這本書了，我都不知道從何寫起。 

作者Jonathan Safran Foer實在太強了，他寫這本小說的時候才二十出頭。 小說以他自己大學時去烏克蘭尋根的實際經驗為藍本，以書信和小說章節兩條情節交織擰麻花。 

其中一條線以烏克蘭大學生Alex給Jonathan的書信為文體，敘述了Jonathan的烏克蘭之旅，而著蹩腳英文的Alex正是他的導遊兼翻譯，Alex不苟言笑的爺爺則是司機。 他們的目的地就是Jonathan爺爺的故鄉－－一個在烏克蘭和波蘭邊界的猶太小村Trachimbrod，當納粹來臨之際，全村的猶太人被集體屠殺，隻有Jonathan爺爺在一位俄國少女Augustine的幫助下幸免於難。 Alex那支離破碎的英文真是又可笑又可愛，加上烏美兩國的文化差異，還有Alex的政治不正確（“But I dig Negroes. I dig them all the way.” ），叫人忍不住捧腹大笑。

而另一條線則是Jonathan寄給Alex的小說手稿，這些章節是以Trachimbrod祖祖輩輩村民的記憶之書（傳奇）為本，講述了這個已消失的村落被納粹鏟平前150年的曆史。 就像很多俄國作品，這些傳奇故事充滿了魔幻和想象力，愛和哀傷，希望和絕望，暴力和溫柔，都那樣鮮明地在時間長河裏流淌交融，即使荒誕誇張得令人匪夷所思，背後的真情仍敲擊我們心靈深處最柔軟的暗角。

兩條麻花擰啊擰，最後終於融合一處，真相大白，everything is illuminated，卻是那麽的沉重，令人心碎。

這本書太奇妙了，叫人讀的時候忍不住笑，讀完忍不住哭，內心激蕩，久久不息。

Quotes:
“I used to think that humor was the only way to appreciate how wonderful and terrible the world is, to celebrate how big life is. But now I think the opposite. Humor is a way of shrinking from that wonderful and terrible world.”

“Please be truthful, but also please be benevolent, please.”

“...This is a kiss. It is what happens when lips are puckered and pressed against something, sometimes other lips, sometimes a cheek, sometimes something else. It depends...This is my heart. You are touching it with your left hand, not because you are left-handed, although you might be, but because I am holding it against my heart. What you are feeling is the beating of my heart. It is what keeps me alive.”

“It is not a thing that you can imagine. It only is. After that, there can be no imagining.”

“In the water I saw my father's face, and that face saw the face of its father, and so on, and so on, reflecting backward to the beginning of time, to the face of God, in whose image we were created.”

“The Eskimos have four hundred words for snow, and the Jews have four hundred for schmuck.”

“Everyone performs bad actions. I do. Father does. Even you do. A bad person is someone who does not lament his bad actions.”
 

 

[bbmeng]

受益了，謝謝量子妹妹。

[lepton]

回複 'laoyangdelp' 的評論 :
好啊, 我做了一個讀書報告總結。 http://blog.wenxuecity.com/myblog/42591/201702/4757.html 不過後來就沒更新了，因為我覺得還是寫英文的比較順，也比較有共鳴。

- "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr,
- "The Storied Life of A.J.Fikry" by Gabrielle Zevin,
- "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak,
- "The Invention of Curried Sausage" by Uwe Timm
- "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
- "Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets" by Svetlana Alexievich
- "A Man Called Ove" by Fredrik Backman
- "The Martian" by Andy Weir
- "Small Fry" by Lisa Brennan-Jobs
- "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" by Anthony Marra
- "The Light Between Oceans" by M.L.Stedman
- "The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller
- "Born a Crime" by Trevor Noah (audio book)
- "Educated" by Tara Westover
- "Big Little Lies" by Liane Moriarty
- "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry
- "Cutting the Stone" by Abraham Verghese
- "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
- "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" by Gail Honeyman
- "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
- "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi
- "A gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles
- "News of the World" by Paulette Jiles
- "Dancing Bears" by Witold Szablowski
- "Chemistry" by Weike Wang
- "Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh

先這樣好嗎？

[laoyangdelp]

妹妹也是個喜歡讀書的，給我推薦幾本書吧。謝謝！