好書推薦：“The Snow Child” by Eowyn Ivey

德州炎夏的大毒日頭下穿越至阿拉斯加的刺骨寒風中，是一種怎樣特別的體驗？ 這本快四百頁的“The Snow Child”就有這種魔力，叫你如被狂風暴雪包裹，卻同時又感受著身處風暴中心眼的靜定沉潛。

我已經忘了為什麽會選這本書。 在圖書館等了一陣才排到。 讀到1/4時，我不禁開始擔心：小說的結尾是不是會很悲傷啊？ 哎呀，簡直想要翻書尾啊。（不過還是強迫自己不要，也絕對不會在這裏暴雷。）

1920年代，Jack和Mabel這對中年夫妻，從美國東部搬家到阿拉斯加。 十年前失去了唯一的初生兒，那徹骨傷痛成為他們心頭永遠的十字架；而親友們兒孫滿堂的熱鬧，和親戚間的閑言閑語，更令他們難以出走撕裂傷痕。 搬家到人煙荒蕪的阿拉斯加，為的就是遠離這一切。 他們想要在孤獨中喘息、療傷、遺忘，重新開始生活。

但阿拉斯加的嚴酷和荒涼令他們措手不及、屢屢碰壁，幾乎吞噬了他們一切的希望，夫妻關係也陷入冰點，正如那陰沉黑暗的冬天。 下第一場雪時，Mabel想起了自己喜歡的俄國童話：年邁的老夫妻膝下無子，有一天，他們堆了一個雪女孩，隔天這個雪人真的變成了一個活生生的女孩。。。然而這個童話的結局卻是失去的哀傷。

初雪的欣喜叫夫妻二人短暫忘卻了塵世煩憂，像小孩子一樣堆了個雪人，還給她打扮成可愛的女孩。 而第二天，一個神秘的小女孩就像是童話般出現在他們眼前！ 但，她不屬於Jack和Mabel，雪融的時候，她總是回到自由的荒野中，以開闊的天地為家，像個精靈般無法捉摸。 Jack和Mabel多麽愛她，想要留住她、擁有她，卻隻能抑製自己的渴望，默默地等待、守護、和關愛。

隨著雪孩兒的來去，女孩長成了少女，Jack和Mabel也在鄰居好友的幫助下紮根、成長、蛻變。 全書最令我感動的就是他們兩人間經過傷痛、低穀，而後胼手胝足日漸堅強；對於女孩，在放手和擁有間的掙紮；還有兩人重燃的愛情。 然而，這個精靈般的少女能否適應人間煙火？ 現實的發展能否扭轉童話的悲劇結局？ 還是，這一切都隻是生命的一場捉弄？

作者以幽婉細膩的文字，白描阿拉斯加的蠻荒與溫柔—無邊的蒼茫、參天的古木、陡峭的岩石、積冰的河流、漫天的風雪。。。以及各種山林走獸，還有這個仙子般的女孩，在一支火狐的伴隨下，輕快地在雪野中來去自如，畫麵令人悠然神往。

然而在加拿大度過高中時代的我，忘不了那刺骨寒風如冰刀的痛，忘不了雪地裏開車的險惡危機，忘不了冬天永遠陰霾的黑暗天空，還有臃腫的裝扮。 大概絕大部分愛笑愛鬧的年輕人，都太難以享受冰寂的雪國冬夜。

“It was beautiful, Mabel knew, but it was a beauty that ripped you open and scored you clean so that you were left helpless and exposed, if you lived at all.”
"Wherever the work stopped, the wilderness was there, older, fiercer, stronger than any man could ever hope to be. The spindly black spruce were so dense in places you couldn't squeeze an arm between them, and every living thing seemed barbed and hostile."
"Alaska gave up nothing easily. It was lean and wild and indifferent to a man's struggle." "Maybe that was how a man held up his end of the bargain, by learning and taking into his heart this strange wilderness - guarded and naked, violent and meek, tremulous in its greatness."

本書作者Eowyn Ivey真的就跟家人過著返璞歸真的生活，沒有自來水，伐木燒柴，打獵種菜。。。 真的是現代版的漁樵耕讀，遺世獨立的典範啊。

在盛夏讀這本書，有如籠罩在夜光下晶瑩美麗的雪花紛飛，書中原始純淨的天地，熠熠生光，實在是非常享受的一場閱讀盛宴。

Quotes:
“We never know what is going to happen, do we? Life is always throwing us this way and that. That’s where the adventure is. Not knowing where you’ll end up or how you’ll fare. It’s all a mystery, and when we say any different, we’re just lying to ourselves. Tell me, when have you felt most alive?”

“In my old age, I see that life itself is often more fantastic and terrible than the stories we believed as children, and that perhaps there is no harm in finding magic among the trees.”

“She looked directly up into the northern lights and she wondered if those cold-burning spectres might not draw her breath, her very soul, out of her chest and into the stars.”

“She had watched other women with infants and eventually understood what she craved: the boundless permission-no, the absolute necessity- to hold and kiss and stroke this tiny person. Cradling a swaddled infant in their arms, mothers would distractedly touch their lips to their babies' foreheads. Passing their toddlers in a hall, mothers would tousle their hair even sweep them up in their arms and kiss them hard along their chins and necks until the children squealed with glee. Where else in life, Mabel wondered, could a woman love so openly and with such abandon?”

“She could not fathom the hexagonal miracle of snowflakes formed from clouds, crystallized fern and feather that tumble down to light on a coat sleeve, white stars melting even as they strike. How did such force and beauty come to be in something so small and fleeting and unknowable? You did not have to understand miracles to believe in them, and in fact Mabel had come to suspect the opposite. To believe, perhaps you had to cease looking for explanations and instead hold the little thing in your hands as long as you were able before it slipped like water between your fingers.”

“...did fear drive her? Fear of the gray, not just in the strands of her hair and her wilting cheeks, but the gray that ran deeper, to the bone, so that she thought she might turn into a fine dust and simply sift away in the wind…..”

喜歡這本書。 也許人要到有一點年紀、積累了一點生活智慧，才能欣賞北風寒冷中那種深刻和沉靜。 漫天風雪裏飄舞著晶瑩雪花，廣大之中卻又折透著細密單純的心。 我想到自己人生路上的挫折坎坷，更多的是種種恩典。 生命的實相，人生的悲歡，若用清明的眼睛，單純的心，以及溫柔的態度去麵對，便都是豐溢的收獲。