列寧格勒的麥當娜

The Madonnas of Leningrad
列寧格勒的麥當娜

I've just finished "The Madonnas of Leningrad" in a rush. This is the most depressing book that I have ever read recently. That's why I've finished in a rush because I wanted to escape from that frustrating feeling as soon as possible.
快快地讀完了“列寧格勒的麥當娜”。這是我近來讀過的一本最讓人壓抑的書，這也是我為什麽快快地把它讀完的原因－盡快脫離令人難受沮喪的感覺。

The protagonist is Marina, a Russian woman who worked in the Hermitage Museum as a tour guide in her 20's. Her student boyfriend Dmitri joined the People's Volunteer Army when Hitler started invading Leningrad ie. Peterborough. He proposed to her the night just before he'd departured with the army.
女主人公Marina年輕時在冬宮博物館作講解員，她的學生男朋友Dmitri在希特勒開始要進攻列寧格勒也即彼德堡時參加了人民誌願軍，臨行前向Marina求婚。

She and other Hermitage staff took all valuable paintings from frames to protect them from the war. They stayed in the cellar of the museum for 3 months during the German’s 90 day siege, and they suffered from cold and famine, and many people including Marina's uncle and aunt died of malnutrition, and of loss of the meaning of the life.
Marina和館裏的工作人員將所有珍貴的物品，畫等都包好轉移，各個大廳的牆上隻留學了一個個空的畫框。
在長達90天的圍城期間，他們待在博物館的地下室內。在不斷地空襲之下，饑餓寒冷也在折磨著他們，每人每天隻有巴掌大小的一塊麵包。漸漸地，人們開始死於饑餓，死於信念的喪失，這其中也包括Marina的舅舅和舅母。

After the war, Marina found Dmitri in a Germany captive camp. Dmitri could be killed if he returned to the Stalin’s Soviet Union because he was once captured by their enemy. So they disguised themselves as being Polish and then immigrated to the US.
戰爭之後，Marina在德國的俘虜營找到了Dmitri. Dmitri的俘虜身份使得他們不能重返蘇聯，所以他們假稱自己是波蘭人，被準許移民去了美國。

They obviously had a good life there, as their son was a doctor and the daughter worked in the government, but the author omitted this potentially joyous time. Maria suffered Alzheimer’s in her 80's, or to put it more accurately, Dmitri and her daughter and son suffered when they saw their beloved wife and mother becoming more and more lost and absorbed in a world they couldn't understand. However, the author made it clear to readers that Maria actually was reliving the time she stayed in the cellar of the Hermitage. It is the time she starved and witnessed her uncle and aunt’s deterioration and death, and the time she built her “memory palace” of those disappeared paintings in order to hold on to the life. It is the most horrible time in her whole life.

他們在美國的生活應該是不錯的，兒子成了醫生，女兒在政府部門工作，但作者略去了這段，直接跳到已80歲的Marina，這時她已患了老年癡呆症。她本人並無任何痛苦的感覺，真正痛苦的是和她患難一生的Dmitri和兒女們。他們眼看著曾經熟悉熱愛的Marina變得越來越不可理喻，越來越陷入她自己的世界。
而讀者很明白Marina是又回到了她一生中最痛苦的時期－戰爭時期。在這個階段中她忍饑挨鋨，親眼目睹了舅舅被鋨死，舅母喪失了活的意誌也隨之而去，而她自己則靠著看著展覽大廳裏那些空空的畫框憑記憶背誦
原畫的內容而支撐著活下去。

The structure of the book jumps between the Soviet Union and contemporary America, between young, starved Marina and old, eroded Marina, chapter by chapter. This jumping rudely interrupts the reader’s mind and forces them to switch back and forth repeatedly. It is so desperate and cruel that there’s no happiness, no peace and no hope can be felt anywhere whether going back or forward , till the end, till Maria’s death.
這本書的結構是一章戰爭時的蘇聯，忍饑挨鋨的Marina; 一章現代的美國，老年癡呆症越來越惡化的Marina來回交替。這種不斷地跳來跳去粗暴地打斷了讀者的思路，迫使他們也來來回回地跟著變。而最令人絕望和殘忍的是不論是回憶還是現在，沒有一處給人以幸福，寧靜和希望, 直至全書的結尾－Marina的死亡。

The only bright part in the book is that Maria guided a group of students in the Hermitage, pointed to empty frames and vividly explained famous paintings based on her memory and understanding. It was actually based on a true story and is very moving.
全書最有光亮的部分是Marina帶領一群學生穿過一個個展廳，對著那些空空的畫框憑著她的記憶和感受栩栩如生地給他們講解原本在那裏的名畫。這個細節是基於真實的故事，非常感人。

This book presses so much pain, suffering and desperation into the reader’s mind but doesn’t give them a tiny chance to release these pressures, maybe it's why I have to write this review. I don’t understand why the book is so overwhelming in its depictions of sadness.
這本書給讀者塞進了太多的痛苦，受難和絕望，卻沒有一處能讓他們釋放這種壓抑－這也許正是我必須得寫這篇讀後感的初衷。作者難道隻要傳達哀傷和無望的感覺嗎？

March 21, 2009