2021年经济学人 《美丽世界，你在哪里》书评（1）

Books and Arts

文学与艺术

Book Review

书评

Irish fiction - the trouble with normality

爱尔兰小说——正常的麻烦

Sally Rooney's new novel pushes her technique to its logical extreme

萨莉·鲁尼的新小说将她的技巧推向了逻辑的极致

Beautiful World, Where Are You. By Sally Rooney.

《美丽世界，你在哪里》，作者：萨莉·鲁尼

“Nothing odd will do long,” said Samuel Johnson of Laurence Sterne’s digressive¹ novel “Tristram Shandy”.

“任何古怪的事都不会长久，”塞缪尔·约翰逊在评价劳伦斯·斯特恩的离题小说《项狄传》时如是说。

This verdict was misguided on two counts.

这个评判的错误性体现在两个方面。

“Tristram Shandy”is now regarded as one of the great achievements of 18th-century literature; meanwhile the novel, then in its infancy², developed into a form that teems³ with oddity.

《项狄传》现在被视为18世纪文学的伟大成就之一；另一方面，这部小说在当时还处于萌芽阶段，却发展成了一种充满怪诞的形式。

It is a repository of peculiar⁴ characters, settings and situations, flights of idiosyncratic language and jags of startling perception.

它是一座宝库，充满奇特人物、场景和情节，不寻常的奇幻语言，以及令人吃惊的洞察力。

By contrast, as their titles suggest, “Conversations with Friends” and “Normal People”, Sally Rooney’s first two books, focused on everyday aspects of life — friendship, romance, growing up — which they chronicled in limpid⁵ but unflashy prose.

相比之下，正如书名所示——《聊天记录》和《正常人》，莎莉·鲁尼的前两本书专注于生活的日常方面——友谊、浪漫、成长——它们被编织进简洁而朴实的文字中。

Both were acclaimed⁶ by critics, became bestsellers and have been adapted for television.

这两本书都受到了评论家们的赞赏，成为了畅销书，并被改编成电视剧。

In Ms Rooney’s stories, normality is not merely her subject matter.

在鲁尼的故事中，“正常”不仅仅是她的主题。

It is also a virtue⁷ to be cultivated, perhaps even the key to happiness.

它也是一种需要培养的美德，甚至也许是幸福的关键。

“He’s quite normal,” says one character of another’s religious faith in the Irish author’s third novel; “he won’t try to convert you or anything.”

“他很正常，”在这位爱尔兰作家的第三部小说中，一个人物谈到另一个人的宗教信仰时说：“他不会试图改变你的信仰或者其它什么。”

The outline of “Beautiful World, Where Are You” will seem familiar to readers of its predecessors⁸.

《美丽世界，你在哪里》的故事梗概对于读过前面几本书的读者来说似乎很熟悉。

Alice, a successful but troubled novelist, has moved to the Irish coast where she meets Felix, a warehouse⁹ worker.

爱丽丝是一位成功但麻烦缠身的小说家，她搬到爱尔兰海岸，在那里她遇到了仓库工人菲利克斯。

Her best friend Eileen, dismally¹⁰ house-sharing in Dublin, is tortured by her infatuation with Simon, whom she has known since childhood.

她最好的朋友艾琳在都柏林与人合租，情绪低落。艾琳从小就认识西蒙，而她对西蒙的迷恋折磨着她。

The story vibrates to their romantic havering.

故事围绕他们的爱情徘徊展开。

But compared with the work of Jane Austen — which Ms Rooney admires, and in which courtship drives the plot and the climax¹¹ is marriage — her tales of messy modern love follow improvised¹² patterns.

但与简·奥斯丁的作品相比——鲁尼很欣赏简·奥斯丁的作品，在简·奥斯丁的作品中，求爱推动情节，婚姻成就高潮——她的混乱现代爱情故事遵循即兴创作的模式。

Sex, which she describes unsqueamishly and arrestingly, is a beginning not a destination, and tends to lead to an enervating¹³ stasis (male domination and female masochism crop up frequently).

她对性的描述毫不拘谨且引人注目，性只是开始，不是终点。性爱往往会陷入一种萎靡的停滞状态（男性主宰和女性受虐狂经常出现）。

Relationships meander¹⁴ in a state of quantum irresolution¹⁵, the parties likely to have different perceptions of whether they are off or on.

感情关系在大量的犹豫不决中徘徊，双方可能对他们是否在一起都有不同看法。

1 digressive   

adj.枝节的，离题的

参考例句：

• Don't digress when lecturing.讲课时不要岔开主题。
• His essay digress from the main subject.他的文章离开主题。

2 infancy   

n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期

参考例句：

• He came to England in his infancy.他幼年时期来到英国。
• Their research is only in its infancy.他们的研究处于初级阶段。

3 teems   

v.充满( teem的第三人称单数 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注

参考例句：

• The swamp teems with mosquitoes. 这片沼泽地蚊子多极了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• That book teems with blunders. 那本书错误不少。 来自辞典例句

4 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

5 limpid   

adj.清澈的，透明的

参考例句：

• He has a pair of limpid blue eyes.他有一双清澈的蓝眼睛。
• The sky was a limpid blue,as if swept clean of everything.碧空如洗。

6 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

7 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。

8 predecessors   

n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身

参考例句：

• The new government set about dismantling their predecessors' legislation. 新政府正着手废除其前任所制定的法律。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Will new plan be any more acceptable than its predecessors? 新计划比原先的计划更能令人满意吗？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。

10 dismally   

adv.阴暗地，沉闷地

参考例句：

• Fei Little Beard assented dismally. 费小胡子哭丧着脸回答。 来自子夜部分
• He began to howl dismally. 它就凄凉地吠叫起来。 来自辞典例句

11 climax   

n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点

参考例句：

• The fifth scene was the climax of the play.第五场是全剧的高潮。
• His quarrel with his father brought matters to a climax.他与他父亲的争吵使得事态发展到了顶点。

12 improvised   

a.即席而作的,即兴的

参考例句：

• He improvised a song about the football team's victory. 他即席创作了一首足球队胜利之歌。
• We improvised a tent out of two blankets and some long poles. 我们用两条毛毯和几根长竿搭成一个临时帐蓬。

13 enervating   

v.使衰弱，使失去活力( enervate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The folds of her scarlet silk gown gave off the enervating smell of poppies. 她那件大红绸袍的衣褶里发出销魂蚀骨的罂粟花香。 来自辞典例句

14 meander   

n.河流的曲折，漫步，迂回旅行；v.缓慢而弯曲地流动，漫谈

参考例句：

• Visitors and locals alike meander along the sidewalks of the Seine River.游客与当地人沿着塞纳河岸漫步聊天。
• They tumble down mountainsides and meander through flat farmlands.它们滚滚冲下山脊，蜿蜒穿过平坦的农田。

15 irresolution   

n.不决断，优柔寡断，犹豫不定

参考例句：

• A lack of certainty that often leads to irresolution. 疑惑缺少肯定而导致犹豫不决。 来自互联网
• Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? 我们迟疑不决、无所作为就能积聚力量吗？ 来自互联网