美国国家公共电台 NPR Rose Tremain On Her New Novel, 'The Gustav Sonata'

Rose Tremain On Her New Novel, 'The Gustav Sonata¹' 

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0006:39repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser² to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

British novelist Rose Tremain has spent close to 40 years imagining the stories of other people. She's written more than a dozen novels set in different eras and places. Her latest tells the story of Gustav Perle, a little boy growing up in World War II-era Switzerland. He adores his mother, but she is an angry, hostile woman and she does not return that love.

ROSE TREMAIN: It's the thing from which everything follows, this unrequited love that he has for this very neglectful mother. She has had a past which makes her unable to love this little boy. I think - well, I hope that the readers find him lovable. He's incredibly thoughtful, kind, generous, sort of self-controlled and all the things that we wish children to be.

MARTIN: Gustav has been forced to control his emotions to some degree. You allude³ to this. You say it explicitly⁴, actually, early on in the novel. And you do it in this description of him, of Gustav, in a way that reads almost like a mission statement for the novel. I wonder if you could read that bit.

TREMAIN: (Reading) He never cried. He could often feel a cry trying to come up from his heart, but he always forced it down because this was how his mother had told him to behave in the world. He had to master himself. The world was alive with wrongdoing, she said. But Gustav had to emulate⁵ his father who, when wronged, had behaved like an honorable man. He had mastered himself. In this way, Gustav would be prepared for the uncertainties⁶ to come because even in Switzerland where the war hadn't trespassed⁷, nobody yet knew how the future would unfold. So you see, she said, you have to be like Switzerland. Do you understand me? You have to hold yourself together and be courageous⁸ and stay separate and strong. Then you will have the right kind of life.

MARTIN: This is all happening in the aftermath of World War II. And Emily - this is Gustav's mother - they're in Switzerland. And she is just laying it out there for him, that there is some kind of value, real important value, in this idea of neutrality that extends beyond the nation state of Switzerland. But it is - it's personal. It's about survival.

TREMAIN: I'm not sure that the readers necessarily early on in this book make this connection, which was the one that really interested me when I started to think out the sort of first ideas of this book, was to talk about Swiss neutrality. Which - I think perhaps those of us who don't know Switzerland very well, we sort of imagined that the Swiss were quite serene⁹ about their own neutrality during the war. And of course, they weren't at all. It was extremely difficult for them. They didn't know that the Germans weren't going to invade. This could've happened at any moment. So I was really interested to examine not just neutrality as it unfolded in Switzerland, but to create a person who is striving for a kind of - a neutrality which risks to become just simply an absence of feeling, a kind of forced refusal to engage with passionate¹⁰ feeling.

MARTIN: The backstory is important here and crucial to this narrative¹¹ because Gustav's father was not neutral in a very important moment, right?

TREMAIN: Yes. This is very important. As I say, we think of the Swiss as being serene about their neutrality, but of course they weren't. And particularly, they had a dilemma¹² with regard to Jewish people coming over from Germany and Austria in 1938 when the Angelus came to try and seek sanctuary¹³ in Switzerland. And the Swiss were at first very welcoming, and then the numbers began to pile up. You know, we know this whole, you know, state about people who are refugees. We know it well today.

And what Gustav's father does is a very generous thing. He's an assistant police chief. And a diktat goes out from high office saying that any Jews coming across or trying to come across into Switzerland after I think it was the 18th of August, 1938 are to be sent back. And Gustav's father, Eric, understands what they're going to be sent back to - either to a labor¹⁴ camp or probably to death.

And so he makes this extraordinary decision to falsify the dates for not hundreds of people, but many, many Jews coming across. And therefore, he's saving lives. Well, what really interested me about that is that here is somebody who does something very brave and heroic and exceptional and yet who, in the course of this book, is actually punished for this wonderfully altruistic¹⁵ deed that he does.

MARTIN: After writing this, after kind of getting into this idea of neutrality, how it affects a people, a nation-state and the individual, do you have new thoughts about the idea of neutrality? Is it achievable? Is it real? Or is it just indifference¹⁶?

TREMAIN: It's how we each manage it, isn't it? I think that this - you know, this desire for what I've called neutrality can be quite dangerous. I mean, some people responding to this book over here point out that sort of by the end of the book, Gustav has gone from a state of neutrality to almost being neutered. His life just circles around small comforts. He runs a hotel. And he comes to the conclusion that life is really only bearable if you go from one small, incremental¹⁷ delight to another. So you could say that - you know, that all his efforts at self-mastery and neutrality have arrived at this rather baleful state.

MARTIN: Rose Tremain. Her newest novel is called "The Gustav Sonata." Thank you so much for talking with us.

TREMAIN: Thank you very much.

1 sonata   

n.奏鸣曲

参考例句：

• He played a piano sonata of his own composition.他弹奏了一首自作的钢琴奏鸣曲。
• The young boy played the violin sonata masterfully.那个小男孩的小提琴奏鸣曲拉得很熟练。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 allude   

v.提及，暗指

参考例句：

• Many passages in Scripture allude to this concept.圣经中有许多经文间接地提到这样的概念。
• She also alluded to her rival's past marital troubles.她还影射了对手过去的婚姻问题。

4 explicitly   

ad.明确地，显然地

参考例句：

• The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
• SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条，清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

5 emulate   

v.努力赶上或超越，与…竞争；效仿

参考例句：

• You must work hard to emulate your sister.你必须努力工作，赶上你姐姐。
• You must look at the film and try to emulate his behavior.你们必须观看这部电影，并尽力模仿他的动作。

6 uncertainties   

无把握( uncertainty的名词复数 )； 不确定； 变化不定； 无把握、不确定的事物

参考例句：

• One of the uncertainties of military duty is that you never know when you might suddenly get posted away. 任军职不稳定的因素之一是你永远不知道什么时候会突然被派往它处。
• Uncertainties affecting peace and development are on the rise. 影响和平与发展的不确定因素在增加。 来自汉英非文学 - 十六大报告

7 trespassed   

（trespass的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Here is the ringleader of the gang that trespassed on your grounds. 这就是侵犯你土地的那伙人的头子。
• He trespassed against the traffic regulations. 他违反了交通规则。

8 courageous   

adj.勇敢的，有胆量的

参考例句：

• We all honour courageous people.我们都尊重勇敢的人。
• He was roused to action by courageous words.豪言壮语促使他奋起行动。

9 serene   

adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的

参考例句：

• He has entered the serene autumn of his life.他已进入了美好的中年时期。
• He didn't speak much,he just smiled with that serene smile of his.他话不多，只是脸上露出他招牌式的淡定的微笑。

10 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

11 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

12 dilemma   

n.困境，进退两难的局面

参考例句：

• I am on the horns of a dilemma about the matter.这件事使我进退两难。
• He was thrown into a dilemma.他陷入困境。

13 sanctuary   

n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区

参考例句：

• There was a sanctuary of political refugees behind the hospital.医院后面有一个政治难民的避难所。
• Most countries refuse to give sanctuary to people who hijack aeroplanes.大多数国家拒绝对劫机者提供庇护。

14 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

15 altruistic   

adj.无私的，为他人着想的

参考例句：

• It is superficial to be altruistic without feeling compassion.无慈悲之心却说利他，是为表面。
• Altruistic spirit should be cultivated by us vigorously.利他的精神是我们应该努力培养的。

16 indifference   

n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎

参考例句：

• I was disappointed by his indifference more than somewhat.他的漠不关心使我很失望。
• He feigned indifference to criticism of his work.他假装毫不在意别人批评他的作品。

17 incremental   

adj.增加的

参考例句：

• For logic devices, the incremental current gain is very important. 对于逻辑器件来说，提高电流增益是非常重要的。 来自辞典例句
• By using an incremental approach, the problems involving material or geometric nonlinearity have been solved. 借应用一种增量方法，已经解决了包括材料的或几何的非线性问题。 来自辞典例句