美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Grief Cottage': A Ghost Story About Loneliness, Loss And Affection

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

A stranger in the mind of an 11-year-old boy named Marcus gestures at an abandoned old home and tells him, people who go in don't always come out. Now, do you think that'll keep that boy away from the house they call Grief Cottage? It's a ghost story set on an island off the coast of 1990s South Carolina and in the life of a little boy whose mother has died in a car accident and before she could tell him it was his father. "Grief Cottage" is the latest novel from Gail Godwin, the critically acclaimed¹ and best-selling novelist. She joins us now from Woodstock, N.Y. Thanks so much for being with us.

GAIL GODWIN: I'm so glad to be here.

SIMON: Why do they call the old house Grief Cottage?

GODWIN: The locals on this small island call it that because 50 years ago, in a hurricane, there was a family who came late in the season. It was October, hurricane season. And they never knew what happened to the family. The mother and the father and the boy just disappeared during the hurricane. So the cottage had a dark aura to it. And so they just called it Grief Cottage.

SIMON: And, of course, there's no way Marcus is going to stay away, is there?

GODWIN: Oh, no. If you are an 11-year-old boy with a bike and lots of time on your hands and you'd heard about this, of course, you'd be going up there. And you'd probably be courting something to happen even though you were terrified it might.

SIMON: Is it OK to call this novel a ghost story?

GODWIN: Yes. It's a ghost story. And it's a mind story. And it's a story about loneliness and loss and affection.

SIMON: I want to ask you about - you have another character on the island, Carol Upchurch. She's 95. And...

GODWIN: Yes.

SIMON: She - I wrote down what she tells little boy Marcus. She says, quote, "these days I have to put in request to my brain as one does at the library. And then a little worker takes my slip and disappears into the stacks. May take him a while, but he always comes back with the goods." I gather you're going to turn 80 in a few days?

GODWIN: Yes. And that - Coral's experience came right from mine. As you get older not only do you get more picky with your words, but you lose them. You used to have lots of servants. And you just pulled the bell like in "Downton Abbey," and they'd all rush up with trays full of things. And now you pull the bell, and you wait for this very arthritic² old butler who's your only servant left. And he comes up with his wooden tray, and there's one word on it. But it's a good word.

SIMON: (Laughter) That's that's very vivid.

GODWIN: But you know what? I'll tell you two good things that have happened to me this year.

SIMON: Sure.

GODWIN: One is I've had an old schoolmarm living in me all my writing life, and she has either retired³ or died. Her favorite mark of punctuation⁴ was the colon⁵ because the colon says to the reader - stop; now I'm going to say something important. You may not know this - so getting rid of her and also feeling that my materials were more available to me than they have ever been.

SIMON: Your materials - your choice of words, your emotional depth?

GODWIN: It's the themes, really, that attract you and obsess⁶ you. In my case, why people do the things they do? What are the ranges of human possibility, both good and bad - just human, human, human. So it's that kind of material. But also, my last two books, I have noticed I'm writing shorter, sharper and crisper. And truth - truth on an essential level is more important to me...

SIMON: Boy.

GODWIN: ...Than ever before. I mean, if I'm going to write about loggerhead turtles, I want to know about them and not say anything that's false, fake.

SIMON: Yeah. I do have to ask you, with this wonderful novel - all right, I'm going to consciously phrase it this way. How many ghosts have you seen?

GODWIN: That's a - good for you. I didn't expect that. OK, the sharp true answer is I saw a bunch of them in my 36 year when I'd moved to an old house by myself and made a lot of changes in my life. And they were all changes to do with forfeiting⁷ my security for a while. So I saw some people just in this house at night.

And the other time was right after I got to Miami to work on the Miami Herald⁸. I guess I was afraid. And I was living in this hotel near the old Miami Herald. It was called the Robert Clay. And I woke up one night. And there was a man in white standing⁹ over my bed, and he looked like he was either going to - either he was going to choke me or feel my pulse. I never decided¹⁰ which.

But I do believe my people. When they see ghosts, they really see them. And I've read a lot about this. And it's - you're particularly vulnerable to it when your psyche¹¹ is vulnerable and floats looser than usual from your body - from your stability. Have - you have never seen one?

SIMON: I don't believe I've ever seen a ghost. I have heard my late mother.

GODWIN: Oh, your mother. Sounds wonderful. Listen, absence can always be present. Don't you believe that?

SIMON: Yes, I do very much so. I believe in that. And that helps us get through. Gail Godwin, her novel, "Grief House." Thanks so much for being with us.

GODWIN: You are very welcome. It was nice talking to you.

(SOUNDBITE OF KATHLEEN EDWARDS SONG, "GOODNIGHT CALIFORNIA")

SIMON: And tomorrow on Weekend Edition Sunday, a conversation with John Grisham about his new book, "Camino Island" - gang of thieves, rare books and a circle of writers. This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.

1 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。

2 arthritic   

adj.关节炎的

参考例句：

• Somehow the geriatric Voyager 2, arthritic and partially deaf, managed to reach Neptune. 得了关节炎而且局部变聋、衰老的“旅行者2号”最后总算抵达海王星。 来自百科语句
• Femoral head ostectomy is a surgery performed on severely arthritic dogs. 股骨断截骨术’都是针对关节炎严重的狗狗的手术。 来自互联网

3 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

4 punctuation   

n.标点符号，标点法

参考例句：

• My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
• A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。

5 colon   

n.冒号，结肠，直肠

参考例句：

• Here,too,the colon must be followed by a dash.这里也是一样，应当在冒号后加破折号。
• The colon is the locus of a large concentration of bacteria.结肠是大浓度的细菌所在地。

6 obsess   

vt.使着迷，使心神不定，（恶魔）困扰

参考例句：

• I must admit that maps obsess me.我得承认我对地图十分着迷。
• A string of scandals is obsessing America.美国正被一系列丑闻所困扰。

7 forfeiting   

（因违反协议、犯规、受罚等）丧失，失去( forfeit的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• In his eyes, giving up his job and forfeiting his wages amounted practically to suicide. 辞事，让工钱，在祥子看就差不多等于自杀。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• That would be acknowledging the Railroad's ownership right away-forfeiting their rights for good. 这一来不是就等于干脆承认铁路公司的所有权-永久放弃他们自己的主权吗？

8 herald   

vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎

参考例句：

• In England, the cuckoo is the herald of spring.在英国杜鹃鸟是报春的使者。
• Dawn is the herald of day.曙光是白昼的先驱。

9 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 psyche   

n.精神；灵魂

参考例句：

• His exploration of the myth brings insight into the American psyche.他对这个神话的探讨揭示了美国人的心理。
• She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche.她毕生探索人类心灵的奥秘。