美国国家公共电台 NPR--Hadero's stories feature immigrants, refugees and others struggling to belong

Hadero's stories feature immigrants, refugees and others struggling to belong

Transcript¹

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Meron Hadero about her new book of short stories: A Down Home Meal for these Difficult Times.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Writer Meron Hadero has a new book out. It's called "A Down Home Meal For These Difficult Times," and she says she was intentional² about the format³.

MERON HADERO: Short stories allow you to peek⁴ into an idea from different angles - told through the eyes of different characters, set in different locations, using different points of view, with different styles - and really take an idea apart.

MARTIN: That idea, the one at the heart of Hadero's work, is displacement⁵. Hadero was born in Ethiopia and raised in the U.S. She shares this with some of the characters in her stories. Though her protagonists⁶ exist in different parts of the world and at different points in history, they too share the experience of being outsiders in places that should feel like home. Hadero told our co-host Leila Fadel that short stories can give fresh perspectives to these themes.

HADERO: You can layer these different voices on top of one another and hopefully come to an understanding that's more complex. From the point of view of the writer, it was a way for me to do that for myself, to kind of deconstruct this idea of displacement and think about it through the lens of different voices and through the lens of different experiences. And I can only hope that, for a reader, they also have the opportunity to do that, and a reader would be able to see this as an idea with many different points of entry, and hopefully some speak to them.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Yeah. You open with this story, "The Suitcase." And I loved this story 'cause it - you know, as somebody who's the daughter of an immigrant going back to Lebanon, ultimately there are these cultural tests of are you really from this place? And here's this American girl who was born in Ethiopia. She's back in her parents' homeland, in the place that she was born, and she discovers that she sticks out. She doesn't belong. She doesn't know how to cross the street like people from here. And as she's leaving, her relatives ultimately put her to a cultural test.

HADERO: The suitcase connotes movement. It connotes leaving and coming and returning. And it has its own constraints⁷. And in this story, those constraints kind of put pressure on the main character, Saba, who has to decide what can be taken back with her on this journey. And she's put on the spot, understanding that these items that she's really empowered and tasked with bringing back, - they mean so much more than they seem. So she's there kind of deliberating about the value of these items that relatives and friends are asking her to bring back.

You know, it really - it is this kind of tension between here and there and where does she belong and how does she make this judgment⁸ and what is the value? And there's something about these very kind of mundane⁹ items, perhaps - you know, books or bread - you know, that she has to bring back. But what the story, I hope, reveals is that in the mundane, there is the profound. So what is a loaf of bread is actually a relative missing, those that she hasn't seen in decades, and wanting to show her love and cross a very hard-to-bridge divide. And that's a loaf of bread, you know?

FADEL: I mean, so many of the stories end on an uncertainty¹⁰ about...

HADERO: Yes.

FADEL: ...What might come next, right? And I'm thinking of "The Street Sweeper" (ph), which was one of my favorites as well. And this is a story that's grounded in Ethiopia. It's a young man who meets this white NGO worker, Jefferson Johnson, and he starts to get his hopes up about a possible future and saving his family home if this guy can employ him, and he helps him. And there's this dynamic between them. Jefferson Johnson lives in a very different world, in the same city as Getu but a mile away. Can you talk about what you're doing with this story?

HADERO: Getu is trying to go to a party that he hopes will turn his life around. He is at risk of losing his home, but he has befriended Jefferson Johnson. And he's put a lot of hope in this actually junior NGO staffer. And so they've kind of developed what Getu sees as an important friendship. At the same time, he's invested quite a bit of hope in this dynamic. And I wanted the story to also be complicated in that there's nothing outwardly malicious¹¹ about Mr. Jeff, as Getu calls him. But at the same time, you know, Getu's position is so precarious¹². It's so precarious. He's really quite close to losing everything.

FADEL: But also, you write about the exploitative nature of these democracy-building organizations, these NGOs that come into countries and, as Getu's mother says, remake and remake the neighborhoods and then kind of leave them behind and change their lives and just leave.

HADERO: The mother character is an important voice in the story, for sure. She's trying to impart a skepticism in Getu, but Getu has a really strong sense of belief and hope, and he hasn't experienced what she's experienced. However, Getu is incredibly resilient, so he learns kind of on the job or on the spot, and he's able to navigate¹³ to the point where I think the story to me ends on a hopeful note for Getu or a cynical¹⁴ - you know, it depends on your reading. I'd say, like, there's several different readings, but I hope that if you read the story twice, you would see it differently.

FADEL: I think that's what's so interesting about every story in this book, that it leaves us all in a place where we kind of decide where the story goes, where the story might go.

HADERO: I want these stories to raise the questions, but I don't want them to answer them. And I think that what's great about fiction is that it can create this landscape where these kinds of explorations can happen in a liberated¹⁵ and creative way. But, you know, it's not for me to even take that away from a reader. I want a reader to come to their own understanding. And I've had people say, like, oh, I think this happens to Getu or, you know, kind of imagine the next page. And I love to hear a reader imagine the next page of any story because it means to me that the stories carried on, that the characters maybe live off the page, that this story might be writing itself for a reader's mind into the future. And that's all you can really hope for.

FADEL: Meron Hadero on her new book of short stories "A Down Home Meal For These Difficult Times." Thank you so much.

HADERO: Thank you so much for having me.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 intentional   

adj.故意的，有意（识）的

参考例句：

• Let me assure you that it was not intentional.我向你保证那不是故意的。
• His insult was intentional.他的侮辱是有意的。

3 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。

4 peek   

vi.偷看，窥视；n.偷偷的一看，一瞥

参考例句：

• Larry takes a peek out of the window.赖瑞往窗外偷看了一下。
• Cover your eyes and don't peek.捂上眼睛，别偷看。

5 displacement   

n.移置，取代，位移，排水量

参考例句：

• They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。
• The displacement of all my energy into caring for the baby.我所有精力都放在了照顾宝宝上。

6 protagonists   

n.（戏剧的）主角( protagonist的名词复数 )；（故事的）主人公；现实事件（尤指冲突和争端的）主要参与者；领导者

参考例句：

• Mrs Pankhurst was one of the chief protagonists of women's rights. 潘克赫斯特太太是女权的主要倡导者之一。 来自辞典例句
• This reflects that Feng Menglong heartily sympathized with these protagonists. 这反映出冯梦龙由衷地同情书中的这些主要人物。 来自互联网

7 constraints   

强制( constraint的名词复数 )； 限制； 约束

参考例句：

• Data and constraints can easily be changed to test theories. 信息库中的数据和限制条件可以轻易地改变以检验假设。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• What are the constraints that each of these imply for any design? 这每种产品的要求和约束对于设计意味着什么？ 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

8 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

9 mundane   

adj.平凡的；尘世的；宇宙的

参考例句：

• I hope I can get an interesting job and not something mundane.我希望我可以得到的是一份有趣的工作，而不是一份平凡无奇的。
• I find it humorous sometimes that even the most mundane occurrences can have an impact on our awareness.我发现生活有时挺诙谐的，即使是最平凡的事情也能影响我们的感知。

10 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

11 malicious   

adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的

参考例句：

• You ought to kick back at such malicious slander. 你应当反击这种恶毒的污蔑。
• Their talk was slightly malicious.他们的谈话有点儿心怀不轨。

12 precarious   

adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的

参考例句：

• Our financial situation had become precarious.我们的财务状况已变得不稳定了。
• He earned a precarious living as an artist.作为一个艺术家，他过得是朝不保夕的生活。

13 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

14 cynical   

adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的

参考例句：

• The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大，他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
• He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。

15 liberated   

a.无拘束的，放纵的

参考例句：

• The city was liberated by the advancing army. 军队向前挺进，解放了那座城市。
• The heat brings about a chemical reaction, and oxygen is liberated. 热量引起化学反应，释放出氧气。