The young and therestless

　　年輕與焦躁

　　British and American fiction gets off to apromising start in 2010;

　　2010年英美小說閃亮開篇;

　　The Unnamed. By Joshua Ferris.

　　《莫名》，作者約書亞費里斯。

　　VLADIMIR NABOKOV, who liked to observe other people, once declared that professionalbook reviewers are veritable bookmakers. They gleefully declare who s in, who s out, andask: Where are the snows of yesteryear? Hot young novelists, many believe, are meant tofollow a predictable script. First, burst onto the scene with some bold,voice-of-the-generation debutpreferably with a comely author photo. Then, years later,deliver to the expectant public a sophomore effort that is, alas, disappointing. Criticsfavour lamenting squandered promise to praising yet another fine book from someone withunlined skin.

　　喜歡評論他人的費拉迪米爾納博科夫曾經宣稱專業書評家是名副其實的莊家，他們興致勃勃地宣布誰是入時的，誰是落伍的，并問出去年的雪在哪里? 這樣的問題。許多走紅的青年小說家都被認為是循著老套的模子走出來的。首先，在文藝界以大膽表露情感，代表時代之聲的形象如驚雷般亮相出場最好再有著英俊的長相。接著，在數年之后向期待中的大眾呈上他一個黃毛小子嘔心瀝血的成果，然而，卻只不過是令人失望的作品。批評家們倒也熱衷于哀嘆對于某位青年才俊又一部好作品盡溢美之詞的許諾又無法兌現了。

　　Not all writers oblige. Occasionally, a well-known name, such as Peter Carey, an Australian,will go through a fallow period only to enjoy a return to form ; a rare few,having written a debut of note, then go on to pen an even better second book.

　　并非所有作家都是被迫寫作的。間或也有像澳大利亞著名作家皮特凱里這樣的人，他將休筆一段時間，而這僅僅是為了調整自己的狀態;極少有作家在完成一部佳作后還會繼續創作另一部超越性的作品。

　　Joshua Ferris became an international success in 2007 with Then We Came to the End, asmart and breezy satire of office life in an advertising firm. Told in the collective firstperson, it was a stylish rendering of workplace ambivalence in the wake of the dotcombust. It wasn tperfect, but it was fresh, with pages that turned freely and unpretentiously. At 32, MrFerrisgracious, photogenic, based in Brooklynwas anointed a writer to watch.

　　約書亞費里斯在2007年因《當我們來到盡頭》一書而享譽世界。在這本書中，他用富有智慧的語言及輕松愉快的筆調嘲諷了一個廣告公司的辦公室生活。全書用第一人稱的口吻，生動的描述了在網絡經濟崩潰中覺醒的人們在工作場所的矛盾心理。這部作品并不完美，但體裁新穎，文風自在狂妄。在費里斯先生32歲的時候，他居住在布魯克林，和藹，上鏡，就像上帝為我們挑選的作家。

　　Readers have not had long to wait for The Unnamed, his second novel. Anyone keen onanother comedy of manners will be disappointed. So too will those who hoped to write offMr Ferris as a victim of literary hype.

　　他的第二本書《莫名》并沒有讓讀者們等太久。但那些期待著又一部風尚喜劇的人將會大失所望，同樣會失望的還有那些希望費里斯先生被扼殺在文學炒作中的人。

　　From the opening page, he makes it plain that this is a very different book. It was thecruellest winter. The winds were rabid off the rivers. Ice came down like poisoneddartsThey were waiting for him. They didn t know they were waiting for him. The novelseizes readers by the lapels with a story that feels serious and mysterious. Tim Farnsworth,a successful Manhattan lawyer in his 40s, returns home one night and declares to his wife,Jane, It s back. What s back? A strange, unknown diseaseone that compels the hero towalk helplessly, incessantly, until he drops from exhaustion. After a reprieve, Tim is onceagain a victim of his wayward body, the frightened soul inside the runaway train ofmindless matter, peering out from the conductor s car in horror.

　　在第一頁作者就向我們展示了這本書的與眾不同。這是一個嚴酷的冬天。狂風卷過河面，冰屑像浸了毒的飛鏢落下他們正等著他。然而他們卻并不知道。 小說開篇就用一種緊張神秘的氣息抓住了讀者。40多歲的緹姆法恩斯沃思是曼哈頓有名的律師，一天晚上他回到家鄭重地告訴妻子簡說：它又來了。什么又來了?那是一種奇怪的不為人知的疾病它讓我們的主人公無助、不停地行走，直到精疲力竭。短暫的間歇之后，緹姆又會成為他失控身體的受害者，他的軀體就像無緣由失控的列車，他的靈魂驚恐的向這車外望著。

　　Tim is otherwise horse-healthy and content, a self-assured workaholic, devoted husbandand father to a teenage daughter. But in a flash he is uncontrollably off, leaving his wife tofind him passed out in a municipal parking place, a hospital or behind some chemist s shop inthe middle of the night. Was she up for this? Jane asks herself. These spells last for monthsat a time, and caring for him is a full-time job. But Jane has no choice: he could die out there.So she reads survivalist manuals, prepares his pack , and then waits for the call to pick him up. The onlyalternative is to tie him to the bed and ignore his screams.

　　緹姆原本是一個健康，滿足，自信的人，他醉心于工作，是一個衷心的丈夫，一個十幾歲女孩的父親。但是突然間他無法控制的想要走路，他的妻子三更半夜找到他時他出沒在政府的停車場，醫院，或者在一些藥店的后面。我要這么做嗎?簡問自己。緹姆的病每次發作長達幾個月，照顧他成了簡的全職工作。但是簡沒有選擇：他這樣下去會死的。于是她閱讀生存手冊，為緹姆準備背包，然后等電話去接他。除此之外就只能把他綁在床上，任由他叫喊了。

　　Doctors around the world have no idea what the problem is. Tim, alone in his mutinous body,is left wondering whether the trouble is in his head. Readers wonder about this too. Here MrFerris achieves a clever balance: Tim behaves strangely, but isn t that natural for anyone wholoses the life he understood? Isn t madness inevitable when suffering from something no onecan explain? A subplot about a murder trial, which yields a haunting exchange betweenTim and a possible suspect on a bridge at night, raises more questions about his mentalstability. Yet Jane stops speculating that her husband might be crazy after she goes throughthe menopause. She could only imagine how infuriating it would be if a doctor insisted her hotflushes were all in her head.

　　所有的醫生都束手無策。緹姆的靈魂獨自留在他失控的身體里，思考著是否他的大腦真的出了問題;讀者們也在思考。在這里作者費里斯先生很高明的設置了兩個難以抉擇的判斷：緹姆的行為是怪異的，但當一個人失去了他所能理解的生活時這不又是正常的嗎?小說中有一個關于一起謀殺案的審判的次要情節，在審判過程中，緹姆在一個晚上同本案的嫌疑犯在一座橋上進行了一場令他難忘的交易，這也使他的精神狀況越發不穩定。而此時簡在經過她的更年期后也不再猜測丈夫可能患上了精神病。她能想象的到如果醫生堅持說她的潮紅癥狀都是她想出來的那將會是一件多么令人惱怒的事情。

　　Mr Ferris keeps his prose direct and uncluttered, with only occasional flourishes . His fondness for his characters sometimes veerstowards the sentimental. Still, he exercises a mature writer s restraint, content to leavequestions unanswered. He also has a fine ear for speech, and a good sense of what feels real,even when chronicling the surreal.

　　費里斯先生的散文依舊簡潔明快，偶爾也會迸發出奇特的靈感。他熱愛自己筆下的人物，但不見得完全受感情的支配，他依舊會運用成熟作家的控制力，遺留一些未給出答案的問題。他還可以清醒地聆聽演講，對真實的事物有著良好的感受力，即使是在將超現實的事情載入編年史的時候。

　　Mr Ferris insists that The Unnamed is not a work of magical realism, but of realistmagic. By inventing an incurable disease, he can meditate on its impacton a marriage,on a career, on a character s self-esteemwithout dragging in the baggage of a familiarillness. This also amplifies the horror, leaving readers just as perplexed about what isafflicting Tim. Is this a physical or mental problem? Can a line be drawn between the two? Inthe last third of the book, Tim gives himself over to his need to walk. Raving anddeteriorating, he lets his legs take him across the country, living a hobo s life withoutpossessions or attachments . Yet Tim s dilemmas still feel real and his needs sympathetic. How does he go on?How does anyone?

　　費里斯先生堅持《莫名》并不是一部魔幻現實主義的作品，而是一部現實魔幻小說。他能夠通過創造一種難以治愈的疾病來思考它對于婚姻，事業或者主人公自尊心的影響而不是通過某種司空見慣的疾病。也正是這樣，小說又加深了它帶來的恐懼感，使讀者對緹姆痛苦的原因困惑不解，到底是生理的還是心理的問題呢?這兩者之間能不能畫出一條分界線?在小說后三分之一的部分，緹姆放棄了一切去滿足自己行走的需要。他任由自己的雙腿穿越整個國家，咆哮著，病情不斷惡化，他過上了流浪者的生活，沒有財產，沒有攜帶任何附屬裝置。但緹姆的困境始終可以被真實的感知，并且他需要人們的同情。他會怎么樣?其他人呢?

　　This is a story about a man with a walking problem, but it is also a larger tale aboutstruggling with uncertainty. Scattered throughout the novel are some odd events: blizzards,floods, fires, dying bees. Mr Ferris is reminding us of how little we know about the world welive in, and how little we know about ourselves within it, and yet we persist. This is not to saythat Tim s walking is some clunky metaphor. Mr Ferris is wise enough not to teach a lesson.Rather, he has teased ordinary circumstances into something extraordinary, which isexactly what we want our fiction writers to do.

　　這是一個關于行走強迫癥患者的故事，更是一部描述了于不確定中的掙扎的作品。小說中充斥著古怪的事件：暴風雪、洪水、大火、垂死的蜜蜂。費里斯先生讓我們意識到我們對于我們生存之世界及我們自己是多么的不了解，然而我們仍舊存在。這并不是說緹姆的行路癖是一個拙劣的隱喻，菲爾斯先生有足夠的智慧使他的作品不流于說教。相反地，他把一些平常的事件夸大并進行了嘲諷，而這也正是我們期待著作家做的。

　　The young and therestless

　　年輕與焦躁

　　British and American fiction gets off to apromising start in 2010;

　　2010年英美小說閃亮開篇;

　　The Unnamed. By Joshua Ferris.

　　《莫名》，作者約書亞費里斯。

　　VLADIMIR NABOKOV, who liked to observe other people, once declared that professionalbook reviewers are veritable bookmakers. They gleefully declare who s in, who s out, andask: Where are the snows of yesteryear? Hot young novelists, many believe, are meant tofollow a predictable script. First, burst onto the scene with some bold,voice-of-the-generation debutpreferably with a comely author photo. Then, years later,deliver to the expectant public a sophomore effort that is, alas, disappointing. Criticsfavour lamenting squandered promise to praising yet another fine book from someone withunlined skin.

　　喜歡評論他人的費拉迪米爾納博科夫曾經宣稱專業書評家是名副其實的莊家，他們興致勃勃地宣布誰是入時的，誰是落伍的，并問出去年的雪在哪里? 這樣的問題。許多走紅的青年小說家都被認為是循著老套的模子走出來的。首先，在文藝界以大膽表露情感，代表時代之聲的形象如驚雷般亮相出場最好再有著英俊的長相。接著，在數年之后向期待中的大眾呈上他一個黃毛小子嘔心瀝血的成果，然而，卻只不過是令人失望的作品。批評家們倒也熱衷于哀嘆對于某位青年才俊又一部好作品盡溢美之詞的許諾又無法兌現了。

　　Not all writers oblige. Occasionally, a well-known name, such as Peter Carey, an Australian,will go through a fallow period only to enjoy a return to form ; a rare few,having written a debut of note, then go on to pen an even better second book.

　　并非所有作家都是被迫寫作的。間或也有像澳大利亞著名作家皮特凱里這樣的人，他將休筆一段時間，而這僅僅是為了調整自己的狀態;極少有作家在完成一部佳作后還會繼續創作另一部超越性的作品。

　　Joshua Ferris became an international success in 2007 with Then We Came to the End, asmart and breezy satire of office life in an advertising firm. Told in the collective firstperson, it was a stylish rendering of workplace ambivalence in the wake of the dotcombust. It wasn tperfect, but it was fresh, with pages that turned freely and unpretentiously. At 32, MrFerrisgracious, photogenic, based in Brooklynwas anointed a writer to watch.

　　約書亞費里斯在2007年因《當我們來到盡頭》一書而享譽世界。在這本書中，他用富有智慧的語言及輕松愉快的筆調嘲諷了一個廣告公司的辦公室生活。全書用第一人稱的口吻，生動的描述了在網絡經濟崩潰中覺醒的人們在工作場所的矛盾心理。這部作品并不完美，但體裁新穎，文風自在狂妄。在費里斯先生32歲的時候，他居住在布魯克林，和藹，上鏡，就像上帝為我們挑選的作家。

　　Readers have not had long to wait for The Unnamed, his second novel. Anyone keen onanother comedy of manners will be disappointed. So too will those who hoped to write offMr Ferris as a victim of literary hype.

　　他的第二本書《莫名》并沒有讓讀者們等太久。但那些期待著又一部風尚喜劇的人將會大失所望，同樣會失望的還有那些希望費里斯先生被扼殺在文學炒作中的人。

　　From the opening page, he makes it plain that this is a very different book. It was thecruellest winter. The winds were rabid off the rivers. Ice came down like poisoneddartsThey were waiting for him. They didn t know they were waiting for him. The novelseizes readers by the lapels with a story that feels serious and mysterious. Tim Farnsworth,a successful Manhattan lawyer in his 40s, returns home one night and declares to his wife,Jane, It s back. What s back? A strange, unknown diseaseone that compels the hero towalk helplessly, incessantly, until he drops from exhaustion. After a reprieve, Tim is onceagain a victim of his wayward body, the frightened soul inside the runaway train ofmindless matter, peering out from the conductor s car in horror.

　　在第一頁作者就向我們展示了這本書的與眾不同。這是一個嚴酷的冬天。狂風卷過河面，冰屑像浸了毒的飛鏢落下他們正等著他。然而他們卻并不知道。 小說開篇就用一種緊張神秘的氣息抓住了讀者。40多歲的緹姆法恩斯沃思是曼哈頓有名的律師，一天晚上他回到家鄭重地告訴妻子簡說：它又來了。什么又來了?那是一種奇怪的不為人知的疾病它讓我們的主人公無助、不停地行走，直到精疲力竭。短暫的間歇之后，緹姆又會成為他失控身體的受害者，他的軀體就像無緣由失控的列車，他的靈魂驚恐的向這車外望著。

　　Tim is otherwise horse-healthy and content, a self-assured workaholic, devoted husbandand father to a teenage daughter. But in a flash he is uncontrollably off, leaving his wife tofind him passed out in a municipal parking place, a hospital or behind some chemist s shop inthe middle of the night. Was she up for this? Jane asks herself. These spells last for monthsat a time, and caring for him is a full-time job. But Jane has no choice: he could die out there.So she reads survivalist manuals, prepares his pack , and then waits for the call to pick him up. The onlyalternative is to tie him to the bed and ignore his screams.

　　緹姆原本是一個健康，滿足，自信的人，他醉心于工作，是一個衷心的丈夫，一個十幾歲女孩的父親。但是突然間他無法控制的想要走路，他的妻子三更半夜找到他時他出沒在政府的停車場，醫院，或者在一些藥店的后面。我要這么做嗎?簡問自己。緹姆的病每次發作長達幾個月，照顧他成了簡的全職工作。但是簡沒有選擇：他這樣下去會死的。于是她閱讀生存手冊，為緹姆準備背包，然后等電話去接他。除此之外就只能把他綁在床上，任由他叫喊了。

　　Doctors around the world have no idea what the problem is. Tim, alone in his mutinous body,is left wondering whether the trouble is in his head. Readers wonder about this too. Here MrFerris achieves a clever balance: Tim behaves strangely, but isn t that natural for anyone wholoses the life he understood? Isn t madness inevitable when suffering from something no onecan explain? A subplot about a murder trial, which yields a haunting exchange betweenTim and a possible suspect on a bridge at night, raises more questions about his mentalstability. Yet Jane stops speculating that her husband might be crazy after she goes throughthe menopause. She could only imagine how infuriating it would be if a doctor insisted her hotflushes were all in her head.

　　所有的醫生都束手無策。緹姆的靈魂獨自留在他失控的身體里，思考著是否他的大腦真的出了問題;讀者們也在思考。在這里作者費里斯先生很高明的設置了兩個難以抉擇的判斷：緹姆的行為是怪異的，但當一個人失去了他所能理解的生活時這不又是正常的嗎?小說中有一個關于一起謀殺案的審判的次要情節，在審判過程中，緹姆在一個晚上同本案的嫌疑犯在一座橋上進行了一場令他難忘的交易，這也使他的精神狀況越發不穩定。而此時簡在經過她的更年期后也不再猜測丈夫可能患上了精神病。她能想象的到如果醫生堅持說她的潮紅癥狀都是她想出來的那將會是一件多么令人惱怒的事情。

　　Mr Ferris keeps his prose direct and uncluttered, with only occasional flourishes . His fondness for his characters sometimes veerstowards the sentimental. Still, he exercises a mature writer s restraint, content to leavequestions unanswered. He also has a fine ear for speech, and a good sense of what feels real,even when chronicling the surreal.

　　費里斯先生的散文依舊簡潔明快，偶爾也會迸發出奇特的靈感。他熱愛自己筆下的人物，但不見得完全受感情的支配，他依舊會運用成熟作家的控制力，遺留一些未給出答案的問題。他還可以清醒地聆聽演講，對真實的事物有著良好的感受力，即使是在將超現實的事情載入編年史的時候。

　　Mr Ferris insists that The Unnamed is not a work of magical realism, but of realistmagic. By inventing an incurable disease, he can meditate on its impacton a marriage,on a career, on a character s self-esteemwithout dragging in the baggage of a familiarillness. This also amplifies the horror, leaving readers just as perplexed about what isafflicting Tim. Is this a physical or mental problem? Can a line be drawn between the two? Inthe last third of the book, Tim gives himself over to his need to walk. Raving anddeteriorating, he lets his legs take him across the country, living a hobo s life withoutpossessions or attachments . Yet Tim s dilemmas still feel real and his needs sympathetic. How does he go on?How does anyone?

　　費里斯先生堅持《莫名》并不是一部魔幻現實主義的作品，而是一部現實魔幻小說。他能夠通過創造一種難以治愈的疾病來思考它對于婚姻，事業或者主人公自尊心的影響而不是通過某種司空見慣的疾病。也正是這樣，小說又加深了它帶來的恐懼感，使讀者對緹姆痛苦的原因困惑不解，到底是生理的還是心理的問題呢?這兩者之間能不能畫出一條分界線?在小說后三分之一的部分，緹姆放棄了一切去滿足自己行走的需要。他任由自己的雙腿穿越整個國家，咆哮著，病情不斷惡化，他過上了流浪者的生活，沒有財產，沒有攜帶任何附屬裝置。但緹姆的困境始終可以被真實的感知，并且他需要人們的同情。他會怎么樣?其他人呢?

　　This is a story about a man with a walking problem, but it is also a larger tale aboutstruggling with uncertainty. Scattered throughout the novel are some odd events: blizzards,floods, fires, dying bees. Mr Ferris is reminding us of how little we know about the world welive in, and how little we know about ourselves within it, and yet we persist. This is not to saythat Tim s walking is some clunky metaphor. Mr Ferris is wise enough not to teach a lesson.Rather, he has teased ordinary circumstances into something extraordinary, which isexactly what we want our fiction writers to do.

　　這是一個關于行走強迫癥患者的故事，更是一部描述了于不確定中的掙扎的作品。小說中充斥著古怪的事件：暴風雪、洪水、大火、垂死的蜜蜂。費里斯先生讓我們意識到我們對于我們生存之世界及我們自己是多么的不了解，然而我們仍舊存在。這并不是說緹姆的行路癖是一個拙劣的隱喻，菲爾斯先生有足夠的智慧使他的作品不流于說教。相反地，他把一些平常的事件夸大并進行了嘲諷，而這也正是我們期待著作家做的。