经济学人154:爱在潜逃路 惊悚小说也催泪

　　Love on the lam
爱在潜逃路
A rare thing: a deeply moving thriller¹
奇葩：惊悚小说也催泪
Schroder. By Amity² Gaige.
父亲的罪》作者艾米蒂·盖奇
ERIC is the unlikeliest of characters to charm a reader. His life is a tabloid³ drama: man abducts⁴ daughter, gets arrested and confesses in a letter to his estranged⁵ wife. It is to the credit of Amity Gaige, an American writer, that her third novel, “Schroder”, transforms this thriller plot into a deeply moving tale.
埃里克的人生就像通俗小报刊登的故事：他拐跑亲生女儿，为此锒铛入狱，随后写信向分居的妻子表示忏悔。这种人物最不可能赢得读者的青睐。多亏美国作家艾米蒂·盖奇，她用妙笔将惊悚情节演绎成一个感人至深的故事，这就是盖奇的第三部小说《父亲的罪》。
Eric's story is one of multiple deceptions⁶. At the age of eight, and named Erik Schroder, he landed in America with his father from East Germany. Six years later he assumed the name Eric Kennedy and never minded if people presumed he was related to the slain⁷ president. These primordial⁸ lies set the stage for his later unravelling⁹. His marriage to Laura, which brought a happiness he hardly dared believe, breaks up when their daughter, Meadow, is four years old. Knowing that divorce will expose his pretence¹⁰ and endanger contact with his child, Eric flees with her into the wooded mountains of northern New York.
层层叠叠的谎言构成了埃里克的生活。八岁时以埃里克·施罗德的化名，跟随父亲从东德搬迁至美国。六年后，他更名埃里克·肯尼迪，有时被误认为那位惨遭暗杀的美国总统的亲戚，他也丝毫不介意。这些谎言为他日后的遭遇埋下祸根。和劳拉的婚姻生活竟然是如此的幸福，不过一切就在女儿麦朵四岁时烟消云散。一旦离婚，他不得不暴露真实身份，还有可能承受失去女儿的痛苦。想到这里，埃里克带着小麦朵逃匿到纽约州北部的森林里。
The description of the next six days, written by this serial¹¹ liar¹², self-inventor and troubled, possibly dangerous man, is riveting¹³. Ms Gaige's main achievement is to inhabit her protagonist¹⁴ so thoroughly¹⁵ that the reader cannot help but empathise. Eric is by turns insightful, funny, bizarre and irresponsible, at once self-deceiving and self-aware. Explaining his decision to cut and run, he writes: “I couldn't take it any more, the way the wind went out of the world whenever my daughter left.” In his apologetic, heartfelt voice, the novel becomes an intense, often beautiful meditation¹⁶ on the desperate love of a parent for a child.
这名落魄的父亲虽然满嘴谎言，善于编造身份，也许是个危险人物，他将跑路六日娓娓道来，语言却也赏心悦目。女作家不惜笔墨，主角形象丰满，读后令人同情，此乃小说最大亮点。她笔下的埃里克时而富有远见卓识，时而滑稽古怪不负责任，时而自欺欺人，时而头脑清醒。提到下定切断过去远逃异乡的决心时，埃里克如此解释：“每次我的女儿离开时，世界了无生机，我再也受不了了。”他的叙述充满歉意和真诚，成就一部深刻思考绝望亲情的惊悚小说，其中不乏美丽的语言。
Eric regards the kidnapping as a fairy-tale adventure; his daughter, wryly¹⁷ intelligent, is swept along. But Laura's lawyer accuses him of “bizarre, neglectful parenting”. On the lam he lets Meadow wade¹⁸ into a freezing lake, feeds her junk food and leaves her unattended. The question is not if he will be caught, but how and when.
明白一切的女儿嘲讽地看着事情发展的态势，跟着父亲匆匆赶路，而在埃里克眼里，这次绑架就是一次童话般的冒险。然而劳拉的律师指责他“行为古怪，缺乏为人父的责任心”。途中，他用垃圾食品喂养小麦朵，带她涉过冰冷的湖水，甚至留她孤身一人。他总会被逮捕，关键是何时以何种方式。
What distinguishes “Schroder” is its insight and language. Rain is “not rain but the liquid redistribution of collective conflict.” Laura has “such a careful way with the truth”. Ms Gaige excels at landscapes; her writing has the still, clear beauty of a mountain lake. Equally, she understands the terror of potential loss. Eric realises that there is only “one thing that really deranges¹⁹ us and that is the disappearance²⁰ of love.” Linking too obviously to the symbolism of the cold-war Germany that Eric left behind, with its metaphors²¹ of flight and division, is the only misstep. Readers do not need such neat explanations to follow this flawed yet caring father.
父亲的罪》脱俗之处不仅在于思想深刻，更在于语言奇妙。天上下的“不再是雨水，而是蒸发后重新分配的集体冲突。”劳拉“谨慎地认知真相”。女作家盖奇女士不仅擅长于描写景致，赋予笔下的山中湖一种静谧透彻的美，而且深谙可能失去某些人或事时的恐惧。埃里克认识到，“世上真正使我们疯狂的仅此一物，那就是爱的消逝。”唯一不足之处是，小说充斥着飞行和分裂的意象，影射主人公逃离的东德，这一比喻太露骨，反而减少品读并不完美却舐犊情深的父亲形象的乐趣。

1 thriller   

n.惊险片，恐怖片

参考例句：

• He began by writing a thriller.That book sold a million copies.他是写惊险小说起家的。那本书卖了一百万册。
• I always take a thriller to read on the train.我乘火车时，总带一本惊险小说看。

2 amity   

n.友好关系

参考例句：

• He lives in amity with his neighbours.他和他的邻居相处得很和睦。
• They parted in amity.他们很友好地分别了。

3 tabloid   

adj.轰动性的，庸俗的；n.小报，文摘

参考例句：

• He launched into a verbal assault on tabloid journalism.他口头对小报新闻进行了抨击。
• He believes that the tabloid press has behaved disgracefully.他认为小报媒体的行为不太光彩。

4 abducts   

劫持，诱拐( abduct的第三人称单数 )； 使（肢体等）外展

参考例句：

• Magua himself abducts Cora. 马古亚劫持了科拉。
• So when the evil queen abducts her, it is up the dwarves to save her life. 后来邪恶的皇后协持她，究竟救不救她的性命就由七个小矮人来决定。

5 estranged   

adj.疏远的，分离的

参考例句：

• He became estranged from his family after the argument.那场争吵后他便与家人疏远了。
• The argument estranged him from his brother.争吵使他同他的兄弟之间的关系疏远了。

6 deceptions   

欺骗( deception的名词复数 )； 骗术，诡计

参考例句：

• Nobody saw through Mary's deceptions. 无人看透玛丽的诡计。
• There was for him only one trustworthy road through deceptions and mirages. 对他来说只有一条可靠的路能避开幻想和错觉。

7 slain   

杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词)

参考例句：

• The soldiers slain in the battle were burried that night. 在那天夜晚埋葬了在战斗中牺牲了的战士。
• His boy was dead, slain by the hand of the false Amulius. 他的儿子被奸诈的阿缪利乌斯杀死了。

8 primordial   

adj.原始的；最初的

参考例句：

• It is the primordial force that propels us forward.它是推动我们前进的原始动力。
• The Neanderthal Man is one of our primordial ancestors.的尼安德特人是我们的原始祖先之一.

9 unravelling   

解开，拆散，散开( unravel的现在分词 )； 阐明； 澄清； 弄清楚

参考例句：

• Nail head clamp the unravelling of nail exteriorize broken nails and clean. 钉头卡钉，拆开钉头取出碎钉并清洁。
• The ends of ropes are in good condition and secured without unravelling. 缆绳端部状况良好及牢固，并无松散脱线。

10 pretence   

n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰

参考例句：

• The government abandoned any pretence of reform. 政府不再装模作样地进行改革。
• He made a pretence of being happy at the party.晚会上他假装很高兴。

11 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

12 liar   

n.说谎的人

参考例句：

• I know you for a thief and a liar!我算认识你了，一个又偷又骗的家伙！
• She was wrongly labelled a liar.她被错误地扣上说谎者的帽子。

13 riveting   

adj.动听的，令人着迷的，完全吸引某人注意力的；n.铆接（法）

参考例句：

• I find snooker riveting though I don't play myself.虽然我自己不打斯诺克，但是我觉得它挺令人着迷。
• To my amazement,I found it riveting.但令我惊讶的是，我发现它的吸引人处。

14 protagonist   

n.(思想观念的)倡导者；主角，主人公

参考例句：

• The protagonist reforms in the end and avoids his proper punishment.戏剧主角最后改过自新并避免了他应受的惩罚。
• He is the model for the protagonist in the play.剧本中的主人公就是以他为模特儿创作的！

15 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。

16 meditation   

n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录

参考例句：

• This peaceful garden lends itself to meditation.这个恬静的花园适于冥想。
• I'm sorry to interrupt your meditation.很抱歉，我打断了你的沉思。

17 wryly   

adv. 挖苦地，嘲弄地

参考例句：

• Molly smiled rather wryly and said nothing. 莫莉苦笑着，一句话也没说。
• He smiled wryly, then closed his eyes and gnawed his lips. 他狞笑一声，就闭了眼睛，咬着嘴唇。 来自子夜部分

18 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

19 deranges   

v.疯狂的，神经错乱的( deranged的现在分词 )；混乱的

参考例句：

20 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

21 metaphors   

隐喻( metaphor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I can only represent it to you by metaphors. 我只能用隐喻来向你描述它。
• Thus, She's an angel and He's a lion in battle are metaphors. 因此她是天使，他是雄狮都是比喻说法。