美国国家公共电台 NPR Jacqueline Woodson's New Novel For Adults Has Its Roots In Adolescence

Jacqueline Woodson's New Novel For Adults Has Its Roots In Adolescence¹

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Jacqueline Woodson has been writing books for children and young adults for most of her career. She won the National Book Award in 2014 for her memoir² "Brown Girl Dreaming" and, after that, wanted to do something she hadn't done in 20 years - write a book for adults. It's called "Another Brooklyn," and as NPR's Lynn Neary reports, it's about friendship and memory and coming to terms with death.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE³: Jacqueline Woodson says writing for adults allowed her to experiment a little more than usual. That's not to say she doesn't take chances with her young adult books. After all, "Brown Girl Dreaming" is a memoir in verse. Her new novel has both a poetic⁴ and a musical feel.

JACQUELINE WOODSON: I love playing with form. I love playing with sound. Stuff has to sound a certain way as well as look a certain way on the page for me. I love music, and I love writing that has a musicality to it. So, yeah, music is important, and it does - the book does have this kind of jazzy feel to me when I'm reading it.

NEARY: Woodson says books for children and young adults usually take place within a short period of time. She wanted this story to roam more freely through time because so much of it is about memory.

WOODSON: I feel like "Another Brooklyn" came to me in this kind of dream-like series of vignettes. So it feels like kind of a dream narrative⁵, but also a story that is looking back on a time that no longer exists and a place that no longer exists. So when you think of that fuzzy haze⁶ of memory, it is trying to represent that.

NEARY: The memories belong to August, who was born in Tennessee, but moved to Brooklyn after her mother died - a fact she refuses to accept.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

WOODSON: (Reading) Sweet Grove⁷ becoming memory, my mother becoming dust - what's in the urn⁸? You know what's in the urn. Is Mama home yet - memory like a bruise⁹, fading. She's coming tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Don't wade¹⁰ in the water, children. Your mama's done troubled the water. Our land moved in grassy¹¹ waves toward the water. The land ended at the water. Maybe my mother had forgotten this.

NEARY: We first meet August as an adult who has returned to Brooklyn to bury her father. A chance encounter with an old friend triggers a flood of feelings about her childhood and the friends she grew up with. As she looks back on that time, she keeps reminding the reader this is memory, which makes one wonder if her version of the story is true.

WOODSON: It can't be questioned because this is her memory. It belongs to her, and so in that memory lives August's story. It's not something that you're going to change a person's mind about by saying it happened like this and not like that because it is that individual's experience of that moment. And for August in "Another Brooklyn," what she's saying is this is mine. This is what I own.

NEARY: The young August first sees the three girls who will become her best friends from the window of her apartment. She watches them for a long time before finally meeting them. They become her anchor, seeing her through the thrill and confusion of adolescence and the excitement and dangers of the streets where they live.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

WOODSON: Somehow my brother and I grew up motherless, yet halfway¹² whole. My brother had the faith my father brought him to. And for a long time, I had Sylvia, Angela and Gigi, the four of us sharing the weight of growing up girl in Brooklyn as though it was a bag of stones we passed among ourselves, saying, here, help me carry this.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

WOODSON: That bag of stones they had to carry was the weight of that world they were living in. So even as they loved it, there was all of this stuff going on that they couldn't control. There were the people coming back from Vietnam. They were their parents. There were all of these things that were a part of Brooklyn that was awake to them, even as they were being nurtured¹³ by this place.

NEARY: From the very beginning, we know that the friends betrayed each other. How, why and to what effect we learn as August's memories unfold. Woodson says writing about lost friendship was hard for her.

WOODSON: Friendship is such an important thing to me. And I feel like the people who I love and who help keep me whole - I can't imagine a life without them. And writing "Another Brooklyn," I had to imagine what happens when friendships dissolve.

NEARY: Though her novel is written for adults, it's a story drawn¹⁴ from childhood and adolescence because, says Woodson, those years have such a profound effect on the rest of our lives. Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.

1 adolescence   

n.青春期，青少年

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the process of going from childhood to maturity.青春期是从少年到成年的过渡期。
• The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。

2 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 poetic   

adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的

参考例句：

• His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
• His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。

5 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。

6 haze   

n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊

参考例句：

• I couldn't see her through the haze of smoke.在烟雾弥漫中，我看不见她。
• He often lives in a haze of whisky.他常常是在威士忌的懵懂醉意中度过的。

7 grove   

n.林子，小树林，园林

参考例句：

• On top of the hill was a grove of tall trees.山顶上一片高大的树林。
• The scent of lemons filled the grove.柠檬香味充满了小树林。

8 urn   

n.（有座脚的）瓮；坟墓；骨灰瓮

参考例句：

• The urn was unearthed entire.这只瓮出土完整无缺。
• She put the big hot coffee urn on the table and plugged it in.她将大咖啡壶放在桌子上,接上电源。

9 bruise   

n.青肿，挫伤；伤痕；vt.打青；挫伤

参考例句：

• The bruise was caused by a kick.这伤痕是脚踢的。
• Jack fell down yesterday and got a big bruise on his face.杰克昨天摔了一跤，脸上摔出老大一块淤斑。

10 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。

11 grassy   

adj.盖满草的；长满草的

参考例句：

• They sat and had their lunch on a grassy hillside.他们坐在长满草的山坡上吃午饭。
• Cattle move freely across the grassy plain.牛群自由自在地走过草原。

12 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

13 nurtured   

养育( nurture的过去式和过去分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长

参考例句：

• She is looking fondly at the plants he had nurtured. 她深情地看着他培育的植物。
• Any latter-day Einstein would still be spotted and nurtured. 任何一个未来的爱因斯坦都会被发现并受到培养。

14 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。