美国国家公共电台 NPR What's Inside 'The Hearts Of Men'? A New Novel Forages For Answers

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

In his second novel, "The Hearts Of Men," writer Nickolas Butler explores what it means to be a good man in a changing America. The story begins with an unlikely friendship struck at a Boy Scouts² camp and unfolds over three generations. NPR's Lynn Neary reports.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE³: Nickolas Butler says this was a book he had to write. It grew out of his own musings on fatherhood.

NICKOLAS BUTLER: I was exploring some questions about what it means to be a good man, what it means to have a sort of code of morality or a code of conduct as a man.

NEARY: Growing up in Wisconsin, Butler was a Boy Scout¹, starting as a Cub⁴ and working his way up to Eagle. He says it gave him a love of nature along with a strong sense of right and wrong. So it was only natural that he set his story in a Boy Scout camp just like the one he attended from 7 to 17.

BUTLER: I think a lot of this book goes back to these sort of, you know - this is sort of hokey in the 21st century, but it goes back to a lot of these old scout laws or ideas - loyalty⁵, bravery, kindness, stuff like that.

NEARY: The book opens in 1962, and the camp bugler⁶ is a boy named Nelson. He's a good kid. He likes school, and he likes the Scouts and is working to earn more badges than anyone. He's eager to please adults, but other kids just don't like him. And he doesn't understand why.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Reading) He can't pinpoint⁷ it, that one thing about his personality, his being that, if changed, might win him more friends. But he dearly wishes he could, wishes his mornings and afternoons weren't limited to hallway wanderings or endless games of solitaire at otherwise abandoned cafeteria tables. Then again, maybe this is just who he is, and sometimes when he's feeling brave, he embraces this notion, imagines himself as a wolf without a pack roaming free as can be, a solitary⁸ forest creature.

NEARY: That summer, Nelson does become friends with a boy named Jonathan. He's a cool guy, athletic⁹ and popular. The two aren't exactly close. Nelson is just grateful for whatever attention Jonathan throws his way, even when it leads him into a painfully humiliating incident that forges an unusual bond between the two. This unlikely friendship lasts a lifetime.

BUTLER: Over the course of years, they recognize in each other qualities that they themselves maybe don't possess but wish they did. And I think they also understand forgiveness.

NEARY: In the second section of the book, we meet the two as adults. Jonathan is bringing his teenage son to the same Boy Scout camp. Nelson now runs it. A Vietnam veteran, he returned from the war a changed man. He has neither money nor status, but author Nick Butler sees him as a heroic figure.

BUTLER: When a person can be strong or aggressive but chooses to be quiet and gentle and light on the planet, I find that incredibly inspiring and important. And I think Nelson has seen so much horror that he's just trying to be the light and the goodness in the world, and he understands that this camp is sort of a refuge.

NEARY: On the way to the camp, Jonathan and his son stop for dinner at a nearby restaurant where they're joined by a woman who Jonathan first introduces as a friend. During dinner, he tells his stunned¹⁰ son that he is having an affair with this woman and he plans to divorce his mother. Butler says this is exactly how he learned his own father was having an affair.

BUTLER: What really happened in that moment was just my whole paradigm¹¹ of good and evil and promises and love really broke apart. And also my image of my dad was totally shattered. And part of the project of this book was to see my dad in 360 degrees, to understand who he was as a human being and why he'd put me in that position and also try and forgive him because he wasn't a totally bad man.

NEARY: The book ends in the near future. This time it's a mother taking her son to the camp. She's Jonathan's daughter-in-law Rachel. Her son has no interest in going to the camp, but his mother loves the place and plans to stay there as a parent volunteer. As she settles in for the week, she relishes¹² the quietness.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Reading) Her world sounds like this - mosquitoes, screen doors slamming, the wild running of boys, an ax splitting wood, the wind rustling¹³ the cops of aspens outside.

NEARY: As the only woman in the camp, Rachel's stay turns out to be less than idyllic¹⁴. But Butler says it was important for him to end his book with a mother's story.

BUTLER: After that incident with my dad at the restaurant, I began to understand that my family was not held together by my dad at all but that my mom was the hero of our family. So I think it was sort of natural that the third act of this book goes to a mom, a single mom who's holding her son's world together and preserving the memory of her lost husband.

NEARY: By the book's end, the camp faces an uncertain future. And Baker¹⁵ (ph) says his book is a lament¹⁶ for what is lost when such a world disappears. Young people, he says, are losing their connection to the natural world, along with a code of honor that will follow them through life. Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPOON SONG, "BACK TO THE LIFE")

1 scout   

n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索

参考例句：

• He was mistaken for an enemy scout and badly wounded.他被误认为是敌人的侦察兵，受了重伤。
• The scout made a stealthy approach to the enemy position.侦察兵偷偷地靠近敌军阵地。

2 scouts   

侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员

参考例句：

• to join the Scouts 参加童子军
• The scouts paired off and began to patrol the area. 巡逻人员两个一组，然后开始巡逻这个地区。

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 cub   

n.幼兽，年轻无经验的人

参考例句：

• The lion cub's mother was hunting for what she needs. 这只幼师的母亲正在捕猎。
• The cub licked the milk from its mother's breast. 这头幼兽吸吮着它妈妈的奶水。

5 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

6 bugler   

喇叭手； 号兵； 吹鼓手； 司号员

参考例句：

• The general ordered the bugler to sound the retreat. 将军命令号手吹号收兵。
• There was nothing faded about the bugler under the cap. 帽子下面那个号手可一点也不是褪色的。

7 pinpoint   

vt.准确地确定；用针标出…的精确位置

参考例句：

• It is difficult to pinpoint when water problems of the modern age began.很难准确地指出，现代用水的问题是什么时候出现的。
• I could pinpoint his precise location on a map.我能在地图上指明他的准确位置。

8 solitary   

adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士

参考例句：

• I am rather fond of a solitary stroll in the country.我颇喜欢在乡间独自徜徉。
• The castle rises in solitary splendour on the fringe of the desert.这座城堡巍然耸立在沙漠的边际，显得十分壮美。

9 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

10 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

11 paradigm   

n.例子，模范，词形变化表

参考例句：

• He had become the paradigm of the successful man. 他已经成为成功人士的典范。
• Moreover,the results of this research can be the new learning paradigm for digital design studios.除此之外，本研究的研究成果也可以为数位设计课程建立一个新的学习范例。

12 relishes   

n.滋味( relish的名词复数 )；乐趣；（大量的）享受；快乐v.欣赏( relish的第三人称单数 )；从…获得乐趣；渴望

参考例句：

• The meat relishes of pork. 这肉有猪肉味。 来自辞典例句
• The biography relishes too much of romance. 这篇传记中传奇色彩太浓。 来自辞典例句

13 rustling   

n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的

参考例句：

• the sound of the trees rustling in the breeze 树木在微风中发出的沙沙声
• the soft rustling of leaves 树叶柔和的沙沙声

14 idyllic   

adj.质朴宜人的，田园风光的

参考例句：

• These scenes had an idyllic air.这种情景多少有点田园气氛。
• Many people living in big cities yearn for an idyllic country life.现在的很多都市人向往那种田园化的生活。

15 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

16 lament   

n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹

参考例句：

• Her face showed lament.她的脸上露出悲伤的样子。
• We lament the dead.我们哀悼死者。