美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Our Short History,' A Dying Single Mom Pens A Letter To Her Son

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Karen Neulander's a political consultant¹ who is brilliant, determined² and tough, but then she's diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. That's a crisis that this capable professional who usually smoothes the path for others can't fix. What Karen Neulander determines to do with whatever time she has left is to pour her life and lessons into her 6-year-old son, Jacob. "Our Short History" is a story within a novel by Lauren Grodstein in which Karen leaves the chronicle of her life for her son to read when he turns 18 and to try to introduce him to the father he has never known but must try to love for the rest of his life.

Lauren Grodstein, the best-selling novelist and short story writer, who also directs the creative writing MFA program at Rutgers-Camden, joins us from the studios of KUOW in Seattle. Thanks so much for being with us.

LAUREN GRODSTEIN, BYLINE³: It's a pleasure to be here.

SIMON: There are lots of tough details to read in here about cancer and cancer treatments. How do you know them?

GRODSTEIN: Well, whenever I start a novel, I do a lot of reading. But the most immediate⁴ source of information was actually my sister-in-law and her family. My sister-in-law's mother passed away from ovarian cancer. Her sister was diagnosed with it and was cured, thank goodness. But through their experiences, I was really able to see on the ground what ovarian cancer looks like. And I was also able to see how women who were struck by it aren't just about their cancer. They're also living their lives and making plans and seeing friends and raising families, and that was important for me to see as well.

SIMON: Jacob's father - Jacob, her son - Jacob's father, Dave, was the love of her life.

GRODSTEIN: Yeah.

SIMON: So what happened?

GRODSTEIN: Karen fell in love with Dave and had imagined a future with him, complete with a center hall colonial, maybe a two-car garage and babies. And even though Dave said, no, I never want children, she was really reluctant to believe that. And then she found out she was pregnant and planned an announcement, you know, I'm pregnant. And instead of him saying let's get married, he said, I don't want a baby. I told you I don't want a baby. And Karen, being feisty and determined and perhaps more angry than wise, she packed up and left and had the baby on her own and never told Dave and never planned to see him again and probably by some magical thinking thought that perhaps he would divine that she'd had the baby and apologize and come running back. But instead, he married someone else. He moved on with his life, and she raised Jacob as a single mom.

SIMON: Yeah. And then six years later, they meet, Dave and Jacob. And what happens?

GRODSTEIN: And Jacob, who looks like Dave, who has the same half curly hair, who loves LEGOs, who loves "Star Wars" just like his dad, both he and his dad have a thing for plastic figurines, they fall in love, and they can't get enough of each other. And that is not what Karen expected. Karen expected to see the same man who told her he never wanted kids. But in the intervening six years, it turns out that he changed his mind. And now what does she do? Because of all of the things she planned for for the end of her life, handing her son over to the man who abandoned them, that was not in the cards.

SIMON: I mean, you get the impression that hurts her in a way that I almost said cancer doesn't, and I'll - maybe I'll stick by that. Yeah.

GRODSTEIN: I think that that sounds right. I mean, cancer is uncontrollable, but it's not as uncontrollable as the love of a 6-year-old boy. And it's not as uncontrollable as the desire to give your kid anything that you want or that he wants. And so while facing the end of her life, there's all this language around that - right? - end-of-life plans and end-of-life organization. And that's not entirely⁵ true. The end of your life is wild and uncontrollable, and this idea that she might lose her son or lose the plan she had for her son is, in some ways, even more brutal⁶ than losing what she expected of the rest of her life.

SIMON: Yeah. Karen's a political consultant, and her - the client we hear the most about is Ace⁷, who wants to be mayor of New York.

GRODSTEIN: (Laughter) Yeah.

SIMON: Maybe superfluous⁸ to add, he's a Democrat⁹. He also disappoints her at just about the worst time, doesn't he?

GRODSTEIN: He does. He does. Ace is a philanderer¹⁰ of a very generic¹¹ kind, you know, young women on the campaign, young women he works with. And he sees himself as, you know, he's not really hurting anyone. No one has to know. But his ability to be honest with himself or the people around him, you know, it fails and it torpedoes¹² not only his personal life but his work life, too. And he disappoints Karen, which, from the reader's point of view, is far worse.

SIMON: Yeah. Well, that's all you care about at that point.

GRODSTEIN: Right.

SIMON: And then she meets his opponent for the city council, Beverly Hernandez. And, boy, I wasn't expecting that.

GRODSTEIN: Yeah. Karen is - so Karen's kind of salty, and she's a hard-left Democrat, and she's not above dirty tricks, and she never expects to fall in love with Bev, who is a Republican. And she adheres to a sort of Republican standard talking points. She's pro-life. She's reduced regulations. She wants lower taxes, and Karen thinks all that's nonsense. But then she meets Bev, and it turns out that Bev is a recovering cancer patient as well. And not only that, she's the daughter of immigrants. She's tough. She's smart. She has a sense of humor. So in many ways, she reminds Karen of herself, and she survived. And so for Karen to see that this woman who's been through so much came out a winner on the other side is really profound for her.

SIMON: A particularly heart-stopping line, without giving anything away - towards the end of the book, somebody says to her, in a sense to excuse themselves, I'm old. And Karen says, do you know how lucky you are to get old?

GRODSTEIN: I think about that all the time. My grandparents lived sort of the American century. They were born in the early 1900s and died in the early 2000s. And they lived these rich, full lives. And even at the end of their lives, they were still really living. And I remember thinking that weirdly¹³ like, well, I know it's hard to be old, but look at how much you've gotten to live.

SIMON: Yeah.

GRODSTEIN: And I still feel that way when I meet people who've lived long, rich lives, what a blessing¹⁴ and it's a blessing that's not guaranteed to any of us.

SIMON: Lauren Grodstein - her novel, "Our Short History." Thanks so much for being with us.

GRODSTEIN: What a pleasure, thank you.

1 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

2 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

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 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

5 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

6 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

7 ace   

n.A牌；发球得分；佼佼者；adj.杰出的

参考例句：

• A good negotiator always has more than one ace in the hole.谈判高手总有数张王牌在手。
• He is an ace mechanic.He can repair any cars.他是一流的机械师,什么车都会修。

8 superfluous   

adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的

参考例句：

• She fined away superfluous matter in the design. 她删去了这图案中多余的东西。
• That request seemed superfluous when I wrote it.我这样写的时候觉得这个请求似乎是多此一举。

9 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

10 philanderer   

n.爱和女人调情的男人，玩弄女性的男人

参考例句：

• He's a bit of a philanderer -- don' t take him too seriously ! 他这个人有点轻薄--别跟他太认真！ 来自辞典例句
• D. Edison Chen is a goddamned rich philanderer. 陈冠希是一个有钱的花心大萝卜。 来自互联网

11 generic   

adj.一般的，普通的，共有的

参考例句：

• I usually buy generic clothes instead of name brands.我通常买普通的衣服，不买名牌。
• The generic woman appears to have an extraordinary faculty for swallowing the individual.一般妇女在婚后似乎有特别突出的抑制个性的能力。

12 torpedoes   

鱼雷( torpedo的名词复数 )； 油井爆破筒； 刺客； 掼炮

参考例句：

• We top off, take on provisions and torpedoes, and go. 我们维修完，装上给养和鱼雷就出发。
• The torpedoes hit amidship, and there followed a series of crashing explosions. 鱼雷击中了船腹，引起了一阵隆隆的爆炸声。

13 weirdly   

古怪地

参考例句：

• Another special characteristic of Kweilin is its weirdly-shaped mountain grottoes. 桂林的另一特点是其形态怪异的岩洞。
• The country was weirdly transformed. 地势古怪地变了样。

14 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。