美国国家公共电台 NPR A Man Learns The Truth About His Adoption In 'Everybody's Son'

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

A 9-year-old boy is saved after his mother leaves him in a locked airless apartment for a week - no food, water or light. He breaks out through a window, and police find him weak and bleeding. They find his mother passed out in a crack house nearby. But that boy, Anton, winds up in the hearts and arms of the Coleman's, a prominent political family who rear him with all the advantages their name, wealth and love can confer. He grows up to be a man of character and distinction and then discovers the truth. "Everybody's Son" is the new novel by Thrity Umrigar, author of "The Space Between Us" and other acclaimed² novels. She joins us now from the studios of WCPN in Cleveland. Thanks so much for being with us.

THRITY UMRIGAR: It's a pleasure being here, Scott.

SIMON: I purposely didn't mention because the copy on the flap of your book doesn't relay that Anton and the parents who adopt him are of different races.

UMRIGAR: I noticed that.

SIMON: Is the copy flap trying to accomplish something to lead people into the novel?

UMRIGAR: To be perfectly³ candid⁴ with you, I had not realized this until I heard your introduction. And I'm kind of proud of the fact that it doesn't. I'm just being very honest. I hadn't noticed that myself.

SIMON: Help us understand the story. The Colemans are David and Delores Coleman. And they take Anton into their family as a foster son. They're not both in agreement at first, are they?

UMRIGAR: No, not at all. They have lost their own biological son several years prior to when the novel opens. I don't think either one of them has really had an extended conversation about whether they should, you know, permanently⁵ adopt another child. Each seems to think that they are giving the other what they want or what they secretly desire. So, in some sense, they have kind of blundered their way into fostering Anton.

And then what ends up happening, of course, is that David sees the untapped potential in Anton and convinces himself in that self-delusionary way that human beings often operate that he only wants to permanently have custody⁶ of Anton because it's in the boy's best interest and sort of conveniently ignores the fact that it is also what his heart desires.

SIMON: I read the bare bones of the plot premise⁷, obviously, and the introduction. But Anton's mother, Juanita, has an explanation for what's happened that's better than those bare facts, doesn't she?

UMRIGAR: Yes, very much so. One of the things that it was very important to me to convey in this novel is that despite the fact of her addiction⁸, Juanita is actually a very good mom. And the paradox⁹ of this whole situation is nobody else seems to know that except for her son himself, who is, of course, her victim. And yet, the court system, you know, the police and certainly David Coleman himself all seem to think of her as a very bad mother, which, arguably, in some ways, she is because, all said and done, she does abandon her son for a week.

SIMON: And granted, crack addiction is not - is rarely associated with good parenting.

UMRIGAR: Yes, exactly. Precisely¹⁰ so. And yet, none of Anton's parents - you know, everybody in some ways is a flawed character. But they are all at least convincing themselves that they are acting¹¹ in the boy's best interests.

SIMON: When did this story begin in your mind? And what put it there, do you think?

UMRIGAR: It's very strange, Scott. I kid you not, the entire book kind of presented itself to me in a span of maybe 15 to 30 seconds. It felt like, you know, some carpet like unfurling in front of me. But having said that, no book exists in a vacuum, right? It always exists in some kind of a larger context. So, of course, this is when the whole Black Lives Matter movement was ascendant. This was also in the waning¹² years of the Obama presidency¹³. You know, all these things were swirling¹⁴ around not just in my head, but also in the body politic¹ so to speak.

SIMON: Yeah. Did you hesitate at all trying to write a novel about a white family who adopted an African-American son because you're from neither community or did that not matter, or is that why you did it?

UMRIGAR: You know, Scott, I certainly did not write this novel to be provocative¹⁵ or inflammatory in any way. To be perfectly honest with you, I did not spend a lot of time debating whether I had the moral or even the literary authority to write the book. I mean, heck, if people can write about UFOs and space aliens, why the heck can't I write a novel about somebody who happens to be from a different race?

You know, it is an undeniable fact that I was born and lived in India until I was 21. But it is also true that I've spent my entire adult life in the United States. And if you're casting around for an American topic to write about that reflects accurately¹⁶, you know, my life in the last 30 years, what more quintessentially American topic than race and race relations, you know? But if you look at my entire body of work, Scott, every book that I've written in some ways deals with the issue of power. You know, who has power? Who uses it against whom for what reason?

Now, having said all that, I mean, clearly, when you're writing about a community that's not yours, a culture that is not yours, you know, it comes with great responsibility. And that's a responsibility that I take seriously. So you can bet that I did my research. You can bet that I was trying not to indulge in stereotypes¹⁷ of any kind. But the last thing I want to do as a writer is tell the same story over and over again. You know, I want to tell stories about the country that I now call mine and call home.

SIMON: Thrity Umigar, her novel "Everybody's Son." Thanks so much for being with us.

UMRIGAR: Thank you, Scott. It was truly a pleasure talking to you.

1 politic   

adj.有智虑的；精明的；v.从政

参考例句：

• He was too politic to quarrel with so important a personage.他很聪明，不会与这么重要的人争吵。
• The politic man tried not to offend people.那个精明的人尽量不得罪人。

2 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

3 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

4 candid   

adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的

参考例句：

• I cannot but hope the candid reader will give some allowance for it.我只有希望公正的读者多少包涵一些。
• He is quite candid with his friends.他对朋友相当坦诚。

5 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

6 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

7 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

8 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

9 paradox   

n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物)

参考例句：

• The story contains many levels of paradox.这个故事存在多重悖论。
• The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform.矛盾的地方是日本确实需要教育改革。

10 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

11 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

12 waning   

adj.（月亮）渐亏的，逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡

参考例句：

• Her enthusiasm for the whole idea was waning rapidly. 她对整个想法的热情迅速冷淡了下来。
• The day is waning and the road is ending. 日暮途穷。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

13 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

14 swirling   

v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Snowflakes were swirling in the air. 天空飘洒着雪花。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• She smiled, swirling the wine in her glass. 她微笑着，旋动着杯子里的葡萄酒。 来自辞典例句

15 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。

16 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

17 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》