美国国家公共电台 NPR How The Man In The Apartment Hit Big With 'The Woman In The Window'

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Take a touch of Hitchcock and of "Gone Girl." Add a mysterious author and rumors¹ of a huge price tag, and you come up with that rare bird, a debut² novel that hit No. 1 on The New York Times' best-seller list in its first week on the market. It's called "The Woman In The Window." NPR's Lynn Neary has the story.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE³: Brand-name authors like James Patterson or Stephen King hit the top of The New York Times' best-seller list in the first week all the time. Unknowns - not so often.

GREG COWLES: It is very unusual.

NEARY: Greg Cowles is the longtime writer of the "Inside The List" column at the Times. He says the buzz around "The Woman In The Window" has been building since a hotly contested auction⁴ for the novel by an unknown author named A. J. Finn. Turns out, that's a pseudonym⁵ for Daniel Mallory, an executive editor at William Morrow, the publishing company that bought the book. But Cowles says, even with all that interest, no book is a sure bet.

COWLES: You really never know. Despite the buzz, despite the huge advance sales, the publishers themselves never know - will this book hit? You can't manufacture a best-seller.

NEARY: Daniel Mallory, aka A. J. Finn, probably would know how to manufacture one. He has spent a lifetime reading, studying and editing mysteries and thrillers⁶. And when "Gone Girl" sparked a trend in psychological thrillers with an unreliable female narrator, he was tempted⁷ to jump on the bandwagon.

DANIEL MALLORY: When Gillian Flynn published "Gone Girl," I thought, aha - this is the sort of book I've loved and could possibly try to write. The trouble was, I didn't have a story.

NEARY: Mallory didn't want to put a mystery together like a jigsaw⁸ puzzle. He wanted the book to have substance. He was also suffering from depression, which he later discovered was misdiagnosed.

MALLORY: For days or weeks or even months at a stretch during the 15 years in which I struggled with misdiagnosed bipolar disorder⁹, there were times when I could not prize myself from bed, let alone leave the house.

NEARY: While adjusting to new medication, Mallory took some time off from work. He watched a lot of old movies - his other great passion. And one day, as Hitchcock's "Rear Window" played in the background, he looked out his own window and noticed his neighbor across the street.

MALLORY: In accordance with fine Manhattan tradition, I watch her for a couple moments. She is settling herself in an armchair, aiming a remote at her TV. And behind me on screen, Thelma Ritter is chiding¹⁰ Jimmy Stewart for peering across the courtyard into Raymond Burr's apartment.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "REAR WINDOW")

THELMA RITTER: (As Stella) I can smell trouble right here in this apartment. First you smash your leg, then you get to looking out the window, see things you shouldn't see - trouble.

MALLORY: And I thought to myself, how funny that in 1954 Jimmy Stewart is spying on his neighbors, and I'm doing the exact same thing 60 years later. And just like that, an idea for a story presented itself. And striding towards that story from another corner of my brain was this character who had struggled, as I had struggled, with mental health issues and whose grief seemed comparable to mine in intensity¹¹, although the circumstances were very different from my own.

NEARY: That character is Anna Fox. She suffers from agoraphobia - gets panicked if she even feels the air outside her front door.

MALLORY: She was once a respected child psychologist, but she has withdrawn¹² from her profession and, indeed, from the world in the wake of some sort of trauma¹³. And we don't learn the details of that trauma until about two thirds of the way through the book. She does try to occupy herself as best she can. She learns French, she counsels fellow agoraphobes through a digital forum¹⁴, and she watches old films. They form a sort of soundtrack to her life.

NEARY: She also drinks a lot of red wine, which she mixes recklessly with her meds. And she spends a great deal of time spying on her neighbors with a long lens camera. One day, when her mind is especially foggy, she's watching "Dark Passage" as Humphrey Bogart is going under anesthesia.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DARK PASSAGE")

HOUSELEY STEVENSON: (As Dr. Walter Coley) I'm going to give you some shots that'll freeze your face. Now, just close your eyes. Got a fine aesthetic¹⁵ - used it in the last war. It's in your bloodstream now.

NEARY: As the film plays, Anna looks in her neighbor's window and thinks she sees a murder.

STEVENSON: (As Dr. Walter Coley) It'll be all right. It'll be all right.

NEARY: The victim is a woman who has befriended Anna. But no one believes Anna ever met her, much less saw her get stabbed to death. The murder is only one of the mysteries that will keep readers guessing. Mallory takes his time revealing why Anna is so traumatized that she cannot leave her house.

MALLORY: What I can say about this particular dimension of the book is that I consider it the heart of the story. And whether you anticipate its details or parameters¹⁶ or not is sort of by the by. It's really incidental. It's not about surprise. It's not about a jack-in-the-box effect. It's about how such an event would impact someone, how they would cope with it and how they would struggle to move past it.

NEARY: In the tradition of many mysteries, Mallory set his story in a confined space. His next book, which he's already working on, is set in a big city - San Francisco - and he says it feels great to get a breath of fresh air.

Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.

1 rumors   

n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷

参考例句：

• Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

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 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

5 pseudonym   

n.假名，笔名

参考例句：

• Eric Blair wrote under the pseudonym of George Orwell.埃里克·布莱尔用乔治·奧威尔这个笔名写作。
• Both plays were published under the pseudonym of Philip Dayre.两个剧本都是以菲利普·戴尔的笔名出版的。

6 thrillers   

n.紧张刺激的故事( thriller的名词复数 )；戏剧；令人感到兴奋的事；（电影）惊悚片

参考例句：

• He has written seven thrillers, and clearly enjoys intellectual pursuits. 他已经写了7本惊悚小说，显然很喜欢这样的智力活动。 来自辞典例句
• Most Americans prefer to read fast-moving adventure stories that we call "thrillers". 大部分美国人喜欢看我们称之为"惊险小说"的情节多变的冒险故事。 来自辞典例句

7 tempted   

v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词）

参考例句：

• I was sorely tempted to complain, but I didn't. 我极想发牢骚，但还是没开口。
• I was tempted by the dessert menu. 甜食菜单馋得我垂涎欲滴。

8 jigsaw   

n.缕花锯，竖锯，拼图游戏；vt.用竖锯锯，使互相交错搭接

参考例句：

• A jigsaw puzzle can keep me absorbed for hours.一副拼图就能让我沉醉几个小时。
• Tom likes to work on jigsaw puzzles,too.汤姆也喜欢玩拼图游戏。

9 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

10 chiding   

v.责骂，责备( chide的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She was chiding her son for not being more dutiful to her. 她在责骂她儿子对她不够孝尽。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She called back her scattered maidens, chiding their alarm. 她把受惊的少女们召唤回来，对她们的惊惶之状加以指责。 来自辞典例句

11 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

12 withdrawn   

vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出

参考例句：

• Our force has been withdrawn from the danger area.我们的军队已从危险地区撤出。
• All foreign troops should be withdrawn to their own countries.一切外国军队都应撤回本国去。

13 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

14 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

15 aesthetic   

adj.美学的，审美的，有美感

参考例句：

• My aesthetic standards are quite different from his.我的审美标准与他的大不相同。
• The professor advanced a new aesthetic theory.那位教授提出了新的美学理论。

16 parameters   

因素，特征； 界限； （限定性的）因素( parameter的名词复数 )； 参量； 参项； 决定因素

参考例句：

• We have to work within the parameters of time. 我们的工作受时间所限。
• See parameters.cpp for a compilable example. This is part of the Spirit distribution. 可编译例子见parameters.cpp.这是Spirit分发包的组成部分。