美国国家公共电台 NPR A Plucky English Heroine Amid New York's Super-Rich In 'Still Me'

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

In the 2012 best-selling novel "Me Before You," an idealistic, young English woman named Louisa Clark becomes the caretaker of a wealthy businessman left paralyzed from a motorcycle accident. They fall in love. Then tragedy strikes. Louisa is left to pick up the pieces. The story was a breakout hit for journalist and author Jojo Moyes. Not only did she write a sequel but also the screenplay for the 2016 film "Me Before You," which starred Emilia Clarke from "Game Of Thrones." Now Louisa's story continues in the upcoming novel "Still Me." Author Jojo Moyes is here to tell us more about it. She joins me from the BBC in London. Good morning.

JOJO MOYES: Good morning.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So this novel picks up from the second book in the series, where Louisa is able to find love after a loss. So tell us where Louisa goes now.

MOYES: Well, she heads stateside. The book is set in New York mostly, where she goes to work for a new family. She essentially¹ goes to work as the companion to a rich man's wife but, as with all these things, soon discovers that her role is not quite what she thought it was. But it's also just about her struggle to maintain her relationship with Ambulance Sam, who's still in the U.K., but also identity and Louisa really working out who she is out of the shadow of these amazing men.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: The people Louisa's working for, as you mentioned, is a businessman and his new, young, second wife from Eastern Europe. That sounds like it could have been a walking cliche². And yet you do humanize these characters. They are complicated. Tell us about the wife, Agnes.

MOYES: I'm glad you said you thought she was complex because she doesn't always behave in a way that you might admire. But I sort of hope that she behaves in a way that you might understand. And that's what I really enjoy doing with characters - is making them flawed human beings who make mistakes and get things wrong. But essentially, you might like them anyway.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You show in the book how women struggle in this very elite³ environment to be sort of perfect, to be accepted.

MOYES: Exactly. I mean, I think, you know, my husband is always amazed by the subtlety⁴ of the ways that women can put each other down. It's like a language. It's like a dog whistle, you know? Only dogs can hear it. Well, only women can hear these subtle kind of put-downs.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: We all know what is being signaled. Yes. Sometimes it escapes men, but we always know.

MOYES: Exactly. Exactly. He says, but she was just being helpful. And I go, yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

MOYES: In general, the book is about women actually supporting each other. But I do think in those very rarified strata⁵, there is a inherent competitiveness and suspicion of newcomers. And that's what Agnes finds - that although she adores this new husband of hers, and from the outside her life looks like a fairy tale, from the inside, it's a very different story. She's not accepted by the rest of the family. She's not accepted by the new social circle that she finds herself in. And she's also alienated⁶ from her own social circle because her problems are all luxury problems, as far as they can see.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I'd like to know how you researched that world. Did you talk to people that work with the super wealthy like Louisa does in the book?

MOYES: I did. And, also, I visited. I like, as an ex-journalist, to try as far as possible to actually step into the shoes of the kind of people that I write about. It's really about the kind of blood flow around those buildings as well. It's like how stuff comes in and goes out...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's like an ecosystem⁷ - yeah.

MOYES: It really is. And that's what really fascinated me. I wanted the building to be as much of a character as the people themselves.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. You talk about how, like, they're never alone. There's always just people coming in and out, delivering flowers, gardeners, bringing food, wine. It's...

MOYES: Well, I guess this is one of the things that really struck me. The really fundamental difference is this thing of living life under observation. The super rich just kind of have to live lives that pretend that that's not happening. And there's an inherent tension in that that I find really interesting as a writer.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. And, of course, Louisa's all of a sudden thrust into the center of the story where she gets this intimate look at somebody else's life. And she's involved in that marriage in a way.

MOYES: Yeah, because the key thing about this stuff is that they end up holding people's secrets. And this is one of the lessons the chauffeur⁸ tries to teach Louisa very early on. You know, you see everything. You hear everything. You say nothing if you want to survive. And that's the thing that Louisa perhaps isn't naturally best suited to.

(LAUGHTER)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: No. She is very chatty. A lot of your novels are anchored by people in different class situations. It's been a thread throughout this entire series. Louisa's a working-class woman. She finds herself with rich men. Will, obviously, in the first book - Josh in this book is also of a different class. Do you think the problems of class lends itself to stories about romance?

MOYES: To write interestingly about love and romance, you need tension running through a story. And for me, the really interesting tension in modern life is about the haves and the have-nots. You know, we live in an increasingly polarized society. And when you're in somewhere like Fifth Avenue, it becomes really, really blatant⁹, from the doormen that you pass on the street to, you know, the people getting into the limos outside. It's almost its most naked form. And that I find fascinating. And I suppose the reason I wanted to stay with Louisa is because I think a lot of people just identify with her because she's an ordinary, everyday person who effectively gets thrown into fairly extraordinary situations.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Is there going to be more Louisa? Are you going to stick with her?

MOYES: You know, I think this is it. I'm really sad to say that because I love writing her. And she's such an easy character for me to write because I feel like I inhabit her very, very easily. But I don't want people to get bored of her. So the only way I might revisit her are or to sort of stop myself getting sad about is maybe to do a short story sometime in the future. But I think as far as long form goes, this might be the end.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Well, we wish her well (laughter). And we wish you well. Jojo Moyes - her new book is "Still Me." It comes out on Jan. 30. Thank you so much for coming on the program.

MOYES: Thank you so much, Lulu.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TAKE ALL THE TIME YOU NEED")

OH HONEY: (Singing) You are sweet as a honey bee. I just can't...

1 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

2 cliche   

n./a.陈词滥调(的)；老生常谈(的)；陈腐的

参考例句：

• You should always try to avoid the use of cliche. 你应该尽量避免使用陈词滥调。
• The old cliche is certainly true:the bigger car do mean bigger profits.有句老话倒的确说得不假:车大利大。

3 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

4 subtlety   

n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别

参考例句：

• He has shown enormous strength,great intelligence and great subtlety.他表现出充沛的精力、极大的智慧和高度的灵活性。
• The subtlety of his remarks was unnoticed by most of his audience.大多数听众都没有觉察到他讲话的微妙之处。

5 strata   

n.地层（复数）；社会阶层

参考例句：

• The older strata gradually disintegrate.较老的岩层渐渐风化。
• They represent all social strata.他们代表各个社会阶层。

6 alienated   

adj.感到孤独的，不合群的v.使疏远( alienate的过去式和过去分词 )；使不友好；转让；让渡（财产等）

参考例句：

• His comments have alienated a lot of young voters. 他的言论使许多年轻选民离他而去。
• The Prime Minister's policy alienated many of her followers. 首相的政策使很多拥护她的人疏远了她。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 ecosystem   

n.生态系统

参考例句：

• This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
• We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。

8 chauffeur   

n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车

参考例句：

• The chauffeur handed the old lady from the car.这个司机搀扶这个老太太下汽车。
• She went out herself and spoke to the chauffeur.她亲自走出去跟汽车司机说话。

9 blatant   

adj.厚颜无耻的；显眼的；炫耀的

参考例句：

• I cannot believe that so blatant a comedy can hoodwink anybody.我无法相信这么显眼的一出喜剧能够欺骗谁。
• His treatment of his secretary was a blatant example of managerial arrogance.他管理的傲慢作风在他对待秘书的态度上表露无遗。