美国国家公共电台 NPR For Better Or Worse, New Novel Shows 'A Woman Is No Man'

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Etaf Rum's new novel, "A Woman Is No Man," may violate a code of silence - the tight-knit and often closed Palestinian-American community of Brooklyn in which she grew up and which she left. Her protagonist¹, Isra, is born in Palestine but comes to Brooklyn when her family arranges a marriage to Adam, who runs a deli across the river in Manhattan. The narrative² eventually shifts to Deya, the oldest of their four daughters, who was left to tell her mother's story, a story that comes to embody³ the stories of generations of women in that community.

Etaf Rum joins us now from the studios of WUNC in Durham, N.C. Thanks so much for being with us.

ETAF RUM: It's a pleasure. Thank you for having me.

SIMON: I feel the need to say at the outset, this is a novel that certainly sounds like it's been taken from the pages of your own book of life, in a sense. If I may, you were married when you were 19.

RUM: Yes. It was an arranged marriage by my family. There weren't many choices for me as a kid growing up. And so marriage and motherhood - that was the path that was prescribed for me.

SIMON: And two children you have now, yes?

RUM: Yes.

SIMON: Let me ask you about the story in this book because we become aware of the fact that Adam is not a good husband to Isra. He beats Isra, doesn't he?

RUM: Yes, he's an abusive husband.

SIMON: Do you have any concern that in telling this story, people in the community where you grew up are going to think you violated some kind of code of honor?

RUM: Oh, absolutely. That was one of the very main struggles that I had while writing "A Woman Is No Man." One of those struggles was confirming stereotypes⁴ about Arab people and the Arab community, stereotypes that include oppression, domestic abuse, terrorism. And so that kind of hindered my ability to express myself freely without fear in the beginning when I was writing the novel.

And it took me a long time to overcome those fears and realize that in order for me to speak on behalf of women that are abused and oppressed and to tell their stories, especially those women who are afraid to tell their own stories because they're shamed and because they feel like someone will come and retaliate⁵, that I had to overcome that fear and tell this very authentic⁶ story.

SIMON: How did you decide to break free of that?

RUM: Well, it took me a long time of doing what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to get married. I was supposed to have kids. And when I moved to North Carolina when I was 19, and I had my daughter right away, and I had my son two years later, at the same time, I was struggling with this idea that the only thing that I can do was be a mother and be a wife. So I went to college. I maintained my education despite the pressures around me to stay at home and take care of my kids.

And slowly, as I educated myself, I didn't - I wasn't just educating myself intellectually, but emotionally as well until I began to realize my place in the community and the cycle of trauma⁷ and oppression that I will be giving my daughter if I don't speak up to what I want to accomplish with my life, if I don't stand up for myself.

SIMON: In this story, Isra, your main character - one of your main characters is especially ridiculed⁸ because she keeps giving birth to daughters.

RUM: Yes.

SIMON: I found myself wondering, how can that be in the 1990s?

RUM: Having sons is very important in conservative Arab families because it's a way for the families to maintain their family name and make sure that they're still present, especially when you're an immigrant. And I think that's something that many Arab families struggle with - searching for a better life. But at the same time, they're struggling because they don't want to let go of their culture.

And so they come to this country, and they want to make sure that their family name survives because that's all they have left. And that means bearing sons. But it's something that I struggled with and I've witnessed firsthand as the eldest⁹ of nine children.

SIMON: Has there been a cost to all of your achievements?

RUM: Yeah, absolutely. I'm divorced. I don't have a sense of family. And I feel like because I stopped doing what I was supposed to do, I've let the people closest to me down in order to achieve what I think I should be doing.

SIMON: You know, when you get to the end of the book, you're left to feel from the center generational story that women have been the victims of special and particular and prolonged oppression, but that has given women exceptional strength, too.

RUM: Absolutely. And that's where the title of my book stems from. My grandmother would tell this to me often. I would say, well, how come I can't do so-and-so? Why can't I do what a man can do? And she'd say, because - you can't do this because you're not a man.

And the further I began thinking and writing about this, and the more I realized that women are also not equal to men in that they are responsible for so many things - maintaining family relationships, making sure that they are enlightening their children and instilling¹⁰ them with values - and so they are actually more resilient and stronger than men, then I wanted to take that title and make sure that it's seen in both ways - in the oppressive, limiting way that we use, but also in the ways to make sure that women understand their resiliency and their strength.

SIMON: Etaf Rum's new novel, "A Woman Is No Man." Thank you so much for being with us.

RUM: Thank you so much for having me.

1 protagonist   

n.(思想观念的)倡导者；主角，主人公

参考例句：

• The protagonist reforms in the end and avoids his proper punishment.戏剧主角最后改过自新并避免了他应受的惩罚。
• He is the model for the protagonist in the play.剧本中的主人公就是以他为模特儿创作的！

2 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

3 embody   

vt.具体表达，使具体化；包含，收录

参考例句：

• The latest locomotives embody many new features. 这些最新的机车具有许多新的特色。
• Hemingway's characters plainly embody his own values and view of life.海明威笔下的角色明确反映出他自己的价值观与人生观。

4 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》

5 retaliate   

v.报复，反击

参考例句：

• He sought every opportunity to retaliate against his enemy.他找机会向他的敌人反击。
• It is strictly forbidden to retaliate against the quality inspectors.严禁对质量检验人员进行打击报复。

6 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

7 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。

8 ridiculed   

v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Biosphere 2 was ultimately ridiculed as a research debade, as exfravagant pseudoscience. 生物圈2号最终被讥讽为科研上的大失败，代价是昂贵的伪科学。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She ridiculed his insatiable greed. 她嘲笑他的贪得无厌。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 eldest   

adj.最年长的，最年老的

参考例句：

• The King's eldest son is the heir to the throne.国王的长子是王位的继承人。
• The castle and the land are entailed on the eldest son.城堡和土地限定由长子继承。

10 instilling   

v.逐渐使某人获得（某种可取的品质），逐步灌输( instil的现在分词 )；逐渐使某人获得（某种可取的品质），逐步灌输( instill的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Make sure your subordinates understand your sense of urgency and work toward instilling this in allsubordinates. 确保你的下属同样具备判断紧急事件的意识，在工作中潜移默化地灌输给他们。 来自互联网