New fiction
新小说
The self stripped
自我剖析
A novel masquerading as a tell-all memoir
看似自传，畅所欲言；实则小说
How Should a Person Be? By Sheila Heti.
《应该如何做人？》作者：希拉·海蒂。
THE confessional tale of depravity redeemed goes back at least to St Augustine. Sheila Heti, a Canadian writer, plays with this legacy in “How Should a Person Be?” out now in Britain following a rapturous reception in America. A novel masquerading as memoir, it is a sharp and unsentimental chronicle of what it is like to be 20-something now.
自我救赎的忏悔故事至少可以追溯到圣奥古斯汀时代。加拿大作家希拉·海蒂的《应该如何做人？》戏谑地沿用此法。之前该书在美国受到狂热追捧，现已在英国上市。表面上它是一部自传，实则编年体小说，以犀利而冷静的文风，讲述了现在二十出头的人是何处境。
The story spans a year in the life of Sheila, a blocked playwright in Toronto. She is recently divorced and unable to finish a commissioned play. Convinced that other people “do not feel like they were raised by wolves”, Sheila sets out to probe the “ugliness” she feels inside. She feels she should seek fame, yet she finds relief shampooing clients in a hair salon. “It was work I could believe in: making people look and feel their best.” The flat tone is at once sincere and disingenuous: Ms Heti's deadpan, naked voice is what makes Sheila's journey so engaging.
故事讲述了郁郁不得志的多伦多剧作家希拉的一年生活。她刚刚离婚，又无法完成受人委托的剧本。希拉确信其他人“不会认为自己是被狼带大的”，所以决定从自身出发，探索内心体会到的“丑陋”。她觉得自己应该追名逐利，然而她却在美发店给顾客洗头中得到解脱。“工作就是我的信仰：我在美发店的工作能让别人容光焕发，精神抖擞。”这种平淡的语调立刻就产生一种既真挚诚恳、又惺惺作态的感觉：正是因为海蒂女士故作冷酷、毫无感情色彩的语调，希拉之旅才会让人如此着迷。
Ms Heti also captures the malaise of young, creative types. Again and again Sheila asks if making art is merely narcissistic. But just as self-absorption threatens to swamp the tale, a crisis causes her to look squarely at her own sexual and debased life. Her friendship with Margaux, a painter, provides redemption of a kind. Throughout, the reader is beguiled by blunt, sly observations: “Smiling only encourages men to bore you and waste your time.” “The world is full to brimming with its own shit. A little more from me won't even make a difference.”
海蒂女士也捕捉到了富有创意的那一类年轻人身上莫名的不安。希拉总是在思考一个问题：艺术创作是否只是一种自恋？但是，正当她过于自我投入、故事几乎要失控时，一场危机让她开始正视性的问题和自己堕落的生活。她和画家马尔戈的友谊就给她带来了某种救赎。纵观全文，读者会始终陶醉在坦率而狡黠的文字描写之中：“浅浅一笑只会招蜂引蝶，浪费自己的时间。”“这个世界充斥着自己的胡言乱语，都快装不下了。所以，多我一句不多，少我一句不少。”
Written sometimes in the first person, sometimes in the third, this novel can make for uncomfortable reading. Yet Ms Heti's mordant take on modernity encourages introspection. It is easy to see why a book on the anxiety of celebrity has turned the author into one herself.
小说有时候用第一人称、有时候又转为第三人称，读起来并不畅快。然而，海蒂对现代生活的尖酸调侃却引人反思。不难看出，为什么一本讲述成名带来的焦虑的书却让作者自己出了名。 |