美国国家公共电台 NPR Emma Donoghue Helps Kids Deal With Dementia (And Still Has Fun) In 'The Lotterys'

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I got to talk with the writer Emma Donoghue the other day. You might remember she got famous for her blockbuster novel "Room," the one about a happy little boy growing up in horrifying¹ conditions - born into captivity², mom abducted³. Where "Room" was darkness pierced with light, Donoghue's latest - it's actually for young readers - is pretty much all light. Even the idea came out of fun.

EMMA DONOGHUE: I don't usually make up my books during dinner parties. But this one came out of a conversation in a very raucous⁴, noisy New Year's Eve dinner party.

MARTIN: What were you talking about?

(LAUGHTER)

DONOGHUE: Well, my hostess said to me, how come there aren't good books for middle grades that feature kids with two mothers? You know, write me one, Emma, she said. And then I thought, you know, while I'm at it, let's make it really big. You know, go big, or go home.

MARTIN: So Donoghue dreamed up a big, boisterous⁵ diverse family, one that starts with two sets of same-sex couples deciding to have children.

DONOGHUE: Once upon a time, a man from Delhi and a man from Yukon fell in love, and so did a woman from Jamaica and a Mohawk woman. The two couples became best friends and had a baby together. When they won the lottery⁶, they gave up their jobs and found a big old house where their family could learn and grow and grow some more.

MARTIN: The book is called "The Lotterys Plus One." The family, by the way, grows to include seven kids. And that plus-one of Emma Donoghue's title, it's the addition that tips this family over the edge.

Our guide to this story is the 9-year-old here. Her name is Sumac. What's her role in the family dynamic?

DONOGHUE: I would say Sumac - and by the way, all the children are named after trees because the family, you know, the parents are such hippies. And Sumac is the one who sort of keeps them all up to the mark. You know, she organizes the family photos and slide shows. And, you know, she's very - she's very...

MARTIN: She's the responsible one.

DONOGHUE: Exactly. And I liked the idea of taking this good girl and then plunking her down in a very chaotic⁷ household. She's surrounded by siblings⁸ behaving badly and often parents (laughter) losing the run of themselves as well. So I liked the idea that the sensible, really naturally introverted one would be sort of the ring master of all this chaos⁹, perhaps.

MARTIN: So one of the grandfathers is suffering from dementia. And his son says it's time for you to come live with us in our family. Sumac is charged with being his minder, figuring out how to make him part of their family. How does she navigate¹⁰ that?

DONOGHUE: Well, in a way, the novel is all about culture clash. And although Sumac is perfectly¹¹ welcoming in general, it's hard for her to make room for this curmudgeonly¹² old man, who is - who has never sought out his son's family, doesn't like his son being gay, even. So you know, he's critical of every aspect of the house, from the fact that they - they follow the, if it's - if-it's-yellow-let-it-mellow principle of water conservation, for instance.

MARTIN: Sure (laughter).

DONOGHUE: He's horrified¹³ by that. So he's really an antagonistic¹⁴ houseguest to have. And of course, he's wretchedly unhappy at suddenly being yanked away from his own independent life. So really, the novel tries to deal sympathetically with the fact that there's some right on all sides here.

MARTIN: So this is - I mean, this is a lovely story. And it's about family and relationships. But it's also a story about a tough thing, which is dementia. And you're writing for young readers. How did you think about presenting this particular condition?

DONOGHUE: This was one of the first things I decided¹⁵ about the book because my own mum has been living with dementia for six years now. And she had just been diagnosed when I planned this book. And everything I read about dementia for children had a dreary¹⁶ tone to it, a sort of - let's stop the action, and I'll give you sad facts, you know? So I don't believe there's any subject that can't be handled with a little bit of sparkle.

So I try and make it very accurate but also, you know, accept the humor there can be misunderstandings and let him be a real character, not a textbook. And above all, I avoided being too sad in that the children didn't know this grandfather before. So they're forming a brand new relationship with this man. It's not all about, you know, seeing a loving relationship ebb¹⁷ away.

MARTIN: Yeah. You dedicated¹⁸ the book to your mother, saying, quote, "with love and thanks for all the conversations." Can you talk a little bit about how you started to see those conversations change when you started to notice that something was shifting?

DONOGHUE: I could talk about it. I may cry. But let's - let's hope I don't. My mum, funnily enough, you can still have conversations with my mum now, six years on. It's just that you have to accept it's conversation that's not tied to any particular meaning because she's - she was a teacher of English and a lifelong book lover. She's always had a really wide vocabulary. And that's a big plus when you get dementia. I always say to myself, if I end up with dementia, at least I'll have many words to choose from (laughter) because you find yourself using, you know, synonyms¹⁹ - maybe elaborate or vague synonyms for words you've forgotten.

So yes, my mother still has many, many words. And her sentences still spill out in a very plausible²⁰ conversational²¹ rhythm. It's just that there's no actual specific meaning to them. And my mother was wonderfully out about her dementia. She would sort of - she would say to me, I came out to the window cleaner about having dementia.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

DONOGHUE: You know, I love the way that verb for coming out of the closet has now become so socially useful for all sorts of situations, like when you need to explain to the window cleaner that you don't know if you paid him or not.

MARTIN: How were you able to rethink your relationship? Or maybe you didn't have to. But it would seem to me, as someone who has not gone through this, but that you would have to make peace with the relationship you had with your mom as she was and accept the person she is today.

DONOGHUE: Absolutely. I think, strangely enough - I think it's easier to do if you have a very good relationship because if you have a lot of unfinished business with a parent, then you'll always be wanting to kind of, you know, finally clarify issues. And you can't because they're confused. But in a way, my mother and I, there's nothing that remains²² unsaid. You know, I'm looking at the book, for instance, and I'm thinking, this is one of the first of my books that she won't read.

But on the other hand, I know what she would think of it, you know? (Laughter). She's in my head. And also, when you're an emigrant²³, I think you often carry your loved ones as almost little memory packages. You can't talk to them every minute, and so you sort of mentally supply how you think they would react. It's like she's in a very far away country.

MARTIN: Novelist Emma Donoghue, her new novel for middle-grade readers - and their parents, we should note - is titled "The Lotterys Plus One." Thanks so much for talking with us, Emma.

DONOGHUE: Thank you.

1 horrifying   

a.令人震惊的，使人毛骨悚然的

参考例句：

• He went to great pains to show how horrifying the war was. 他极力指出战争是多么的恐怖。
• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate. 战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。

2 captivity   

n.囚禁；被俘；束缚

参考例句：

• A zoo is a place where live animals are kept in captivity for the public to see.动物园是圈养动物以供公众观看的场所。
• He was held in captivity for three years.他被囚禁叁年。

3 abducted   

劫持，诱拐( abduct的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（肢体等）外展

参考例句：

• Detectives have not ruled out the possibility that she was abducted. 侦探尚未排除她被绑架的可能性。
• The kid was abducted at the gate of kindergarten. 那小孩在幼儿园大门口被绑架走了。

4 raucous   

adj.(声音)沙哑的，粗糙的

参考例句：

• I heard sounds of raucous laughter upstairs.我听见楼上传来沙哑的笑声。
• They heard a bottle being smashed,then more raucous laughter.他们听见酒瓶摔碎的声音，然后是一阵更喧闹的笑声。

5 boisterous   

adj.喧闹的，欢闹的

参考例句：

• I don't condescend to boisterous displays of it.我并不屈就于它热热闹闹的外表。
• The children tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play.孩子们经常是先静静地聚集在一起，不一会就开始吵吵嚷嚷戏耍开了。

6 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。

7 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

8 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

9 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

10 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

11 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。

12 curmudgeonly   

adj.小气的，不和悦的

参考例句：

• Under Mr Obama nobody will dare to seem so curmudgeonly. 在奥巴马时代，没有人敢表现得如此小气。 来自互联网

13 horrified   

a.(表现出)恐惧的

参考例句：

• The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
• We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。

14 antagonistic   

adj.敌对的

参考例句：

• He is always antagonistic towards new ideas.他对新思想总是持反对态度。
• They merely stirred in a nervous and wholly antagonistic way.他们只是神经质地，带着完全敌对情绪地骚动了一下。

15 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

16 dreary   

adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的

参考例句：

• They live such dreary lives.他们的生活如此乏味。
• She was tired of hearing the same dreary tale of drunkenness and violence.她听够了那些关于酗酒和暴力的乏味故事。

17 ebb   

vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态

参考例句：

• The flood and ebb tides alternates with each other.涨潮和落潮交替更迭。
• They swam till the tide began to ebb.他们一直游到开始退潮。

18 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

19 synonyms   

同义词( synonym的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• If you want to grasp English, you must carefully discriminate synonyms. 如果你想掌握好英语，你必须仔细区分同义词。
• Study the idioms and synonyms l wrote down before your test. 学考试前我给你写的习惯用语和同义字。

20 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。

21 conversational   

adj.对话的，会话的

参考例句：

• The article is written in a conversational style.该文是以对话的形式写成的。
• She values herself on her conversational powers.她常夸耀自己的能言善辩。

22 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

23 emigrant   

adj.移居的，移民的；n.移居外国的人，移民

参考例句：

• He is a British emigrant to Australia.他是个移居澳大利亚的英国人。
• I always think area like this is unsuited for human beings,but it is also unpractical to emigrant in a large scale.我一直觉得，像这样的地方是不适宜人类居住的，可大规模的移民又是不现实的。