Chapter 104 Presentation of three novels and three essays

I read a lot of books!Every day the postman came and I always got a big bundle of books.After taking it apart, I always have to look through it. There are so many recent publications, and there are also many new authors.I have so many "uninvited guests", which often disrupt my reading time and emotions.But after I have read it in a hurry, there are still some works that I want to re-read, such as the three novels and three essays I read recently, which I think are very valuable for introducing readers. In the fourth issue of "Chinese World" in 1987, there were three novels by Zhao Shuxia:

The stories and characters in "Lovely Marindale", "When We Were Young" and "Casino High Roller" are all unfamiliar to me, that is to say, they are unknown to me in my own life experience. I have never read it before, but I feel unique, novel and interesting when I read it. The author Zhao Shuxia is a female writer who has lived in Switzerland for many years. Through letters, when she returned to China to visit relatives in the Northeast a few years ago, she brought her children to see me, and we also took pictures together.What I want to talk about here is not our friendship, but the background and characters of these three novels are very different, so they are worth reading.

The "Lovely Marinday" tells about a black child born to a white woman who was raped by a black American. This child has always resented his white mother, his drunken stepfather, and himself because of his black skin. The abnormality and contradictions in the road made him kill his prostitute lover Marta, and pretended to be a black American-Sergeant Clark. In time, he was finally caught by the chasing police. He said that he wanted to visit his girlfriend, Malinday, but in fact, Malinday was just the name of a fawn, the only "object" he had ever loved in his life. "When We Were Young" is about three naive middle school students, and a cynical one who lives on his father's inheritance, talking about young people all day long, talking about Nietzsche, but not talking about Sartre, talking about the nothingness of life, and wanting to be isolated from the world idealist.

This person does not contact society, does not marry, and does not contact women.With his free and easy attitude and vivid language, he has won the admiration of many young people. Almost every day, many young men and women listen to his high-spirited talks, but he finally lures the fiancée of one of the three young people and lets her be the center of his life. slave.There is only one positive character in this story, the ordinary and optimistic Shandong Dahan Mou Suwu (the roommate of the three young students). He always advises his roommates to worship the shameless literati, "If I have the ability to talk in the vernacular I will actually do something.” Many years later, the three young men finally saw through the literati who talked in the vernacular, and regretted being deceived by their ignorance when they were young, saying, “It would be great if people could be young again! "

"Casino High Roller" is about a Taiwanese youth named Lu Jin.In college, he was a happy, active, versatile and energetic college student who often published political articles in books and newspapers and was loved and respected by male and female students.Finally, because his father was a gambler, he lost all his family property, his mother "stealed people", his parents divorced, and his fiancée, whom he had loved since childhood, was courting with a man who came back to Taiwan from the United States in the year when he was about to graduate from university. Xueren got married and left him. Since then, he has been negative and alcoholic, but soon he cheered up and fell in love with a rich female classmate Xiaoyou. Xiaoyou's father sent him to the United States for further studies. He married Xiaoyou in the United States, and became an associate professor after graduating from university, but he gave up his studies to start a business and ran a real estate business. He not only divorced Xiaoyou, but also married a Hong Kong movie star.After marriage, the two lived in the United States but did not live together, each doing their own business.His business grew bigger and bigger, and he became a rich man. He lived an extremely luxurious life, with villas by the sea and real estate in the city, but his empty heart drove him to seek excitement in the casino.

After spending a lot of money, he finally committed suicide in a motel in the wilderness with the poison of the "Sucikang" needle, leaving only a note in the wastebasket: "Lu Jin, put away your stinky skin, hurry up and get rid of it." ,hurry up!" These three novels are not short, and there are many details in the middle. It is best for readers to read them for themselves. These are things that we—at least I—have heard! The three essays I want to introduce are "Hair Loss", "Matches", and "Rent" by Zhao Danian (see "Selected Prose" No. 9, 1987).

I don't know Zhao Danian, but I often see his works from "National Literature", and I know that he is a Manchu writer. I talked to Shu Yi the day before yesterday, and Shu Yi said that his father, Mr. Lao She and Mr. Luo Xintian, were the same as Zhao Danian's father. It is the brother who "worships the master", so it is!The literary language of Manchu writers is always fluent, profound and humorous! Except for "matches", I have no experience in these three essays. My hair is short, and I don't pay attention to how many strands fall or grow every day. I have read it, but I have never bought the "panacea" advertised on the radio or TV. Firstly, I have public health care. The Beijing hospital asks me to go for a physical examination once a month. Every time I bring back a lot of medicine, I There are always more than a dozen pills to take after meals.But the most terrible thing is that after suffering from cerebral thrombosis in 1980, I broke my right leg. I can only move around with the help of a "walking aid" given to me by a friend in the United States. Of course, it is inconvenient to travel far. I think Since then, I have become a "disabled person". Relatives and friends from my first hometown Fujian invited me to visit Wuyi Mountain, friends from my second hometown Shandong invited me to revisit Yantai, and even friends from the United States and Lebanon invited me to I went to their country, and I resigned because of my limited mobility.

Recalling my wanderings at home and abroad seven years ago, sometimes I really wish that my active soul would jump out of this heavy and painful body earlier... When it comes to matches, I count the daily necessities with the little aunt who sells vegetables every morning. At the time of billing, I already knew that the matches had risen to three cents a pack, but I neither cook on the stove nor smoke, so I don’t have much contact with matches, so I can’t say much, but from the day-to-day account In fact, I know that it is not only matches that have increased in price, but many things have increased in price, so let’s not talk about these things!

Speaking of rent, I live in a professor-level house in the college where my wife teaches. The rent is not too low or too much, because the house is very good, with large windows, front and rear balconies, solar energy, and a quiet environment, suitable for reading and writing , On the issue of housing, I feel superior to many of my friends. For this, I thank the leaders and comrades for taking care of me from the bottom of my heart.But from many of my friends, I also heard a lot of infuriating things, just like the "Sunzi Building" mentioned in the article "Rent", that is, "Among the newly built high-rise residential buildings in Beijing, some of them are actually called by the masses. Because of the "ghost buildings" - the lights are not turned on at night, and the doors are locked for a long time... I went to the police station to check the household registration books, and the owners of these buildings turned out to be "flowers of the motherland"..." I can't copy any more!

I advise my beloved "flowers of the motherland" to grow up and not refuse to enter this kind of "ghost building", lest the gloomy ghosts come from all directions and make the flowers wilt before they bloom, and even "roots" Rotting! Sunny morning on September 26th