As Zakes Mda's fifth novel opens, the seaside village of Hermanus is overrun with whale-watchers--foreign tourists determined to see whales in their natural habitat. But when the tourists have gone home, the whale caller lingers at the shoreline, wooing a whale he has named Sharisha with cries from a kelp horn. When Sharisha fails to appear for weeks on end, the whale caller frets like a jealous lover--oblivious to the fact that the town drunk, Saluni, a woman who wears a silk dress and red stiletto heels, is infatuated with him. The two misfits eventually fall in love. But each of them is ill equipped for romance, and their relationship suggests, in the words of "The Washington Post," that "the deeper, darker concern here is not so much the fragility of love, but the fragility of life itself when one surrenders wholly to the foolish heart."
發表於2024-11-30
The Whale Caller 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載
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讀正午故事,想起Zakes Mda這位早已在英語文學世界揚名的南非作傢,我是從他的小說開始瞭解後種族隔離期(post-apartheid)南非的種種混亂殘忍。背景設在觀鯨(南露脊鯨)勝地赫曼努斯,男主人公即喚鯨人,迷戀一條名叫Sharisha的鯨魚,常吹號角喚之前來。結尾處鯨魚在長久失蹤後現身,循號角聲歡喜地遊嚮他,卻不幸擱淺,最終被內部引爆。喚鯨人因此深惡自己, 決定禁欲,以此贖罪。另有一愛戀喚鯨人的酗酒女人,常去照顧一對備覺無聊的孿生姐妹。天使和惡魔集於一身的白衣姐妹, 把怕黑的她鎖進地窖,遊戲般以亂石砸死她。初讀時感覺處處隱喻,卻抓不住。這些暴力和詭異的情節, 作傢在訪談中說,都是隨小說人物自然生成,而人物就是他們所在的自然、社會和政治環境本身。
評分朋友推薦,但其實不是很感冒
評分讀正午故事,想起Zakes Mda這位早已在英語文學世界揚名的南非作傢,我是從他的小說開始瞭解後種族隔離期(post-apartheid)南非的種種混亂殘忍。背景設在觀鯨(南露脊鯨)勝地赫曼努斯,男主人公即喚鯨人,迷戀一條名叫Sharisha的鯨魚,常吹號角喚之前來。結尾處鯨魚在長久失蹤後現身,循號角聲歡喜地遊嚮他,卻不幸擱淺,最終被內部引爆。喚鯨人因此深惡自己, 決定禁欲,以此贖罪。另有一愛戀喚鯨人的酗酒女人,常去照顧一對備覺無聊的孿生姐妹。天使和惡魔集於一身的白衣姐妹, 把怕黑的她鎖進地窖,遊戲般以亂石砸死她。初讀時感覺處處隱喻,卻抓不住。這些暴力和詭異的情節, 作傢在訪談中說,都是隨小說人物自然生成,而人物就是他們所在的自然、社會和政治環境本身。
評分朋友推薦,但其實不是很感冒
評分朋友推薦,但其實不是很感冒
The Whale Caller 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載