A Season of Grief

出版者:Haworth Pr Inc

作者:Valentine, Bill

页数:224

出版时间:2006-2

价格:158.00元

装帧:Pap

isbn号码:9781560235736

具体描述

A Season of Grief chronicles the author's emotional descent after the violent death of his partner of 21 years. Bill Valentine's journal of fear, anger, denial, and loneliness captures the glimmers of hope, moments of serendipity, and mysterious coincidences that emerged from his full-time devotion to grief following the death of Joe Lopes, a flight attendant who perished in November 2001 along with 264 others when American Airlines Flight 587 crashed shortly after takeoff in route to the Dominican Republic. This unique book details the everyday struggles of a surviving partner trying to carry on in a radically changed world. He is a word always on my lips as I try to work him into a conversation. He is a memory that I strive to keep alive. So yes, in this sense, he is not gone. But in reality, he is. He is gone as my lover. He is gone as my life partner. He is gone as my soul mate, the only person to whom I periodically bared my soul. He is gone as my best friend, the only person to whom I ever attached that label. He is gone as my first reader and muse. Friends will fill in for many of these roles. But Joe filled them all. So pardon me while I still hang on to the notion that he is not here with me. Pardon me while I cling stubbornly to the insistence that he is gone. Valentine's candid and thoughtful account of his heartbreaking efforts to make sense of his partner's death—and survive in a world without him—is by turns, funny, frightening, sobering, and surprising. In the nine months following the tragedy of Flight 587, Valentine finds every waking moment of his life affected by his partner's absence—from mundane household chores to major life decisions. A Season of Grief is a story told in darkness and light, of hurt and healing, love and loneliness, but mostly, of a man who learns to live with his partner's absence through the persistent, surprising evidence of his presence. Our job on earth is to live with uncertainty, ambiguity, and hope. We are given a limited tool set but one, in my opinion, that's sufficient for the job. Sufficient to allow us to be engaged in life-to love, grieve, work, play, celebrate, and despair. We have a remarkable ability to rebound and grow. We have been granted the capacity for wonder and laughter-especially at ourselves. These last two gifts were bestowed generously on Joe and he, in turn, taught me how vital they are. Grief doesn't come with a set of instructions. But A Season of Grief can help guide you through the lonely journey that follows the death of a loved one. Valentine's memoir is a testament to the healing power of reality and the enduring nature of love.

用户评价

这是一部需要反复阅读的书，而且每一次重读都会带来全新的感悟。我第一次看完的时候，觉得它像一团混沌的迷雾，有着强烈的氛围感，但具体的情节脉络似乎有些模糊不清。直到我隔了几个月后再次拿起它，才猛然意识到，那些看似漫不经心的细节，其实都是未来高潮部分的精确预兆。作者在布局上简直是天才，他把重要的信息点和情感爆发点隐藏得极深，以至于第一次阅读时很容易被表面的情节所迷惑，而忽略了那些潜藏在字里行间、关于人性和命运的深刻洞察。这本书的魅力就在于它的“不完整性”，它留下了大量的空白和留白，邀请读者用自己的经验和想象力去填补，让每个人都能在这本书中看到属于自己的影子，这才是真正伟大的文学作品所应有的特质——它不是一个完成的陈述，而是一场持续的对话。

说实话，这本书的结构设计得非常精巧，像一个复杂的迷宫，你以为自己已经走出了困境，但转过一个拐角，却发现自己回到了故事的起点，只是视角已经发生了微妙的变化。这种非线性的叙事方式，初期读起来可能需要多一些耐心去适应，但一旦跟上作者的思路，那种豁然开朗的感觉是无与伦比的。它不是那种按照时间顺序推进的传统故事，更像是一系列散落的碎片，需要读者自己动手去拼凑出全貌。最让我印象深刻的是，作者在处理多重叙事者时展现出的高超技巧。每一个“我”的声音都如此鲜明、如此独特，他们的口吻、他们的世界观，乃至他们对同一事件的解读都大相径庭，这极大地丰富了故事的层次感，让人不得不反思“真相”究竟是什么，它是否真的存在一个绝对的定论。这种对主体性、对视角依赖性的探讨，使得这本书远超出了普通情节小说的范畴，更像是一部哲学思辨的作品，只是披上了引人入胜的故事外衣。

这本书的文字简直是带着一种古老的魔力，初读时，我仿佛被瞬间拉入了一个完全陌生的时空。叙事的手法极为高明，它不像那种直白的流水账，而是像一位技艺精湛的织工，将线索、情感和背景环境巧妙地编织在一起。作者对环境的描绘细致入微，从光影的变幻到微风拂过树梢的声音，都仿佛触手可及。我特别欣赏作者在刻画人物内心挣扎时所用的那些隐晦而又精准的词汇，没有过度渲染，却能让人深切感受到人物情感的波涛汹涌。阅读过程中，我常常需要停下来，回味刚才读到的那段话，不是因为它晦涩难懂，而是因为它蕴含的情感浓度太高，需要时间去消化。这本书的节奏把握得也相当老道，张弛有度，总能在你以为快要松懈的时候，突然抛出一个让你屏息凝神的转折，让你迫不及待地想要翻到下一页，去探寻故事更深处的秘密。它需要的不是快速的扫读，而是一种沉浸式的体验，需要你放下外界的纷扰，完全献身于它所构建的世界观中。

我特别欣赏作者对道德灰色地带的细腻处理。在这本书里，几乎没有绝对的好人或坏人，每个人物都行走在光与影的交界线上，他们的动机复杂交错，让人难以简单地用“对”或“错”来评判。故事通过一系列精心设计的冲突场景，不断地考验着人性的底线，同时也展现了人在极端压力下所能爆发出的惊人韧性与复杂性。作者的立场是极其克制的，他从不急于给出自己的道德裁决，而是将舞台完全交给人物自己去表演，让读者在目睹了所有丑陋与光辉之后，自行得出结论。这种对人性的包容与深刻的洞察，使得即便是最令人不齿的行为，也能让人从中看到其背后的必然性或悲剧性起源。这种对人性深度挖掘的作品，读完后劲很大，会持续地在你脑海中盘旋很久，让你思考自己如果置身于同样的环境中，会做出何种选择。

这本书的语言风格大胆而前卫，充满了实验性的色彩。我必须承认，某些段落的句式结构非常打破常规，初读时甚至有点像在啃一块硬骨头，需要反复推敲才能领会其背后的深意。作者似乎对传统的语法规范抱着一种叛逆的态度，大量的长句、复杂的从句以及那些看似不协调的词语搭配，共同构成了一种独特的、近乎诗化的散文风格。然而，正是这种“晦涩”——如果非要用这个词来形容——赋予了文本极强的张力。它迫使读者不能只是被动地接受信息，而是必须主动地去参与到意义的构建过程中来。比如，作者对某种情绪的描绘，不是用“悲伤”或“痛苦”这样的直白词汇，而是用一系列意象的堆叠和感官的错位来暗示，这无疑是对读者理解能力的一种挑战，但成功之后的回报也是巨大的，你会感觉自己真正“理解”了那种无以名状的感受。