The Way of the World

出版者:Harper

作者:Ron Suskind

页数:432

出版时间:2008-8-1

价格:USD 27.95

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9780061430626

具体描述

在线阅读本书

From Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist and bestselling author Ron Suskind comes a startling look at how America lost its way and at the nation's struggle, day by day, to reclaim the moral authority upon which its survival depends. From the White House to Downing Street, from the fault-line countries of South Asia to the sands of Guantánamo, Suskind offers an astonishing story that connects world leaders to the forces waging today's shadow wars and to the next generation of global citizens. Tracking down truth and hope within the Beltway and far beyond it, Suskind delivers historic disclosures with this emotionally stirring and strikingly original portrait of the post-9/11 world. In a sweeping, propulsive, and multilayered narrative, The Way of the World investigates how America relinquished the moral leadership it now desperately needs to fight the real threat of our era: a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists. Truth, justice, and accountability become more than mere words in this story. Suskind shows where the most neglected dangers lie in the story of "The Armageddon Test" —a desperate gamble to send undercover teams into the world's nuclear black market to frustrate the efforts of terrorists trying to procure weapons-grade uranium. In the end, he finally reveals for the first time the explosive falsehood underlying the Iraq War and the entire Bush presidency. While the public and political realms struggle, The Way of the World simultaneously follows an ensemble of characters in America and abroad who are turning fear and frustration into a desperate—and often daring—brand of human salvation. They include a striving, twenty-four-year-old Pakistani émigré, a fearless UN refugee commissioner, an Afghan teenager, a Holocaust survivor's son, and Benazir Bhutto, who discovers, days before her death, how she's been abandoned by the United States at her moment of greatest need. They are all testing American values at a time of peril, and discovering solutions—human solutions—to so much that has gone wrong. For anyone hoping to exercise truly informed consent and begin the process of restoring the values and hope—along with the moral clarity and earned optimism—at the heart of the American tradition, The Way of the World is a must-read. From Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author Ron Suskind comes a startling look at how America lost its way and at the nation’s struggle, day by day, to reclaim the moral authority upon which its survival depends. From the White House to Downing Street, from the fault-line countries of South Asia to the sands of Guantánamo, Suskind offers an astonishing story that connects world leaders to the forces waging today’s shadow wars and to the next generation of global citizens. Tracking down truth and hope within the Beltway and far beyond it, Suskind delivers historic disclosures with this emotionally stirring and strikingly original portrait of the post-9/11 world. In a sweeping, propulsive, and multilayered narrative, The Way of the World investigates how America relinquished the moral leadership it now desperately needs to fight the real threat of our era: a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists. Truth, justice, and accountability become more than mere words in this story. Suskind shows where the most neglected dangers lie in the story of “The Armageddon Test” —a desperate gamble to send undercover teams into the world’s nuclear black market to frustrate the efforts of terrorists trying to procure weapons-grade uranium. In the end, he finally reveals for the first time the explosive falsehood underlying the Iraq War and the entire Bush presidency. While the public and political realms struggle, The Way of the World simultaneously follows an ensemble of characters in America and abroad who are turning fear and frustration into a desperate—and often daring—brand of human salvation. They include a striving, twenty-four-year-old Pakistani émigré, a fearless UN refugee commissioner, an Afghan teenager, a Holocaust survivor’s son, and Benazir Bhutto, who discovers, days before her death, how she’s been abandoned by the United States at her moment of greatest need. They are all testing American values at a time of peril, and discovering solutions—human solutions—to so much that has gone wrong. For anyone hoping to exercise truly informed consent and begin the process of restoring the values and hope—along with the moral clarity and earned optimism—at the heart of the American tradition, The Way of the World is a must-read.

作者简介

About Ron Suskind

Ron Suskind is an author and journalist based in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Suskind's latest book, "The Way of the World," is a multi-layered narrative about the forces at home and abroad fighting today's battles for hope and security. The book weaves together several story lines, juxtaposing the human dramas of cultural collision with the controversial policies of the Bush administration and foreign leaders. In so doing, it paints a highly original portrait of the world we live in today. At the same time, the book breaks major stories about prewar intelligence on Iraq, deception by the U.S. government, and the last months of Benazir Bhutto's life.

In 2006, Mr. Suskind published "The One Percent Doctrine," a revealing journey deep inside America's battles with violent, unrelenting terrorists -- a game of kill-or-be-killed, from the Oval Office to the streets of Karachi.

His 2004 book, "The Price of Loyalty, George W. Bush, the White House and the Education of Paul O'Neill," is a sweeping tour of the inner working of the Bush Presidency, among the most secretive administrations in modern times. The book follows the two-year arc of Paul O'Neill, Bush's Treasury Secretary and a principal of the National Security Council, as he and other senior officials assess the conduct and character of this Presidency.

Mr. Suskind is also the author of "A Hope in the Unseen, An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League," (Doubleday/Broadway, 1998), which follows the two year journey of a prickly, religious honor student as he escapes from a blighted, Washington, D.C. terrain to find a home at Brown University. The book, which was launched by a series in the Wall Street Journal that won him the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, has been a favorite on U.S. campuses and in book clubs.

From 1993 to 2000, Mr. Suskind was the senior national affairs writer for the Wall Street Journal. He was a contributor to "Profiles in Courage for Our Times," (Hyperion, 2002), along with other prize-winning authors. He currently writes for various national magazines, including the New York Times Magazine and Esquire Magazine. Two articles that appeared in Esquire in 2002 delved into the workings of the Bush White House.

Mr. Suskind has appeared on various television news programs as a correspondent or essayist and is a distinguished visiting scholar at Dartmouth College. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and lives in Washington with his wife, Cornelia Kennedy Suskind, and their two sons.

用户评价

不得不说，这本书的语言风格简直是教科书级别的“克制与爆发”的完美平衡。初读时，我甚至有些担心它的节奏会过于缓慢，因为作者似乎对每一个词语都抱有一种近乎偏执的审慎态度，句子结构复杂而富有音乐性，常常需要我放慢语速才能跟上那流畅却又暗藏玄机的思绪流动。但正是这种看似缓慢的推进，为后来的情感高潮积蓄了巨大的势能。当关键转折点来临时，那种积压已久的情感洪流如同冰川崩塌，瞬间席卷读者，其冲击力是无可比拟的。它没有使用那些陈词滥调的形容词来渲染悲喜，而是通过精确选择的动词和出乎意料的比喻，让情绪自然而然地从文字的缝隙中渗出来。我记得有几处对话的场景，看似风平浪静，实则暗流汹涌，那种“此时无声胜有声”的张力，让我的心跳都跟着文字的节奏起伏不定。这本书的文字本身就是艺术品，它拒绝迎合碎片化的阅读习惯，它要求你全身心地投入，用耐心去挖掘那些隐藏在优美句式下的深刻寓意。这种对语言纯粹性的坚守，在这个浮躁的时代，显得尤为珍贵。

这部作品的叙事结构非常具有实验性，我很少在其他文学作品中见到如此大胆的尝试。它并非采用传统的时间线推进方式，而是像一个精密的万花筒，将不同时间点、不同人物的视角碎片化地打散重组。起初，这种跳跃感确实让人有些手足无措，感觉像是要拼凑一幅极其复杂的、丢失了部分关键图块的巨幅油画。然而，随着阅读的深入，我开始意识到这种非线性叙事恰恰是作者精心设计的陷阱——它模拟了我们人类记忆和认知事物的过程：充满遗漏、充满偏见、充满后见之明。作者故意不提供一个清晰的“上帝视角”，而是强迫读者站在各个角色的立场上进行痛苦的推测和构建。这种“被动参与”的阅读体验，极大地增强了代入感。当我终于将那些看似无关的线索串联起来时，那种豁然开朗的顿悟感，远比作者直接告知真相要强烈百倍。它挑战了我们对“完整故事”的既有定义，证明了破碎也可以是一种更深刻的真实。

这本书的构思之精妙，简直让人拍案叫绝。作者仿佛是一位行走在历史长河中的智者，他没有急于给出什么宏大的叙事框架，而是从一些极其微小、看似无关紧要的生活细节入手，像剥洋葱一样，层层深入地揭示出隐藏在日常表象之下的复杂人性与社会肌理。我特别欣赏它那种不动声色的叙事力量，比如对某个角色在特定情境下犹豫不决的眼神、一次不经意的停顿、或者一句未说完的潜台词的捕捉，都精准到位，充满了画面感。读到那些段落时，我甚至能闻到空气中弥漫的尘土味和旧家具散发的木香。这本书的厉害之处在于，它让你在沉浸于故事本身的同时，脑海中不断浮现出对现实世界的反思，它不是在教导你“世界是怎样的”，而是在邀请你亲自去感受和辨析“世界是如何运作的”。它更像一面打磨得极其光滑的镜子，映照出的不是你期望看到的完美世界，而是那个充满矛盾、光怪陆离却又真实无比的众生相。读完之后，那种回味悠长、萦绕心头的感觉，不是因为情节的跌宕起伏，而是因为作者成功地在我的内心深处，种下了一颗关于“观察”与“理解”的种子。这种潜移默化的影响，远比那些直白的宣言来得更有力量和持久性。

这本书的哲学思辨层面是极其深刻的，但令人敬佩的是，它从未落入说教的窠臼。它探讨的主题宏大且永恒——关于自由意志与宿命的拉扯、个体在巨大结构面前的无力感、以及真理的相对性——但这些思考都是通过人物的日常挣扎和情感抉择自然流淌出来的。书中没有出现任何直接的论断，而是呈现了一系列精心设计的困境和道德灰色地带，让读者自己去面对那些无解的悖论。我非常欣赏作者处理复杂道德议题时的那种中立和审慎。他没有将任何角色简单地标签化为“好人”或“坏人”，而是展现了在特定的社会压力和个人欲望交织下，任何看似正直的选择都可能带来难以预料的、甚至痛苦的后果。这种对人性复杂性的包容和深刻理解，使得这本书具有了一种跨越时代的价值。它不提供简单的答案，它提供的是更优质的问题，引导读者进行一场艰苦却无比值得的自我探寻之旅。读完之后，你会发现，真正被改变的不是你对世界的看法，而是你看待自己决策时的目光。

如果说有什么能让人立刻辨认出这本书的独特气质，那一定是它对“环境”的描摹能力。这里的“环境”不仅仅是地理背景，更是渗透在每一个场景中的那种难以言喻的氛围和气场。作者对空间的利用达到了出神入化的地步。无论是宏大、压抑的城市景观，还是幽闭、充满历史尘埃的室内场景，都像是被施了魔法一般，活了过来，并且反过来影响着角色的命运走向。我感觉自己仿佛真的走进了那些被细致描绘的街道，感受到了午后阳光穿过百叶窗投下的斑驳光影，甚至能体会到墙壁上苔藓在湿气中缓慢生长的生命力。这种对物质世界的深刻关注，使得书中人物的行为动机不再是空洞的心理活动，而是与他们所处的具体空间紧密绑定。环境不再是背景板，它成为了一个有生命的、参与叙事的角色。这种环境叙事的深度，让整个故事拥有了一种扎实、厚重的基础，让那些关于人性的探讨，不再漂浮于空中，而是深深地根植于可触摸的现实之中。