塞巴斯蒂安·巴裏,愛爾蘭著名作傢,多本作品高踞英國暢銷圖書排行榜,2004年以小說《漫漫長路》入圍布剋小說將最終候選名單,2008年又以新作《秘密手稿》再度入圍布剋奬。
The acclaim that has greeted Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture is varied and enthusiastic, and it's not hard to see why. When Frank McGuiness praised it for ‘raw, rough beauty’ and described Sebastian Barry's fiction as ‘unique’ and ‘magnificent’, this claim was no hostage to fortune; just a few sentences of the prose here will convince most readers of the justice of those words. As in the best-selling A Long Long Way, Barry is concerned with the imperatives of telling a story, but in a literary form that is rich with both psychological understanding and a skilful conjuring of time and place.
Roseanne McNulty may (or may not) be on the point of nearing her 100th birthday -- but there is little certainty about this fact. In her twilight years, her destiny is uncertain, as the Roscommon Mental Hospital -- her home for so many years of her life -- is on the point of closing. As the fateful hour approaches, Roseanne spends her time of talking to her psychiatrist of many years, Dr Grene. The relationship between the two is strangely interdependent, and the doctor is also attempting to come to terms with the death of his wife. As we learn more about the two principal protagonists, we are presented with a rich and subtle picture of human relationships -- and the (often unintentional) damages that we all do to each other.
The form of the book consists of the separate journals of Roseanne and Dr Grene, and we gradually learn about Roseanne’s family in Sligo in the 1930s. What emergence is a poignant personal history; it is also a subtly ambitious picture of nothing less than the Irish psyche at a particular point in its history. There are echoes here of another great Irish chronicler of the human condition, William Trevor, and The Secret Scripture is no worse for that. --Barry Forshaw
Review
A subtle study of psychology, religion, family and politics in Ireland.This is not, as the title might suggest, another Da Vinci Code clone. Barry (A Long Long Way, 2005, etc.) writes vigorously and passionately about his native land. The story is told antiphonally, alternating narratives between a secret journal (hidden beneath the floorboard) kept by Roseanne McNulty, a patient in a mental hospital, and the "Commonplace Book" of her psychiatrist Dr. Grene, who's dealing with serious issues of grief after the death of his wife. Roseanne has always been something of an outsider, her father a cemetery-keeper and rat-catcher but most importantly a Protestant in a land largely hostile to this religious orientation. Although Roseanne remembers a happy childhood, in which she was the proverbial apple of her father's eye, he becomes involved in the political and military entanglements of Irish political life. When Roseanne grows up, she becomes the wife of Tom McNulty, but through a series of misunderstandings - as well as through the machinations of the grim-faced and soul-destroying priest, Fr. Gaunt - she is as good as accused (though falsely) of adultery with the son of a political rebel. Out of malice toward Protestants as well as out of a misplaced moral absolutism, Fr. Gaunt has her marriage annulled - and, using nymphomania to explain her "condition," has her locked up in the asylum. Dr. Grene gets interested in her story as well as her history, and in tracking down her past he finds a secret that she has kept hidden for many years, a secret that affects them both and that intertwines their families. In a final assessment of Roseanne - after she's spent decades in the asylum - Dr. Grene determines that she is "blameless." She responds: "'Blameless? I hardly think that is given to any mortal being.'" Indeed, blamelessness is a state no one achieves in this novel.Barry beautifully braids together the convoluted threads of his narrative. (Kirkus Reviews)
發表於2024-12-25
The Secret Scripture 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載
當兩個睏守在破舊的精神病醫院的老人,在病人與醫生之間的相互診斷之中,通過不同的視角,分彆展開瞭各自人生的片段。細膩流暢的敘述裏,曆史就在這樣和人物的經曆粘閤在一起。一段難忘的成長記憶,一段傷心的情感生活,在與時代更替的交織著=中,展示齣人性中間的善與惡。作傢...
評分小說開始,女主人公Roseanne McNulty已經接近100歲,是Roscommon精神病院最老的病人,也可能是整個愛爾蘭最老的人。她沒有親人,沒有朋友。在她即將離開這個世界的時候,她開始秘密地記錄她對以前生活的記憶。她年輕的時候在一個名叫Sligo的小鎮的生活。一個她描述為冷冽,陰雨...
評分“人人都不完美,比如說我,但是這並不重要,如果我們不能懷著堅定的愛來到天國的大門前,聖彼得一定不會放我們進去的。” 愛某人,愛他的不完美,愛世界,愛它的充滿缺陷。不是我們盲目無知,而是勇於擔當。 這是我2010年讀到的最好的小說,作者一定是個深厚底蘊...
評分小說開始,女主人公Roseanne McNulty已經接近100歲,是Roscommon精神病院最老的病人,也可能是整個愛爾蘭最老的人。她沒有親人,沒有朋友。在她即將離開這個世界的時候,她開始秘密地記錄她對以前生活的記憶。她年輕的時候在一個名叫Sligo的小鎮的生活。一個她描述為冷冽,陰雨...
評分小說開始,女主人公Roseanne McNulty已經接近100歲,是Roscommon精神病院最老的病人,也可能是整個愛爾蘭最老的人。她沒有親人,沒有朋友。在她即將離開這個世界的時候,她開始秘密地記錄她對以前生活的記憶。她年輕的時候在一個名叫Sligo的小鎮的生活。一個她描述為冷冽,陰雨...
圖書標籤: 掙紮 Ireland 英文 文學 小說 fiction 適閤安靜閱讀 英文原著
I wonder whether this story will be shortly made of film. Obviously this is a hot topic for oscar winning: chaos, insanity, black river and love.
評分I wonder whether this story will be shortly made of film. Obviously this is a hot topic for oscar winning: chaos, insanity, black river and love.
評分R4 read by Doreen Keogh & Alex Jennings. The cruelty & callousness of oppressed men and women.
評分I wonder whether this story will be shortly made of film. Obviously this is a hot topic for oscar winning: chaos, insanity, black river and love.
評分R4 read by Doreen Keogh & Alex Jennings. The cruelty & callousness of oppressed men and women.
The Secret Scripture 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載