Dumbfounded

作者:Rothschild, Matt

页数:320

出版时间:2008-8

价格:CDN$ 27.95

isbn号码:9780307405425

具体描述

What fresh hell is this?

I stopped, dumbfounded. My grandmother was at my bedroom door. “What the hell are you doing?” she asked, surprised but not angry. I looked down at my dress. “Playing school.” My grandmother began stroking her chin. Clearly, there were several ways she could take this conversation. “Matthew, what are you wearing?” I could see that she didn’t really want to ask this question but felt she had to. “A dress,” I said. . . . “And where did you get this dress?” she asked. . . . “I found it?” My grandmother sighed. “So you’ve been wandering around the women’s department at JC Penney? Do you expect me to believe you couldn’t find a better dress than that?”

The only Jewish family in a luxury Fifth Avenue building of WASPs, the senior Rothschilds took over the responsibility of raising their grandson, Matt, after his mother left him for Italy and a fourth husband. But rearing Matt was no small task—even for his sharp-tongued grandmother, a cross between Lauren Bacall and Bea Arthur, and a lady who Matt grew to love deeply.

Matt secretly wore his grandmother’s dresses, shoplifted Barbies from FAO Schwarz, invented an imaginary midget butler who he addressed at dinner parties, and got kicked out of nearly every elite school in Manhattan—once for his impersonation of Judy Garland at a recital. He was eventually sent to a boarding school (his grandmother had to ransom off a van Gogh to get him in). But as funny as his hijinks are now, at the time they masked a Jewfroed, chubby, lovable kid, sexually confused and abandoned by his mother, trying to fit in among the precious genteel world he was forced to live in.

Matt Rothschild—the man David Sedaris could have been if he’d grown up in an esteemed family on Manhattan’s Upper East Side—tells the story of his childhood with humor, honesty, and unlikely compassion for his eccentric relatives, including his mother, in this bitingly entertaining and unexpectedly tender memoir of family dysfunction.

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这本书的结构设计简直是精妙绝伦的建筑艺术。它不像传统的小说那样采用线性的叙事方式，而是巧妙地穿插了大量的回忆片段和不同时间线的交织，这种非线性叙事处理得极其干净利落，没有造成任何阅读上的混乱。相反，正是这种碎片化的信息逐步拼凑起来，才最终揭示出全貌，带来的震撼感是线形叙事难以比拟的。作者对于“信息差”的把控达到了炉火纯青的地步，什么时候给予读者部分真相，什么时候又进行强烈的误导，拿捏得恰到好处，让人深陷其中，沉醉于解谜的过程中。每次以为自己抓住了核心秘密时，作者总能用一个更深层次的转折将读者的预判彻底击碎。这种高智商的文本互动，极大地满足了那些追求深度和复杂性的读者。它要求读者保持高度的专注力，但回报给你的，是一次智力与情感的双重盛宴。

阅读体验极其流畅，语言风格典雅又不失现代感，尤其是一些长句的运用，充满了古典韵味却又丝毫没有晦涩之感。作者的遣词造句功力可见一斑，很多句子单独拿出来都可以作为金句反复咀嚼。我特别留意了书中的对话部分，简直是教科书级别的示范。人物的语言习惯、用词选择，都精准地服务于他们各自的身份和背景，听起来自然而真实，完全没有那种为了推动情节而生硬安排的痕迹。相比于那些依赖大量动作场面来支撑的故事，这部作品更侧重于心理博弈和微妙的情感交流，这需要作者具备极其敏锐的洞察力。每一次阅读，我都会发现一些之前忽略掉的细节，比如一个不经意的动作暗示了未来的发展，或者一句看似无关紧要的台词，其实是整个主题的缩影。这种多层次的文本结构，让每一次重读都能带来新的理解和感悟，无疑是优秀文学作品的标志。

我得承认，一开始我对这本书抱持着一种审慎的态度，毕竟市面上充斥着太多故作高深的作品。然而，这本书的魅力在于其内在的“重量感”。它不仅仅在讲述一个故事，它似乎在探讨某种宏大的哲学命题，但又非常克制地将这些思考融入到角色的日常琐碎之中。作者没有直接说教，而是通过角色们艰难的抉择和痛苦的后果，让读者自己去掂量人性的重量、道德的边界以及命运的无常。这种“润物细无声”的哲学渗透，远比生硬的理论灌输要有力得多。特别是一些关于选择与代价的段落，读完后需要静坐良久，才能消化其中蕴含的沉重感。它成功地在娱乐性和思想深度之间找到了一个近乎完美的平衡点，既能让你沉浸其中享受阅读的乐趣，又能让你在合上书本后，开始对自身的世界观进行一次彻底的审视。

这本书的叙事节奏简直让人欲罢不能，作者对场景的描摹细致入微，仿佛能闻到空气中弥漫的尘土和汗水味。故事的开篇略显缓慢，但一旦进入主线，那种层层递进的悬念感就牢牢抓住了我的注意力，让人忍不住想一探究竟。尤其是一些关键转折点的设计，处理得非常巧妙，既出乎意料又在情理之中，体现了作者高超的布局能力。我特别欣赏作者在人物内心世界的刻画上所下的功夫，每一个主要角色都有着复杂而真实的情感纠葛，他们的动机和挣扎都显得那么可信。读到一半时，我甚至会因为某个角色的遭遇而感到一阵阵心悸，那种感同身受的力量，很少有作品能做到。从头到尾，它都保持着一种高昂的叙事张力，即便是描写日常生活的片段，也充满了潜在的张力，让人时刻警惕着下一秒会发生什么。这不仅仅是一个故事，更像是一次深入人性的探索之旅，充满了对社会现象的深刻反思，值得细细品味。

这本书最让我赞叹的一点，是其对于氛围和情绪的塑造能力，简直是大师级的表现。它不仅仅是用文字来描述环境，它是在“营造”环境，让读者仿佛置身于故事发生的那个特定时空之中。无论是描写那种压抑到令人窒息的密闭空间，还是描绘广阔天地间那种孤寂的凄凉感，作者都有独到的笔触。这种沉浸式的写作，很大程度上依赖于对感官细节的捕捉，比如光影的变化、声音的远近、材质的触感，都写得极其到位。这种精雕细琢的文字堆砌，非但没有造成冗余感，反而极大地增强了故事的真实性和代入感。读完后，那种独特的情绪残影久久不散，似乎连现实中的空气都带上了一丝故事中特有的色调。这是一部需要用全部感官去阅读的作品，其艺术感染力毋庸置疑，绝对是近期阅读体验中的一个高峰。