In this collection of stories and essays, the beloved author of the classic, best-selling novel A Lesson Before Dying shares with us the inspirations behind his books, how he came to choose the vocation of a writer, the childhood in rural Louisiana that he continually re-creates in his fiction, and his portrayal of the black experience in the South.
Told in the simple and powerful prose that is a hallmark of his craft, these writings faithfully evoke the sorrows and joys of rustic Southern life. They begin with Gaines’s move to California at the age of fifteen to complete school. Missing the Louisiana countryside where he was raised by his aunt propelled him to find books in the library that would invoke the sights, smells, and locution of his native home. Gaines never agreed with the authors’ portrayal of black people: “either she was a mammy, or he was a Tom,” he explains in “Miss Jane and I.”
From that initial disappointment stemmed a literary career that has spanned forty years and includes five novels, which in the words of USA Today reviewer Suzanne Freeman have “made the smallest truths, the everyday sorrows of hard choices, add up to moments of pure illumination.” These are cherished and popular books like The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, A Gathering of Old Men, and the 1993 blockbuster A Lesson Before Dying, which has sold more than two million copies around the world, won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and in 1997 was picked for Oprah’s Book Club. It has been continually selected for City Read programs and praised by critics as “an instant classic, a book that will be read, discussed and taught beyond the rest of our lives” (Charles R. Larson, Chicago Tribune). In the essay “Writing A Lesson Before Dying,” Gaines describes the real-life murder case that gave him the idea for his masterpiece.
Included here are short stories that transport us to the rural Louisiana of the 1940s and the influences that shaped him–most lastingly, the people and the places of Gaines’s own past. This wonderful collection of autobiographical essays and fictional pieces is a revelation of both man and writer.
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我必须承认,我对古典音乐的了解远不如对民间音乐来得深入,但这本书成功地消弭了这种知识鸿沟。作者的文字有一种罕见的、近乎平等的态度来对待两位主角。他没有将古典音乐家置于一个高高在上、需要被“解读”的位置,也没有将布鲁斯音乐降格为某种原始的、未开化的表达。相反,他用一种极其细腻的笔触,去挖掘隐藏在莫扎特那些完美和弦结构中的那一丝不安与人性挣扎,同时也赋予了莱德贝利那些朴实无华的旋律以史诗般的尊严与深度。读到他分析某一段和弦进行与某段和弦颤音之间的共鸣时,我简直感到头皮发麻,因为那是第一次有人能用如此清晰、如此有力的语言,将两种看似南辕北辙的艺术形式,连接到人类最基本的情感需求上——对自由的渴望和对美的追求。这本书的魅力,就在于它让外行人也能窥见艺术的本质,而不是沉溺于晦涩的专业术语。
评分这本《莫扎特与莱德贝利》的封面设计简直是一场视觉的盛宴,那种深邃的靛蓝色调,配上略带斑驳的金色字体,立刻就将我带入了一种既古典又粗粝的氛围中。我记得我是在一个下着小雨的周末,抱着这本书窝在沙发里开始阅读的。它的开篇处理得极其巧妙,没有急于抛出宏大的主题,而是从一个非常微小、几乎是日常的场景切入——也许是一段钢琴练习的片段,又或许是某位南方布鲁斯乐手在昏暗酒吧里的即兴演奏。作者对于细节的捕捉能力令人赞叹,文字的触感仿佛带着温度,让你能清晰地感受到那个环境的湿润、空气中弥漫的烟草味或是旧乐谱的霉味。我尤其欣赏作者在描述音乐时所使用的那些富有层次感的词汇,它们不是简单的“美妙”或“悲伤”,而是像油画颜料一样层层叠叠地铺展开来,让人在阅读时仿佛能“听”到那些音符的重量和色彩。整体而言,初读的体验是沉浸式的,它像一个精心设置的陷阱,让你心甘情愿地被卷入其中,期待着两位截然不同的音乐巨匠将在文字的维度里如何交汇。
评分这本书的叙事节奏感非常强,这一点让我这个习惯了快节奏阅读的读者感到惊喜。它并非线性叙事,而是像一首结构复杂的奏鸣曲,充满了主题的交织、对比与再现。有时候,叙事线索会突然加速,笔触变得如同狂风骤雨般急促,充满了强烈的戏剧张力,仿佛是在重现某个历史的关键转折点或是某次决定命运的演出。紧接着,风格又会戛然而止,切换到一种近乎冥想的缓慢状态,用极其精炼、甚至有些哲学意味的句子来剖析某个音符背后所承载的时代重量。我读到一半时,不得不停下来,合上书本,花了好几分钟去整理思绪,因为作者在处理时间跨度和文化差异时,那种大胆的跳跃和精准的锚定,让人在情感上需要时间去消化和适应。这种结构上的创新,无疑让这本书远远超越了一般的音乐传记范畴,更像是一部关于“时间”与“声音”的文学实验作品。
评分这本书的语言风格变化多端,简直像是作者为了配合不同的主题切换了多套笔墨。在描述某段历史背景时,文字显得非常考究、考据扎实,充满了维多利亚时代学者的严谨感,引用了大量的、看似信手拈来却又掷地有声的文献佐证。然而,当叙事转向到对民间音乐的描述时,语言突然变得口语化、充满泥土气息,甚至带着一种近乎即兴的、略显粗粝的韵味,那些句子仿佛是从泥泞的小路上直接走出来的,带着露水和汗水的气息。这种强烈的文风反差,虽然在某些瞬间可能会让习惯单一风格的读者感到突兀,但我认为这是作者为了最大程度还原两位音乐家所处世界的真实质感而采取的必要手段。每一次风格的转换,都像是一扇新的门被推开,里面是完全不同的光线、气味和声音,让阅读体验保持了极高的新鲜度和探索欲。
评分从情感层面来讲,这本书最大的成功之处在于它探讨了“遗忘”与“铭记”这一永恒的命题。它不仅仅是在讲述两位音乐家的生平,更是在审视艺术在历史洪流中如何被主流文化选择性地吸收、改造,乃至最终被放置在不同的历史货架上。莫扎特的音乐是永恒的、被精致打磨过的,它被置于水晶柜中供人瞻仰;而莱德贝利的声音,或许带着生活的创伤和日常的粗粝,却以另一种更顽强、更接地气的方式,渗透进了无数后世音乐家的血液之中。我读完最后一页时,感受到的不是一个故事的结束,而是一种责任感——去倾听那些常常被忽视的声音,去理解那些看似对立的艺术形式背后,实则共享着同一份人类的呐喊。这本书没有给我一个确切的答案,但它提供了一个极佳的视角,让我开始重新审视自己音乐品味的构建过程,这是一次深刻的自我反思之旅。
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