From Library Journal This profound story tells of the life, and complicated death, of Simon Bailey, the Anglican priest in Dinnington, a Yorkshire mining village. After struggling to accept his identity as a gay male and becoming sexually active, Simon was faced with a foreshortened life when, in the early 1980s, he found out that he had AIDS. He told no one until he fell ill. In response, his friends, family, and parishioners rallied around him with care and support. This beautifully written book by Simon's sister, a journalist, candidly takes things that may be unfamiliar?including gay sexuality, AIDS, Anglican spirituality, and English church life?and makes them familiar and human. This quiet story of profound faith and courage, in which the cross Simon bore led not only to death but to a quiet triumph of the spirit, is recommended for all public libraries.?John R. Leech, Brooklyn, NYCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus Reviews Successfully integrating her voices of loving sister and dispassionate reporter, the author, a journalist, tells the life story of her brother, Simon Bailey, a gay priest in the Church of England who died in 1995 of AIDS. Drawing from his journals and sermons, from interviews with parishioners, other family members, and friends, the author traces the rocky path her brother walked from his youthful awareness of sexual difference, to his conversion out of the austere Baptist Church in which he was raised into the more ``esthetic and sensual'' Church of England, to his ordination, years of ministry to Dinnington parish in Yorkshire, and his final physical decline under the tender watch and care of his devoted parishioners. Much of the drama of the story unfolds in the step-by-step process by which the priest admits friends, close parishioners, family, church hierarchy, and the pressin that orderto the knowledge of his illness, a sequence that moves the author frankly to confess how ``immensely sad'' it is that she, her siblings, and parents were not among the first to be trusted with the news. That unself-justifying candor is part of what makes Bailey the perfect memorialist of her brother. Though she joyfully communicates the high points of reactions to his illnessespecially the unprecedented public support he received, as an AIDS-afflicted Anglican priest, to continue actively in his priestly office, as he wished, up until he diedshe also admits to moral misgivings over the secrecy he kept for so long. Simon's shortened life reminds Bailey of the dying Beth from Little Women; but his capacity to transform private suffering into eloquent and edifying sermons will suggest to many readers of Scarlet Ribbons another, more ambiguous literary portrait from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter: the long-suffering minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. The ambiguities in Simon's life that the author preserves in her memorial of him will deepen and extend the impression he leaves. (16 b&w photos) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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这部作品的叙事视角非常独特,它没有急于展示宏大的主题,而是将镜头对准了人物内心最细微的波动。作者对信仰与世俗之间那种微妙拉扯的描绘,简直如同教科书般精准。你会清晰地感受到主人公在履行神职的庄严与面对个人困境时的挣扎是如何交织在一起的。书中的对话处理尤其精彩,那些看似平淡的交流背后,往往蕴含着巨大的情感张力,迫使读者反复咀嚼其中的潜台词。我尤其欣赏作者在构建场景时所使用的那种近乎古典主义的克制感,即使是描写最激烈的内心冲突,也保持着一种令人敬畏的冷静和距离感,这使得情感的爆发点更具穿透力。它不是那种贩卖廉价同情的作品,相反,它要求读者付出专注和思考,去理解在既定的角色框架下,人性是如何试图挣脱束缚,寻找属于自己的救赎之路。读完之后,那种萦绕心头的感觉,更像是经历了一场漫长而严肃的哲学辩论,而不是读完一个故事,留下的回味是悠长而复杂的。
评分我必须承认,初读时我曾因为其节奏的缓慢而感到一丝不耐烦,但很快,我就被作者对环境细节的精妙捕捉所折服。那种对特定社区生活图景的描绘,充满了泥土的芬芳和生活本身的粗粝感。你几乎能闻到旧教堂里蜡烛燃烧后的味道,能感受到石板路上晨雾的湿冷。这种环境的描绘不仅仅是背景,它本身就是角色,是塑造人物性格的强大力量。作者似乎对手稿中的每一个名词都进行了审慎的、近乎偏执的选择,使得语言的密度极高,信息量丰富到需要反复阅读才能完全消化。书中对人际关系微妙性的探讨,例如邻里之间的猜疑、教会内部派系间的无声较量,被处理得极其圆滑和真实,没有脸谱化的善恶之分,一切都处于灰色地带。这使得整个故事的张力不是来自于外部的戏剧性事件,而是来自于内部的、持续不断的心理压力,如同高压锅里慢慢升温的水蒸气,预示着某种不可避免的释放。
评分对于那些对深度人物研究感兴趣的读者来说,这部作品无疑是一座宝库。它彻底剥离了刻板印象,将一个特定身份的人物置于极端压力之下,然后细致入微地观察其人性如何被重新塑造。书中对于“责任”的探讨是如此深刻,以至于它超越了职业范畴,直指存在主义的核心——我们如何定义自己的存在价值,尤其是在我们发现自身局限性的时候。作者对“禁忌”的描绘,并非为了猎奇,而是为了探讨社会规范是如何在个体真实体验面前显得脆弱和虚伪的。我个人被书中对于“原谅”的描绘所震撼,那不是一种宽恕,而更像是一种艰难的、自我赋予的接纳,承认自身的残缺也是完整的一部分。这种对人性的复杂层次的挖掘,使得这本书的文学价值远超其题材本身所能承载的重量。
评分这本书的结构设计堪称精妙,它采用了非线性的叙事手法,不断在时间线上跳跃,将过去的回忆碎片与当下的困境进行并置对比。这种手法一开始可能让人感到有些迷失,但一旦适应了作者的节奏,你会发现这恰恰是最能体现“创伤”这一主题的处理方式。记忆并非线性展开,它总是以一种断裂的、闪回的方式闯入现实,而本书便完美地捕捉了这种精神上的不连贯性。作者巧妙地运用了象征手法,那些反复出现的物件、颜色或天气现象,都承载了多重的隐喻,为读者提供了广阔的解读空间。我尤其欣赏那种诗意的节制,它从不直接点明,而是通过场景和行动的并置,让读者自己去构建意义链条。这是一本需要“参与”阅读的书,它不提供全部答案,而是提供了一系列精美而沉重的线索,等待你用自己的生命经验去完成最后的拼图。
评分从文学技巧的角度来看,这部作品展现了作者卓越的控制力。全书的语调贯穿始终地保持着一种沉静的哀歌之美,即使在描写最令人心碎的段落时,文字的流动性也从未被破坏。我很少见到有哪本书能将如此沉重的主题包裹在如此优雅的文字外衣之下。特别是关于“沉默的沟通”的描写,书中很多关键的转折点都是在没有台词的情况下完成的,全靠眼神、手势或环境气氛的细微变化来推进。这使得阅读体验本身变成了一种感官的训练,迫使我们去关注那些常常被我们忽略的非语言信息。它成功地将一个高度私密和痛苦的内心世界,转化为一种可以被公共审美所接纳的、具有普遍意义的艺术表达。这是一次对文学可能性的有力探索,证明了深刻的主题无需喧哗,只需精准的笔触。
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