Ralph has never been the same man since his young wife was killed in an accident 12 years ago. The only thing that has kept him sane is his son, Danny. But when Helen Cooper, Ralph's new American boss arrives, the equilibrium of all their lives is thrown into disarray.
From the Author
author's comments
As the author who is particularly keen for you buy his book I thought I'd tell you what prompted me to write it, in the hope that it intrigues you sufficiently for you to take that vital next step....
I've written quite a lot of screenplays for film and television like Buster for Phil Collins and Julie Walters and Lovejoy for Ian McShane. I was always less interested in thrillers and action movies than in the family dynamics and particularly the relationship between children and their parents.
Lots of women friends of mine who read my childhood memoirs entitled Manchester United Ruined My Life enjoyed it, so they told me afterwards, but skipped all the bits about football. What they liked was the family story and in particular they were interested in what it must have been like as a young boy to have a mother die in such awful circumstances. I decided that if I ever got round to writing a novel it would somehow contain this dynamic at the heart of it.
I thought I should, therefore, write a story about a man who is very close to his twelve year old son. To do that I obviously had to kill off the boy's mother, which made the father "available" for another relationship. We have had lots of stories about single mothers and how hard it is for them to mix career and children and new love successfully and I thought it was about time to see how a single father coped.
I decided to let each of the four main characters take it in turn to tell the story. I felt comfortable with this device I think because in a sense that's how screenwriters do it. You can write scenes in which you follow each of the characters and get to know what they're feeling. I wanted to write the kind of subjective story that comes with a first person narrative but I wanted each of the characters to have that facility, which is how I ended up with Angela's diary to fill in the blanks of the early days of the relationship with Ralph.
My wife is American and I've spent quite a lot of time out there so I decided to make the new woman an American too, which would provide a bit of a culture clash. I wanted all my characters to be likeable, which they are and things still don't turn out right, which is reasonable but I needed a bit of grit also so I twisted the plot in the last third and the young boy goes through a quite horrific experience.
I want to make the readers laugh and cry and make them feel they've been through the gamut of emotions and then I want to resolve things in such a way as to make them believable and yet reward the reader as well. I hope I've done it but in the end the only judge that matters is you.
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这本书的结构设计堪称鬼斧神工,它采用了非线性叙事,但这里的“非线性”并非简单的倒叙或插叙,而更像是一种螺旋上升的结构。每当故事似乎要进入一个高潮时,作者就会突然将时间线拉回到更早的某个节点,用新的视角或细节来重新审视之前的事件,让读者产生一种既熟悉又陌生的阅读体验。这种手法极大地考验了读者的空间记忆和逻辑重构能力。我花了近一半的时间来理清人物之间复杂的情感纠葛和历史渊源,那些隐藏在对话背后的权力动态和未竟的誓言,需要反复回溯才能完全理解。特别是关于“失语症”的描写,作者并未直接将其归因于心理创伤,而是将其描绘成一种对外界噪音的本能抗拒,一种主动选择的隔绝。这种对“沉默”的深度挖掘,令人印象深刻。如果你喜欢那种需要做笔记、频繁翻阅目录来梳理人物关系和时间线的阅读过程,这本书绝对能满足你的“智力挑战”需求。它不是一本可以轻松阅读的书,它要求你投入全部的认知资源。
评分最近读完一本名为《群山之巅的寂静》的书,那种感觉就像是爬上了一座被云雾缭绕的高峰,视野豁然开朗,却又带着一丝难以言喻的孤独。这本书的叙事节奏非常缓慢,作者似乎并不急于推动情节,而是专注于描绘人物内心世界的细微波动和自然环境的宏大叙事。开篇的几章,我几乎是在与主人公一起,在那个被遗忘的偏远小镇上缓慢呼吸。镇上的生活被冰雪和传统束缚,人与人之间的交流也充满了克制与试探。尤其是关于家庭伦理的部分,那种代际间的误解和沉默,写得入木三分,让我不禁联想到自己成长过程中那些未曾说出口的话语。我特别喜欢作者对“等待”这个主题的处理,它不是一种被动的消磨,而是一种充满张力的积极状态,仿佛所有的重大事件都将从这场无休止的等待中迸发出来。书中对气候和地貌的描写,细腻到我能闻到空气中松针和潮湿泥土的味道,这种沉浸感是极强的。不过,坦白说,对于追求快节奏阅读体验的读者来说,前三分之一可能会显得有些冗长和晦涩,需要极大的耐心去适应作者构建的这个沉静而有力的世界。
评分我必须承认,我是在一本介绍“冷门文学”的杂志上偶然看到对这本书的推荐,才决定尝试的。说实话,这是一次非常“反主流”的阅读体验。它没有明确的好人或坏人,也没有一锤定音的结局,更多的是留给读者一个巨大的、未完成的拼图。其中最让我震撼的是关于“记忆的不可靠性”这一主题的处理。作者巧妙地设置了几个关键性的闪回片段,但每次闪回,细节都会略有出入,使得主人公自己对过去事件的认知也变得模糊不清。这种不确定性营造了一种令人不安的悬疑感,但这种悬疑并非来自外部威胁,而是源于个体对自我认同的质疑。全书的色调是灰暗的,即便是描写阳光灿烂的日子,那种光线也仿佛是被一层薄薄的尘埃过滤过的,带着一种宿命般的哀愁。我个人认为,它更适合那些对心理描写和存在主义探讨感兴趣的读者群体,如果你期待的是一个酣畅淋漓的冒险故事,可能会感到失望。但如果你愿意沉浸在一种深沉的氛围中,与角色的灵魂进行一次漫长的对话,这本书会给你带来极大的满足感。
评分我对这本书的整体印象是:它是一部需要时间和耐心去“驯服”的作品。初读时,我感到的是一种强烈的疏离感,仿佛作者在用一种极其古典、甚至有些疏远的笔调讲述一个发生在现代背景下的故事。这种疏离感在开场时造成了一些阅读障碍,但随着我深入到主角的日记体部分,那种距离感才逐渐被打破。最让我触动的是作者对“失去”的描摹,它不是那种歇斯底里的悲恸,而是一种渗透到骨髓里的、习惯性的缺失感。比如,书中描述主人公整理旧物时,那种对一件不重要物品的反复摩挲,反而比对重大失落的直接描写更具感染力。这本书的篇幅不短,但其中有很多留白,很多情绪的爆发点都隐藏在看似平淡的动作之中,比如一次紧握的拳头,一次长时间的凝视。它最终没有给出任何明确的答案或救赎,主人公的旅程似乎仍在继续,读者也被邀请进入这种永恒的追寻之中。对我而言,它更像是一面镜子,映照出我们每个人在面对生活的巨大不确定性时,内心的那种微弱却坚韧的抵抗。读完后,留下的不是故事的梗概,而是一种持续萦绕心头的、关于“如何与不完美共存”的深刻体悟。
评分这本书的文学价值,我认为主要体现在其精妙的象征主义运用上。它远远超出了一个简单的故事范畴,更像是一部关于“存在”与“失落”的哲学沉思录。作者似乎对存在的本质有着深刻的洞察,通过几个核心意象——比如那座常年被乌鸦盘踞的废弃灯塔,以及反复出现的关于“声音”与“回音”的段落——构建了一个多层次的解读空间。我花了很长时间去揣摩那盏灯塔的意义,它究竟是引导还是警示?是希望的象征,还是被时间遗弃的残骸?每个角色的命运似乎都与这些环境符号紧密相连,他们不是在主导故事,而是被命运的强大力量裹挟着前行。叙事角度的频繁切换也很有意思,有时候是冷静的第三人称全知视角,有时候又会突然切入某个次要人物的梦呓般的内心独白,这种手法极大地增加了文本的厚度,但也要求读者必须保持高度集中的精神去捕捉那些转瞬即逝的线索。这本书的文字密度很高,每一句话都似乎经过了反复的打磨,读起来需要放慢速度,像品尝陈年的佳酿,细细咀嚼其中的味道和回甘。
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