From Publishers Weekly Holland's most popular Christian fiction writer offers her first novel in an elegant English translation, telling the story of Ika Boerema, a Dutch landscape designer who has fled a childhood scarred by the shame of her illegitimate birth and loveless parents. She is abruptly pulled back into this emotional past by a letter informing her of her mother's impending death. Ika must confront years of emotional neglect and pain in facing her family again and making peace with her mother and with herself. Verweerd dances back and forth between the present and poignant flashbacks to Ika's childhood, which tantalizingly disclose why she fled her family. Her memories gradually reveal her parents' blatant favoritism for Ika's younger sister, her stepfather's constant criticism, her mother's cool distance and her grandfather's obsession with sin. They also tell warmly of one teacher's kindness to Ika, and the boy who shared her passion for gardening. The novel's most compelling mystery, however, is the identity of Ika's father. Her mother has kept his name an ironclad secret and now threatens to take it with her to the grave. Ika's transition from a bitter and wounded daughter to a woman capable of compassionately washing her mother's dying body is gentle and realistic. Verweerd steers clear of predictability and preaching, using a soft-spoken narrative and well-developed characters to bring about a quiet redemption in one woman's life. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Starred Review Verweerd is a Dutch writer, and The Winter Garden was her first novel, just now making its way to the U.S. Its heroine is nondescript Ika Boerema, a landscape designer who receives the news from her sister, Nelly, that their mother is dying. Nelly wants Ika to come home, but Nelly was always the favored one, while Ika was an illegitimate daughter and grew up a near-outcast. Ika's phlegmatic employer advises against it: the prodigal family doesn't deserve her, she says. But Nelly's sense of duty runs deep, and she connects with her roots in what turns out to be both a spiritual search and a search for identity, since her mother has never revealed the name of Ika's father. Ika is herself a winter garden, in other words, striving to become a whole woman, perhaps even to flower. This is a fine, subtle story reminiscent of Barbara Pym. John MortCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved See all Editorial Reviews
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从文学技法的角度来看,这本书无疑是一次大胆的实验。作者在语言的选择上,展现出一种近乎于偏执的精准度。每一个词汇似乎都经过了千锤百炼,没有任何一个多余的形容词,也没有一句可以被轻易跳过的句子。这种克制到极致的写作风格,反而营造出一种强大的张力,让那些被刻意压抑的情感,在不经意间爆发出来,其力量远胜于任何夸张的修辞。比如,书中对于某些自然现象的描述,并非为了渲染气氛,而是作为一种象征符号,隐喻着人物命运的走向。它的句子结构常常是那种引人深思的复句,前半段铺陈一个场景,后半段立刻转折,指向一个完全不同的哲学层面。这迫使读者不仅要“看”故事,更要“思考”作者是如何构建这个故事的。总的来说,这是一部为那些热爱文字本身,愿意沉浸在语言结构中的读者准备的精品,它对语言的雕琢达到了令人敬畏的水平。
评分这本小说的文字有一种奇异的魔力,它不像那些教科书式的叙事那样直白地推进情节,反而更像是在描绘一幅不断晕染开来的水墨画。初读时,你可能会觉得节奏有些缓慢,人物的内心世界被无限拉长,仿佛时间本身都被这部作品凝固了。然而,当你沉浸其中,就会发现作者将那些最细微的情感波动——比如一次不经意的眼神交汇,或者窗外飘落的雪花在阳光下折射出的光芒——捕捉得无比精准。书中对环境的描写尤其出色,那种冷冽而又充满生机的氛围,读起来仿佛能感受到皮肤上微微的寒意,以及泥土下蕴藏的勃勃生机。它不是那种情节跌宕起伏、让你喘不过气来的作品,更像是一次深呼吸,一次对生活本质的缓慢审视。我特别欣赏作者处理人物关系的方式,那种欲言又止、心照不宣的默契,比任何激烈的争吵都更能触动人心。它要求读者付出耐心,但回报你的,是一种超越故事本身的宁静和深刻的共鸣。读完合上书的那一刻,世界似乎都变得柔和了一些,这是文学罕有的力量。
评分这本书最让我感到惊喜的是它对“记忆”这一主题的处理方式。它不像许多小说那样将记忆描绘成一个清晰的档案库,可以随时调取和审视。相反,作者将记忆呈现为一种流动的、易变的、带有强烈主观色彩的实体。记忆在这里更像是一种不断重塑的叙事,每个人都在为自己的过去添加、删除或者修改细节,以适应他们当前的生存状态。书中好几处情节,读者会发现,不同角色的回忆版本存在显著的冲突,这让人不禁反思:我们所坚信的“事实”,究竟有多少是真正发生过的,又有多少是我们为了自我保护而构建的“神话”?这种对记忆可靠性的质疑,贯穿始终,使得故事的多义性大大增强。你读到最后,可能依然无法给某个事件下一个定论,但你学会了接受这种模糊和不确定性,这正是生活本身的底色。它超越了单纯的故事讲述,上升到了对人类认知局限性的探讨,非常耐人寻味。
评分我必须指出,这本书在情感的表达上,达到了近乎残酷的真实感。它没有美化任何痛苦,也没有提供廉价的安慰剂。书中那些关于失落、关于遗憾、关于错过的描绘,是如此赤裸裸,以至于让人在阅读时必须时刻准备好面对自己内心深处那些不愿触碰的角落。主角们身上的创伤,不是通过宏大的事件来体现,而是通过那些日常生活中微不足道、却又无法磨灭的细节来渗透的。比如,一个空荡荡的椅子,一杯永远不会再有人倒满的茶水,或是某个特定气味带来的瞬间抽离感。这种细腻的疼痛感,仿佛能穿透纸面,直达读者的神经末梢。它让你意识到,真正的“伤口”往往是无声的,它们不是轰轰烈烈的灾难,而是日复一日,在时间长河中被反复冲刷、却从未愈合的小裂痕。阅读过程中,我好几次停下来,不是因为情节紧张,而是因为被那种纯粹的、未经修饰的悲伤所击中,需要时间来平复自己的情绪。
评分坦白说,这本书的结构有些跳跃,我得承认,读到一半的时候,我差点就想放弃了。叙事线索像是一团被随意抛开的毛线球,东一榔头西一棒子,一会儿跳到多年前的某个夏日午后,一会儿又猛地拉回到当下这个阴郁的冬日清晨。这种非线性叙事带来的阅读体验是极具挑战性的,它不迎合现代人习惯的快节奏阅读模式。但奇怪的是,正是这种破碎感,最终拼凑出了一个异常完整且复杂的图景。每一个看似不相关的片段,在后续的发展中都像齿轮一样精准地咬合起来,揭示出角色行为背后那些深埋已久的动机。作者没有给你一个清晰的指引,而是把你推入迷宫,让你自己去寻找出口。这种主动参与式的阅读,虽然累人,却也带来了巨大的成就感。那些隐藏在对话夹缝中的潜台词,那些被省略但又清晰可见的心理活动,构成了整部作品的骨架。对于那些偏爱传统、线性叙事的读者来说,这可能是一次煎熬,但对于喜欢解谜和深度挖掘的“侦探型”读者,它绝对是一场盛宴。
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