The Madonnas of Leningrad
列宁格勒的麦当娜
I've just finished "The Madonnas of Leningrad" in a rush. This is the most depressing book that I have ever read recently. That's why I've finished in a rush because I wanted to escape from that frustrating feeling as soon as possible.
快快地读完了“列宁格勒的麦当娜”。这是我近来读过的一本最让人压抑的书，这也是我为什么快快地把它读完的原因－尽快脱离令人难受沮丧的感觉。
The protagonist is Marina, a Russian woman who worked in the Hermitage Museum as a tour guide in her 20's. Her student boyfriend Dmitri joined the People's Volunteer Army when Hitler started invading Leningrad ie. Peterborough. He proposed to her the night just before he'd departured with the army.
女主人公Marina年轻时在冬宫博物馆作讲解员，她的学生男朋友Dmitri在希特勒开始要进攻列宁格勒也即彼德堡时参加了人民志愿军，临行前向Marina求婚。
She and other Hermitage staff took all valuable paintings from frames to protect them from the war. They stayed in the cellar of the museum for 3 months during the German’s 90 day siege, and they suffered from cold and famine, and many people including Marina's uncle and aunt died of malnutrition, and of loss of the meaning of the life.
Marina和馆里的工作人员将所有珍贵的物品，画等都包好转移，各个大厅的墙上只留学了一个个空的画框。
在长达90天的围城期间，他们待在博物馆的地下室内。在不断地空袭之下，饥饿寒冷也在折磨着他们，每人每天只有巴掌大小的一块面包。渐渐地，人们开始死于饥饿，死于信念的丧失，这其中也包括Marina的舅舅和舅母。
After the war, Marina found Dmitri in a Germany captive camp. Dmitri could be killed if he returned to the Stalin’s Soviet Union because he was once captured by their enemy. So they disguised themselves as being Polish and then immigrated to the US.
战争之后，Marina在德国的俘虏营找到了Dmitri. Dmitri的俘虏身份使得他们不能重返苏联，所以他们假称自己是波兰人，被准许移民去了美国。
They obviously had a good life there, as their son was a doctor and the daughter worked in the government, but the author omitted this potentially joyous time. Maria suffered Alzheimer’s in her 80's, or to put it more accurately, Dmitri and her daughter and son suffered when they saw their beloved wife and mother becoming more and more lost and absorbed in a world they couldn't understand. However, the author made it clear to readers that Maria actually was reliving the time she stayed in the cellar of the Hermitage. It is the time she starved and witnessed her uncle and aunt’s deterioration and death, and the time she built her “memory palace” of those disappeared paintings in order to hold on to the life. It is the most horrible time in her whole life.
他们在美国的生活应该是不错的，儿子成了医生，女儿在政府部门工作，但作者略去了这段，直接跳到已80岁的Marina，这时她已患了老年痴呆症。她本人并无任何痛苦的感觉，真正痛苦的是和她患难一生的Dmitri和儿女们。他们眼看着曾经熟悉热爱的Marina变得越来越不可理喻，越来越陷入她自己的世界。
而读者很明白Marina是又回到了她一生中最痛苦的时期－战争时期。在这个阶段中她忍饥挨锇，亲眼目睹了舅舅被锇死，舅母丧失了活的意志也随之而去，而她自己则靠着看着展览大厅里那些空空的画框凭记忆背诵
原画的内容而支撑着活下去。
The structure of the book jumps between the Soviet Union and contemporary America, between young, starved Marina and old, eroded Marina, chapter by chapter. This jumping rudely interrupts the reader’s mind and forces them to switch back and forth repeatedly. It is so desperate and cruel that there’s no happiness, no peace and no hope can be felt anywhere whether going back or forward , till the end, till Maria’s death.
这本书的结构是一章战争时的苏联，忍饥挨锇的Marina; 一章现代的美国，老年痴呆症越来越恶化的Marina来回交替。这种不断地跳来跳去粗暴地打断了读者的思路，迫使他们也来来回回地跟着变。而最令人绝望和残忍的是不论是回忆还是现在，没有一处给人以幸福，宁静和希望, 直至全书的结尾－Marina的死亡。
The only bright part in the book is that Maria guided a group of students in the Hermitage, pointed to empty frames and vividly explained famous paintings based on her memory and understanding. It was actually based on a true story and is very moving.
全书最有光亮的部分是Marina带领一群学生穿过一个个展厅，对着那些空空的画框凭着她的记忆和感受栩栩如生地给他们讲解原本在那里的名画。这个细节是基于真实的故事，非常感人。
This book presses so much pain, suffering and desperation into the reader’s mind but doesn’t give them a tiny chance to release these pressures, maybe it's why I have to write this review. I don’t understand why the book is so overwhelming in its depictions of sadness.
这本书给读者塞进了太多的痛苦，受难和绝望，却没有一处能让他们释放这种压抑－这也许正是我必须得写这篇读后感的初衷。作者难道只要传达哀伤和无望的感觉吗？
March 21, 2009
