那是二十年前未婚夫带到北京的书，我们相互读着，梦想有一天一起辞了大公司的职，到塞纳河畔钓鱼。。。就是这些海阔天空不着边际的梦捕获了我的心。他喜欢听我轻声细语地念，稍稍的口音也在他耳中成了my fair lady里的“the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain"。
婚后接连来了一儿一女两个小家伙缠身，第一次到巴黎已是六七年后。而真正的熟读海明威则是给孩子们念了无数儿童书的闲暇。那时的我，满心的爱散文，觉得海明威的文虽清澈，却似水，一口饮下不再回味。倒是通过他对菲兹杰罗的描写（Francis Scott Fitzgerald 又译：菲茨杰拉德），爱上了后者细腻的文字。
一连读了菲兹杰罗的盖茨比the great Gatsby，夜色温柔（Tender is the night），人间天堂（This side of the paradise） ，the beautiful and the damned, 几乎能找到的长短篇文字都买回了家。跟先生说，“海明威写给男人，菲兹杰罗写给女人。对不起我不能跟你一起泛(fan)海了（sorry I can't be a Hemingway fan with you anymore, my new love is Fitzgerald) .” 他说没有关系，你尽可以有自己的喜好。写到这里我才知道其实海明威在我的心里是挥之不去的。
我还是他们两位忠实的Fan，割舍不去的是丝丝生命气息相关连。是他们把我带到了那个遥远的二三十年代，那个美国历史上的黄金时代，一次大战后看不到还有二次大战来临的人们，一掷千金，一醉方休。锦瑟华年谁与度，拥有的是大把的时光，写下了激情的文字，却被称为迷茫的一代（the lost generation），寻求着自我也寻求着爱。
想当年，他的第一本书是为和Zelda订婚而作，要想获得法官女儿的芳心，颇费一番苦心。他把在普林斯顿大学时写的剧本改编一下，年仅二十几岁就出版了this side of paradise（人间天堂），不同凡响。他的作品受好莱坞青睐，多次改编为电影，而他后期的创作也增加了商业的娱乐的元素。四十四岁却因心脏病，英年早逝，令人唏嘘，此时的Zelta还在瑞士一家精神病院，昔日的金童玉女被酒消磨了生命。醉过方知酒浓，爱过才知情重。斯人已去，带走了他的爵士时代和美国梦。。。他未完成的『最后的大亨』（the last Tycoon）令我不忍卒读。
• Well written and presentedYou know how to present your emtions in well decorated forms with colorful text and pictures. The contents are just as well presented.
I usually write a book review if I feel a strong urge about what I read. For some strange reason I don't have much to say after I read Fitzgerald's books. I've read The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, This Side of the Paradise, as well as other lesser known ones like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and some of his short pieces and even plays. He was an icon of 1920s American literature and I read his books with attention and zeal. But I just don't have a strong feeling of any kind. The Great Gatsby was dramatic enough after the car accident that killed his girl friend and at the end of his suicide. But I thought that was too artificial. A store made up for dramatic effects. He was definitely a master of English and I agree with you, that to read his books one needs to sit down and find a really quite place to read it and be able to appreciate every word. He is just too subtle for me. No wonder women love his novels.
Heimingway is another famous author whose works don't really inspire me, with the exception of The Old Man and Sea. I admired that short novel greatly. I particuarly like his use of very simple words and short phrases to describe the emotions and thoughts of his subjects. Even the those simple words like "a", "the", "is", "are" are well and carefully placed so that readers are not aware of anything else but be absorbed completely in his stories, which in the case of The Old Man and Sea is a really simple one. One can just describe the whole story in less than a dozen words, and yet there have been so much said about this book, I didn't want to heap up my comments on it. I could add nothing new but praise and admiiration.
Heimingway's other books do not stir up my mind like The Old Man and Sea. It seems that his other novels are all of the same kind of construction and style. His novels describe bigger events and stories at very personal level in great details of the daily activities of the protagnists. The Snows at Mount Kalimanjaro, Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bells Toll and many other novels are all alike in this respect.
I think I am more interested in stories than the literary skills. I like stories that sound "real", even fictions. May be that's because I intermix my readings with biographies and fictions. If a book doesn't tell a moving story then I cannot keep my concentration. I keep look for dramatic changes. But most of Heimingway's and Fitzgerald's stories are fairly predictable. These are "pure" literature exercises that are like Chopin's recitals, hard and artsy, and more appreciated by those who love the style, like sipping a cup of well made coffee, one drip at a time. -bmdn- (2958 bytes) (14 reads) 5/24/13 10:23:05
• Very well said! Thank you so much bmdn for your inputs.
You are an avid reader and writer, and translator!
Women tend to be attracted to Romantic stories and light comedies. They shed tears easily with melancholy scenes. I look to the world through a layer of rose colored glasses.
Guys are not afraid of the thrilling tales and dramatic changes in details. With a sharp eye like yours, you see right through to the core.
Fitzgerald liked to write about romans, the youthful. People say some of his materials came from his wife's writing or at least inspired by her drafts. Meanwhile, she was kind of jealous that his writing time was taking his attentions away from her.
I enjoy biographies as well. Hope you've found your favorite cup of tea, coffee, wine, big wave full of ocean...to savor...or gulp!-京燕花园- ♀ (769 bytes) (12 reads) 5/24/13 14:27:44
