美國偵探小說大師的閱讀清單

美國偵探小說大師的閱讀清單

The author of the V. I. Warshawski novels, most recently “Critical Mass,” was hugely influenced by “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”: “I felt as though I’d fallen into words and wanted to drown in them.”

“女偵探沃莎斯基”(V. I. Warshawski)系列小說的作者深受《一個(gè)青年藝術(shù)家的畫像》(A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man)的影響：“我感覺自己好像掉進(jìn)了文字里，想一直沉浸在其中。”她最近出版了《臨界物質(zhì)》(Critical Mass)一書。

What books are currently on your night stand?

你的床頭柜上現(xiàn)在放著什么書?

I’m trying hard to read Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” but keep returning to fiction. Right now: John Williams’s “Stoner,” Claude Izner’s “Strangled in Paris.”

我努力想讀托馬斯·皮克迪(Thomas Piketty)的《二十一世紀(jì)資本論》(Capital in the Twenty-First Century)，但總想轉(zhuǎn)去看小說?，F(xiàn)在正在看的是約翰·威廉姆斯(John Williams)的《斯托納》(Stoner)和克勞德·艾茲內(nèi)(Claude Izner)的《巴黎扼殺案》(Strangled in Paris)。

Who is your favorite novelist of all time? And your favorite novelist writing today?

有史以來你最喜歡的小說家是誰?現(xiàn)在仍在寫作的小說家中你最喜歡的是誰?

I don’t have an all-time favorite. There are books I reread or wish I’d written. I love the Victorians: Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, in that order. I loved “Gilead” and “Wolf Hall,” which is a staggering achievement. I reread Barbara Pym and Jane Austen and my old detective favorites when I’m stressed out.

我沒有最喜歡的小說家。有些小說我會反復(fù)讀，希望是自己寫的。我很喜歡維多利亞時(shí)代的小說家：依次是伊麗莎白·蓋斯凱爾(Elizabeth Gaskell)、查爾斯·狄更斯(Charles Dickens)和喬治·艾略特(George Eliot)。我很喜歡《基列家書》(Gilead)和《狼廳》(Wolf Hall)，后者是了不起的成就。壓力大的時(shí)候，我會重讀芭芭拉·皮姆(Barbara Pym)和簡·奧斯汀(Jane Austen)的小說以及我最喜歡的老偵探小說。

Who are your favorite writers of detective fiction?

你最喜歡的偵探小說作家是誰?

Margery Allingham among the classics. Peter Dickinson, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Dorothy Hughes.

瑪格麗·阿林厄姆(Margery Allingham)是其中一位經(jīng)典作家。還有彼得·迪金森(Peter Dickinson)、多蘿西·索爾茲伯里·戴維斯(Dorothy Salisbury Davis)和多蘿西·休斯(Dorothy Hughes)。

Which do you consider the best detective stories of all time, and why?

你認(rèn)為有史以來最好的偵探故事是哪些?為什么?

Anna Katharine Green, for defining the consulting detective for the 19th century; Wilkie Collins, for playing with the form and transforming it; Dashiell Hammett, for reinventing the form for the 20th century; the Holmes oeuvre, for making detective fiction popular in both Great Britain and America; Amanda Cross and Lillian O’Donnell, for opening the door that enabled Marcia Muller, Linda Barnes, Sue Grafton and me to challenge the form in new ways.

安娜·凱瑟琳·格林(Anna Katharine Green)描繪了19世紀(jì)的顧問偵探;威爾基·科林斯(Wilkie Collins)嘗試并改造了這個(gè)題材;達(dá)希爾·哈米特(Dashiell Hammett)在20世紀(jì)重新創(chuàng)作了該題材;福爾摩斯系列讓偵探小說在英國和美國都很流行;阿曼達(dá)·克羅斯(Amanda Cross)和莉蓮·奧唐奈(Lillian O’Donnell)打開了一扇門，讓馬西婭·馬勒(Marcia Muller)、琳達(dá)·巴爾內(nèi)斯(Linda Barnes)、蘇·格拉夫頓(Sue Grafton)和我能夠用新的方式挑戰(zhàn)這種題材。

What makes a good detective novel?

怎樣才能寫出一部好看的偵探小說?

Believable characters first, a good story, an understanding of how to pace dramatic action. I like commitment by a writer, to the form, to the story — there are lots of slick writers of crime fiction who aren’t writing out of passion, but for the market. They write good English sentences, but for me, the lack of commitment makes them uninteresting.

首先要有可信的人物，然后得有個(gè)好故事，而且要知道如何推動情節(jié)發(fā)展。我喜歡作家的投入，對這種題材和這個(gè)故事的投入——有很多圓滑的犯罪小說作家不是出于熱愛而是為了市場寫作。他們寫出了很好的英文句子，但是在我看來，他們不夠投入，所以寫出的小說沒有趣味。

Of the books you’ve written, which is your favorite?

你最喜歡自己寫的哪本小說?

My books all have different strengths and weaknesses, but if I had to choose, I’d pick “Hardball.” It’s very personal because the back story is in the civil rights movement in Chicago in the 1960s. That’s when I first came here, working as a volunteer on the city’s extremely turbulent South Side.

我的書各有優(yōu)缺點(diǎn)，但是如果我必須選一本的話，我會選《強(qiáng)硬手段》(Hardball)。它非常有個(gè)人色彩，因?yàn)樗且?0世紀(jì)60年代芝加哥的民權(quán)運(yùn)動為背景的。那時(shí)候我剛到這里，在極度混亂的南區(qū)做志愿者。

You earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago. Do you still enjoy reading history? Who are your favorite historians to read?

你在芝加哥大學(xué)獲得了歷史學(xué)博士學(xué)位?，F(xiàn)在你還喜歡讀歷史學(xué)方面的書嗎?你最喜歡讀哪些史學(xué)家的作品?

Richard Hofstadter was a great stylist; 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of his “Paranoid Style in American Politics,” which is as insightful a dissection of our country today as it was when he first published it. My dissertation dealt with the 19th-century roots of fundamentalism in America. I read a fair amount of natural history as background — Darwin, some of the early geologists, a lot of the moral philosophers. I still like to read natural history — Neil Shubin’s “Your Inner Fish” is also on my night stand.

理查德·霍夫施塔特(Richard Hofstadter)有獨(dú)特的風(fēng)格。2014年是他的《美國政治的偏執(zhí)風(fēng)格》(Paranoid Style in American Politics)出版50周年。這本書是對我們國家的深刻剖析，和它剛出版時(shí)一樣意義重大。我的學(xué)位論文與19世紀(jì)美國基要主義的根源有關(guān)。為此我讀了大量自然歷史方面的書——達(dá)爾文(Darwin)的書、一些早期地質(zhì)學(xué)家的書和很多道德哲學(xué)家的書?，F(xiàn)在我仍然喜歡讀自然歷史方面的書，尼爾·舒賓 (Neil Shubin)的《你是怎么來的》(Your Inner Fish)也在我的床頭柜上。

What do you like to read when you travel?

你旅行的時(shí)候喜歡讀什么書?

Partway through “Wolf Hall” I went to England on tour. I carried that big, fat book across the Atlantic, couldn’t wait to finish my events so I could go back to it — I’d read until I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

《狼廳》讀到一半時(shí)，我去英國旅行。我?guī)е潜竞裰氐臅竭^大西洋，往往是活動還沒結(jié)束我就迫不及待地想回去讀它，一直讀到眼睛睜不開才停下來。

What do you like reading right before bed?

你喜歡在入睡前讀什么書?

Short stories, mostly. Joan Wickersham’s “The News From Spain” and Jaan Kross’s “The Conspiracy” are two that I’ve just finished. I have insomnia, and sometimes at 3 in the morning, I read from “The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon,” a journal kept by a woman at the 11th-century Japanese imperial court, and then write in my own journal in her style: Seven Things That Bring Me Pleasure; Eight Things Over Which I Have No Control.

大多是短篇小說。我剛讀完的兩本——瓊·威克沙姆(Joan Wickersham)的《來自西班牙的消息》(The News From Spain)和揚(yáng)·克羅斯(Jaan Kross)的《陰謀》(The Conspiracy)。我經(jīng)常失眠，有時(shí)會在凌晨3點(diǎn)讀清少納言的《枕草子》，它是11世紀(jì)日本宮廷的一個(gè)女子寫的日記，然后我也用她的風(fēng)格寫日記：給我?guī)砜鞓返钠呒?我完全無法控制的八件事。

What kind of reader were you as a child?

你小時(shí)候是什么樣的讀者?

I was a flashlight-under-the-covers reader. I loved books about girls doing active things — biographies of women like the astronomer Maria Mitchell, or Harriet Tubman or Marie Curie. I read Laura Ingalls Wilder, all the Alcott books and a wonderful out-of-print German novel, “The Wicked Enchantment.” As an adult, I realize it is a parable of the Nazi takeover of Germany, but as a child I loved the brave heroine, her little dog Winnie and the aunts who look after them both.

我小時(shí)候喜歡躲在被窩里打著手電筒看書。我很喜歡關(guān)于積極主動的女孩子的書——比如天文學(xué)家瑪麗亞·米切爾(Maria Mitchell)，還有哈麗雅特·塔布曼(Harriet Tubman)和瑪麗·居里(Marie Curie)等女人的傳記。我讀過勞拉·英戈?duì)査?middot;懷爾德(Laura Ingalls Wilder)的書，奧爾科特(Alcott)所有的書，還有一部精彩的絕版德國小說《邪惡的魔法》(The Wicked Enchantment)。長大后，我才知道它是關(guān)于納粹控制德國的寓言故事，但小時(shí)候我很喜歡里面那位勇敢的女主人公、她的小狗維尼以及照顧她倆的姨媽們。

If you had to name one book that made you who you are today, what would it be?

如果你必須選一本對你影響最大的書，你會選哪本?

When I first read “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” at 17, I felt as though I’d fallen into words and wanted to drown in them. I reread the book 20 or 30 times and longed to write like Joyce. I used to practice Joycean sentences and punctuation.

17歲時(shí)，我第一次讀《一個(gè)青年藝術(shù)家的畫像》，感覺自己好像掉進(jìn)了文字里，想一直沉浸在其中。這本書我讀了二三十遍，渴望自己能像喬伊斯那樣寫作。我過去常常練習(xí)喬伊斯式的句子和斷句方式。

If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?

如果你能要求總統(tǒng)讀一本書，你會選哪一本?

Kafka’s “The Trial,” so he realized how futile it is to try to find meaning in the ways Congress reacts to his initiatives.

卡夫卡(Kafka)的《審判》(The Trial)，這樣他就會明白，努力尋找國會對他提案的反應(yīng)方式的意義是徒勞無功的。

You’re hosting a literary dinner party. Which three writers are invited?

假如你要舉辦一個(gè)文學(xué)宴會派對，你會邀請哪三位作家?

P. D. James, who is always witty and engaging; Shakespeare, to hear that language spoken by himself; and Sappho. The four of us would all miraculously understand modern and Renaissance English and ancient Greek.

P·D·詹姆斯(P. D. James)，他總是幽默迷人;莎士比亞(Shakespeare)，聽他本人朗讀自己的作品;薩福(Sappho)。而且我們四個(gè)奇跡般地都能聽懂現(xiàn)代英語、文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期的英語和古希臘語。

Disappointing, overrated, just not good: What book did you feel you were supposed to like, and didn’t? Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing?

失望，評價(jià)過高，不好看：哪些書讓你覺得自己應(yīng)該會喜歡但實(shí)際上不喜歡?你還記得上一本沒看完就放下的書嗎?

“War and Peace.” I read all 1,400-plus pages. The first 100-page riff on the great Russian soul was interesting. During the second hundred-page riff, I thought, This is dull, but maybe it’s a reinforcing literary device. When I got to the third, I wanted to take a blue pencil to the text. And then I reached the end, and it turns out that Natasha’s brooding artistic yearnings are symptoms of a mental illness for which pregnancy is the cure. She’s become fat and is ecstatically inspecting a soiled diaper.

《戰(zhàn)爭與和平》(War and Peace)。我讀完了全部1400多頁。前100頁反復(fù)講述那個(gè)偉大的俄羅斯靈魂，挺有趣的。到第二個(gè)100頁，我心想，這很無趣，但它可能是個(gè)用于強(qiáng)化的文學(xué)手段。到了第三個(gè)100頁，我想刪除某些段落。讀到最后我發(fā)現(xiàn)，娜塔莎(Natasha)徘徊不去的藝術(shù)渴望是一種精神疾病的癥狀，而懷孕能治這種病。她變胖了，如醉如癡地檢查一塊臟尿布。

Last book I didn’t finish — “The Luminaries.” I read 120 pages and couldn’t get engaged by any of the characters.

我沒有讀完的上一本書是《發(fā)光體》(The Luminaries)。我讀了120頁，里面沒有一個(gè)人物吸引我。

What’s the one book you wish someone else would write?

你希望將來有人寫一本什么書?

A history of the women in physics in the 20th century. I read as much as I could find for background to my recent novel, “Critical Mass.” Maria Rentetzi has written some of that story, but very little is known about women who did major work in the field (Ellen Gleditsch, Marietta Blau and others).

20世紀(jì)女物理學(xué)家的歷史。我在寫最新小說《臨界物質(zhì)》時(shí)，為了了解背景知識讀了所有我能找到的書?，旣悂?middot;倫特茨(Maria Rentetzi)寫了一些這方面的故事，但我們對在這一領(lǐng)域做出重要貢獻(xiàn)的女人(埃倫·格萊迪奇[Ellen Gleditsch]和瑪麗埃塔·布勞[Marietta Blau]等)知之甚少。

Whom would you want to write your life story?

你想讓誰來寫你的人生故事?

I’d love Elizabeth Gaskell to do for me what she did for Charlotte Brontë.

我想讓伊麗莎白·蓋斯凱爾(Elizabeth Gaskell)寫我的故事，就像她寫夏洛蒂·勃朗特(Charlotte Brontë)那樣。