一本充滿奧運特異人士亞文化的小說

On the Line

一本充滿奧運特異人士亞文化的小說

Did Chris Cleave write “Gold” on a bar bet?

小說《金牌》是克里斯·克利夫(Chris Cleave)的酒吧賭約之作嗎?

Formerly a columnist for The Guardian, Cleave is the author of two previous novels, “Incendiary” and “Little Bee,” whose career in fiction began with a bizarre bit of calendrical happenstance. The publication date of Cleave’s first novel, “Incendiary,” about a fictional terrorist attack on London, chanced to coincide with the July 7, 2005, London Underground bombings. Written as a series of letters from an attack victim’s widow to Osama bin Laden, the book received high praise and international awards. Cleave’s next novel, “Little Bee,” told the story of a smart-set London editor and a young Nigerian girl whose lives become entwined after a harrowing encounter on a West African beach. “Little Bee” was a tour de force — I recall reading it in about two and a half minutes, or so it seemed — that became a smash hit.

克利夫曾是英國《衛(wèi)報》的專欄作家，之前出版過兩部小說：《燃燒彈》(Incendiary)和《小蜜蜂》(Little Bee)。在克利夫的小說事業(yè)起步之初，曾出現了一樁離奇的偶然事件——他的首部小說《燃燒彈》虛構了一起倫敦恐怖襲擊事件，其出版日期2005年7月7 日正好是倫敦地鐵爆炸案發(fā)生的日子。該書的情節(jié)推動，是由一名受害者遺孀寫給奧薩馬·本·拉登(Osama bin Laden)的一系列信件構成，為克利夫贏得了高度贊譽和國際獎項。他的第二部小說《小蜜蜂》講述了一個時髦闊綽的倫敦編輯和一個年輕的尼日利亞女孩在西非海灘上悲慘邂逅，以及他們的生活自此交織在一起的故事。《小蜜蜂》是部紅極一時的佳作——我記得自己只用了兩分半鐘的時間就把它讀完了，或者似乎是這樣。

Now comes “Gold,” a story of athletic ambition, Olympic glory, parental sacrifice and the mightily tedious sport of track cycling. “Gold” is so unlike Cleave’s earlier work that it doesn’t seem implausible to imagine a mate down at the pub challenging him to write a novel without any of the qualities that so delighted readers of “Incendiary” and “Little Bee”: vibrant first-person narrators, snap-snap dialogue, sharp wit, complex cultural-­political themes, brisk scenes and deeply engaging characters. Or maybe Cleave just wanted to try something different.

《金牌》是克利夫的第三部小說，它描寫了運動員的雄心、奧林匹克的榮耀、父母的犧牲，以及場地自行車這種相當乏味的運動?！督鹋啤犯死騼刹壳白鞯牟町惾绱酥?，就算他是為了挑戰(zhàn)自我，那也有點令人難以置信——他在酒吧里接受了一個朋友的挑戰(zhàn)，要寫一本沒有《燃燒彈》和《小蜜蜂》中取悅讀者的任何特質的小說，沒有活力四射的第一人稱敘述者，沒有快節(jié)奏的對話，避免機智敏銳和復雜的文化政治主題，躲避輕快的場景以及深具魅力的人物角色。也有可能克利夫寫這本書只是為了嘗試一些不同的東西吧。

“Gold” takes place in the run-up to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Kate Meadows and Zoe Castle are world-class sprint cyclists who live and train in Manchester. Longtime friends and rivals, they’ve been racing against each other since they were 19. Now 32, with their careers winding down, they see the London Games as a last chance for glory.

《金牌》的故事發(fā)生在2012年倫敦夏季奧運會的準備階段。凱特·梅多斯(Kate Meadows)和佐伊·卡斯特(Zoe Castle)是世界一流的場地自行車運動員，都在曼徹斯特生活和訓練。兩人既是老朋友也是老對手，從19歲起就在賽場上你爭我奪了。 現年32歲的她們，隨著運動生涯接近尾聲，都把倫敦奧運視為贏得榮耀的最后一次機會。

Kate’s the good girl. “Pretty happy,” Zoe says of Kate. “Pretty normal. Pretty pretty.” Kate’s always eager to do the right thing, order the sensible meal, sacrifice for her family. The arrival of an infant daughter, Sophie, kept her out of the 2004 Athens Games; on the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Kate again bowed out when little Sophie was found to have leukemia. Now it’s 2012, her last shot, and it’s finally good mother Kate’s turn. The only thing standing in her way is her friend.

凱特是書中的好女孩。佐伊說她：“很快樂，很正常，很漂亮。”凱特總是渴望做正確的事情，準備合理的膳食，為了家庭做出犧牲。女兒蘇菲 (Sophie)的降生使她無緣參加2004年的雅典奧運會，而在2008年的北京奧運會前夕，小蘇菲被診斷出患有白血病，令凱特再次錯過揚威賽場的機會?，F在到了2012年，最后一次機會似乎終于輪到了好媽媽凱特，惟一的障礙就是她的朋友佐伊。

Zoe’s the naughty one. “I’m ugly on the inside,” she warns a prospective beau. “I’ll mess your head up.” Haunted by childhood traumas, Zoe trains nonstop and swallows the empty calories of victory as a substitute for the nourishment of friends and family. She cares about nothing but winning. She’ll crash an opponent, steal a boyfriend, do whatever it takes. Ruthlessness, of course, has its rewards — lucrative sponsorships, magazine covers, a luxurious apartment and billboard fame.

佐伊是書中的壞女孩。 “我的內心丑陋，”她警告未來的男朋友：“我會讓你變得一個頭兩個大。”佐伊被孩提時代的創(chuàng)傷所困擾，她不間斷地訓練，用勝利這種缺乏營養(yǎng)的空虛熱量來替代朋友和家人才能給予的營養(yǎng)。除了勝利，佐伊什么都不在乎。她會不惜一切代價地擊潰對手，撬走別人的男朋友。當然，這樣的冷酷無情也帶來了回報——豐厚的代言收入、雜志封面、豪華公寓，以及名揚四方。

A rule change sets the plot spinning. To placate television executives who love finals and loathe preliminary heats, the International Olympic Committee trims the slots available to each nation in sprint cycling: One athlete per flag, please. Who will it be, Britain: Kate or Zoe?

一條參賽規(guī)則的改變讓形勢急轉直下。電視臺的高管層喜歡決賽，討厭預賽，為了安撫他們，國際奧林匹克委員會削減了每個國家自行車參賽選手的名額：每個國家只能派一名選手。那么誰將代表英國出征呢?凱特還是佐伊?

Tough call. Even Tom Voss, the wizened Olympic cyclist (Mexico City, ’68) who coaches both athletes, can’t decide: “He wasn’t supposed to have a favorite, and the truth was that he didn’t. Kate was the more naturally gifted rider, Zoe leveled the score with pure determination, and Tom liked them equally.”

難題出現了。即使是她們的教練湯姆·沃斯(Tom Voss)也無法做出選擇，這位瘦削的前奧運自行車手(曾參加1968年的墨西哥城奧運會)“不應該偏心她們中的任何一個，但他確實也沒有偏心。凱特的天分更高一些，但佐伊意志堅定，兩人旗鼓相當，湯姆對她們的喜愛也不分轅輊。”

A race is agreed to. Best two out of three sprints, Kate against Zoe. I won’t reveal the ending, but I will tell you it takes absolute ages to get there.

佐伊和凱特同意比試一場，三局兩勝定乾坤。我不會劇透它的結局如何，但我會告訴你，結局費了很長很長時間才出現。

“Gold” is a head-scratcher of a novel. Rival champions can produce riveting drama. Think Navratilova-Evert, Graf-Seles. And the Olympic sports I’ve seen up close often nurture a rich subculture of peculiar characters: rising stars, wily veterans, dopers and cheaters, has-beens, never-weres, vulpine agents, arrogant federation heads, wealthy supporters and creepy hangers-on. It’s a real zoo. The setting of Cleave’s novel also sounds quite promising. Having watched “24 Hour Party People,” I understand that Manchester can be an interesting town. But in “Gold,” all we see are Kate and Zoe, temperamental friends, training and working out their relationship against a backdrop as blank as Toronto.

《金牌》會令一些人感到費解。兩強相斗的設定可以制造精彩紛呈的戲劇效果：想想納芙拉蒂洛娃(Navratilova)對埃弗特(Evert)，或者格拉芙 (Graf)對塞萊斯(Seles)吧。我比較關注的奧運項目通常會孕育豐富的特異人士亞文化：冉冉升起的新星、老謀深算的宿將、興奮劑服用者和作弊者、過氣的體壇明星、一直沒熬出頭的人、狡猾的經紀人、傲慢的聯(lián)合會負責人、富有的支持者、 讓人不舒服的隨從等等。總之，這樣的圈子里會有各型各色的生物。《金牌》的背景設置聽上去也會讓人有這樣的期待。而且在看過電影《24小時狂歡派對》 (24 Hour Party People)之后，我知道曼徹斯特也可以是一個很有趣的城市。但在《金牌》中，我們看到的全是凱特和佐伊這對關系無常的朋友如何訓練、如何處理她們之間的關系，其背景幾乎是白茫茫一片。

And then there’s the ­cancer.

還有患上血癌的女兒。

Little Sophie battles it courageously, keeping fear at bay by imagining the adults around her as “Star Wars” characters. Her father, Jack, an Olympic cyclist and good-natured lunk, is forever brewing a cup of tea for his lovely wife and inquiring of his daughter, “Do you feel poorly?” The tear-welling virtue never stops. When Sophie began to feel ever more poorly, this reader couldn’t help recalling Oscar Wilde’s reaction to the death of Little Nell.

小蘇菲勇敢地和癌癥作戰(zhàn)，通過把身邊的成年人想象成《星球大戰(zhàn)》(Star Wars)中的角色，她免受了恐懼的威脅。蘇菲的父親杰克(Jack)也是一名奧運自行車賽手，一個性情溫厚的笨蛋，總是為可愛的妻子泡上一杯熱茶，總是問女兒：“你覺得難受嗎?”這種讓人熱淚盈眶的品質展現永不止歇。當蘇菲開始覺得越來越難受時，讀者不禁會聯(lián)想到奧斯卡·王爾德(Oscar Wilde)對小內爾(Little Nell)之死的反應。

Zoe does what she can to redeem the book. Her many failings give Cleave a chance to exercise his substantial literary muscle. “Off the bike she was like a smoker without cigarettes,” he observes of Zoe, “never sure what to do with her hands.” Zoe’s a self-destructive rotter on the scale of the infamous Shane of “The L Word.” She does what she likes. She shows up late. She sleeps with cads who kiss and tell to the tabloids. Zoe doesn’t care. Even a cad can provide a human connection for a few hours, as she realizes upon waking with one. “She hadn’t wanted the sex as much as she wanted to share this space with another human being, 46 floors up in the clouds. Sex was cheap money that you could print on demand and use to buy a reprieve from loneliness till morning.”

佐伊為補救這本書盡了全力。她身上的諸多缺點給克利夫提供了展示其堅實文學造詣的機會。 “不騎車的時候，她就像沒有香煙的吸煙者，”克利夫這樣寫她：“不知道該把手往哪兒放。”佐伊是一個有自我毀滅傾向的壞蛋，跟《拉字至上》(The L Word)里著名的謝恩(Shane)有得一比。她為所欲為，她遲到，她跟透露緋聞給八卦小報的無賴男人睡覺。佐伊對此并不在意，甚至是無賴也可以給她帶來幾個小時人類的溫暖，正如她在一個無賴身邊醒來后意識到的：“她沒有那么想要性，她更想和另外一個人分享這里，在這高聳入云的46層樓上。性是來得容易的鈔票，你可以根據需要印鈔，用它購買暫時的孤獨緩解劑，效果持續(xù)到第二天早上。”