首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Despite its gargantuan heft, John Irving’s 11th novel moves nimbly from a standing start to warp speed. Legions of the author’s
Despite its gargantuan heft, John Irving’s 11th novel moves nimbly from a standing start to warp speed. Legions of the author’s
admin
2014-07-25
56
问题
Despite its gargantuan heft, John Irving’s 11th novel moves nimbly from a standing start to warp speed. Legions of the author’s admirers will still be searching for a comfortable way to accommodate the book on their laps when they find themselves hustled off on a wintry chase through Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki and Amsterdam. In late 1969, Alice Stronach, a tattoo artist in Toronto, trundles her son Jack Bums, age 4, along with her while she pursues William Bums, an Edinburgh church organist who impregnated and abandoned her nearly five years earlier. Her itinerary has its logic: Her prey yearns to play the magnificent organs of Europe and he is an "ink addict," driven to have every possible inch of his skin decorated. The cities on Alice’s list boast grand churches and a flourishing tattoo trade.
Jack Burns’s trip with his mother in the novel’s first seven chapters reiterates the central premise of most of Irving’s fiction: since all childhoods, even the most pampered, can seem scary, why not expose a fictional child to experiences— grotesque, farcical, sexually outlandish—that might cause even jaded adults to blanch, and then see what happens? In this case, Jack survives the louche environments of tattoo parlors, the pillowy display of prostitutes in Amsterdam’s red light district and ambiguous encounters between his mother and her male tattoo customers in various hotel rooms—all with his innocence intact. His father has not been found, but Jack has not been lost.
Then something truly bizarre occurs. Back in Toronto, Alice and Jack settle in again with Mrs. Wicksteed, a wealthy widow who has protective feelings for unwed mothers. She is an Old Girl of St. Hilda’ s, an Anglican school that has just decided to admit boys to the lower grades, and Alice, with her help, gets Jack enrolled, because, she tells him, "You’ll be safe with the girls."
Alice’s confidence on this point rather quickly seems misplaced. At the beginning of his first day at St. Hilda’s, Jack bumps into an older girl, Emma Oastler, who immediately takes an interest in his long eyelashes and then in the rest of him. As she tidies up his school uniform, re-tucking his shirt into his gray Bermuda shorts, she whispers in his ear, "Nice rushy, Jack." Emma is 12 and Jack 5 at the time, and she decides to hasten, or at least observe, his progress toward pubescence.
Almost every day after school, as this odd couple rides home in the chauffeur-driven car Emma’s family sends for her or repairs to Jack’ s room at Mrs. Wicksteed’s, a pattern develops:" ’ How’s the little guy,’ "Emma would invariably ask, and Jack would dutifully show her. ’What are you thinking about, little guy?’ Emma asked his penis once." When Jack is 8, Emma brings her mother’s unlaundered bra to him as food for the little guy’s thoughts, telling Jack that he can smell the offering. When he asks why, Emma says: "Just try it, baby cakes. You never know what the little guy might like." Irving’s narrator adds: "Boy, was that the truth! (Too bad it would take years for Jack to find that out.)"
Around this point in the novel, some readers may experience a certain sinking sensation. Surely "Until I Find You" can’t have turned into what it increasingly appears to be: a novel about Jack’s little guy. (What happened to tattoos and the missing father?) There must be a reason for all those unappetizing bedroom scenes between Emma and Jack. Is he meant to be that lamentable presence in so many contemporary news stories, a sexually abused child? Irving has not been shy in the past about telling his readers what they should think—particularly strong didactic streaks run through "The Cider House Rules" and "A Prayer for Owen Meany"—but here he leaves the question of Jack’s early sexual indoctri nation murky. When she learns what Jack and Emma have been up to, Alice complains to Mrs. Oastler that Emma has "molested" her son, although she does nothing to keep the two apart. Mrs. Oastler thought "it was not possible for a woman or a girl to molest a man or a boy; whatever games Emma had played with Jack, he’d probably liked them."
Readers of the book may feel_____.
选项
A、happy
B、tragic
C、depressed
D、unacceptable
答案
C
解析
从文章介绍的小说内容来看,读者会感到一种压抑和沮丧。故选C。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/uvpO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
NoEnglishmanbelievesinworkingfrombooklearning.Hesuspectseverythingnew,anddislikesit,unlesshecanbecompelle
HowmuchwouldCanadaspendeachyearonclimatechangeinthe2020saccordingtothenewanalysis?
Dr.StephenBritchkowpreferstoseeclientsintheirhomesorofficesforthefollowingreasonsEXCEPT
Women’smindsworkdifferentlyfrommen.Atleast,thatiswhat【M1】______mostmenareconvincedof.Psychologistsvi
A、Thisisaninternationalconference.B、ThisisanacademicConference.C、Thisisaformaloccasion.D、Thelanguageusedinthi
A、Attractinggoodstaff.B、Themanynewideasthatweregenerated.C、Hisknowledgeofcomputersoftware.D、Raisingenoughfunds.
A、Inthestudentrecreationcenter.B、Inthecampusdininghall.C、Intheuniversitybookstore.D、Inaclassroom.B在对话的一开头,女生就抱怨
Inbusiness,manyplacesadoptacreditsystem,whichdatesbacktoancienttimes.Atpresent,purchasescanbemadebyusingcr
Note-TakingI.Whytotakenotes?—Notesareanaidtomemory.Therearesystemof(1)_____andrecallingtheinformationyouwil
Whydidtheballoonattemptfail?
随机试题
A.淀粉B.D-葡萄糖C.L-鼠李糖D.D-果糖E.麦芽糖属于多聚糖的是
A、Itcarriedpassengersleavinganisland.B、AterroristforcedittolandonTenerife.C、Itcrashedwhenitwascirclingtolan
党在过渡时期的总路线和总任务是【】
女性,33岁,G2P2,3年前末次分娩行产钳助产术,近半年来阴道口有肿物脱出。查体宫颈及部分宫体脱出阴道口外,伴阴道壁明显脱垂,子宫大小正常,双附件(一)。治疗方式应选择
上后牙3/4冠轴沟的位置为
某贸易公司从境外进口一批图书,甲省乙市海关(位于乙市丙区)在例行检查时,发现该批图书中夹杂一批走私光盘,于是没收了光盘,并对该公司罚款2万元。若该贸易公司不服海关处罚应向()起诉。
一般资料:求助者,女性,27岁,公司职员。案例介绍:求助者不合群,经常和父母、同事、客户发生矛盾,人际关系紧张。最近又因琐事与同事发生矛盾,很生气,也为此痛苦,主动来心理咨询。下面是心理咨询师与求助者的一段咨询谈话。心理咨询师:你认
(2014年单选25)根据现行宪法,我国县级以上地方各级审计机关依法独立行使审计监督权。下列表述中,正确的是()。
Visitorstothezoousuallypitytheanimalsowingtotheirparticularemotionalassociations(联想).Whichanimalsshouldbeindee
Whenstudentsarechoosingdifferentclubs,theyaretoldthatitisbettertobeamemberofagroupthantobetheleaderofa
最新回复
(
0
)