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Books and Arts;Book Review;New American fiction;Tainted love;“Dirt”by DAVID VANN.
文藝；書評；一部新的美國小說；墮落的愛；《丑事》大衛·范恩著。
DAVID VANN’s first short-story collection, “Legend of a Suicide”, was an arresting meditation on life after his father killed himself, seen through the prism of fiction. His 2011 novel, “Caribou Island”, similarly retraced the Alaskan landscape of his youth to consider the disintegration of a family in the wake of a parent’s suicide. Though informed by fact, those two extraordinary books highlighted the power of fiction and the role of the imagination in the unceasing struggle to explain a tragedy.
《自殺傳奇》，大衛·范恩的第一部短片小說集，是作者的父親自殺后作者對生活的深沉反思。大衛·范恩2011年的小說《卡布里島》也是一樣的調調，里面有作者的出生地，阿拉斯加的美景，還有自殺的父親，以及父親自殺后那支離破碎的家庭。小說雖然基于事實而作，但是在這兩部非比尋常的小說里，虛構和幻想的力量不容忽視，因為在描述悲劇的過程之中，虛構和幻想在推動小說的持續發展上起了重要作用。
There is no suicide in Mr Vann’s new novel, “Dirt”. But this work makes it clear that broken families, and the violence and destruction that love can wreak, continue to be his abiding themes.
范恩先生的新作，《丑事》，并沒有自殺這一回事，但是這本書講得很清楚，愛可能導致家庭破碎，暴力還有破壞。這也是范恩先生不變的主題。
At 22, Galen still lives with his controlling and emotionally dependent mother in the secluded California house she grew up in. Their home together is suffused by memories of her abusive father, her apparently senile mother and decades of accumulated hurt, guilt and denial. Galen’s crusty aunt and nubile teenage cousin drift in and out of their lives and Galen’s fantasies. Meanwhile Galen, a deeply unhappy young man, plots his escape—if not from his family, then at least from his own body.
伽林，都22歲了，還跟他媽住一起。他媽是個控制狂，情感還不獨立。他們住的房子還是他媽長大的地方。房子位于加利福尼亞，周圍并沒有多少人出沒。這個家是一個充滿記憶的地方，他媽的爸爸是個虐待狂，他媽的媽媽是個老不死，幾十年了，不缺的是傷痛、內疚和背棄。伽林的姑媽，脾氣暴躁，伽林的表妹，到了該結婚的年紀，她們倆經常出沒伽林還有他媽的生活，當然了還有伽林的性幻想里。同時，伽林，一個純粹的苦逼少年，謀劃著怎樣的“越獄”——如果不是從家里逃出來，那么最起碼也要突破自己的軀殼。
This seething and unwieldy family decides to take a trip to an old cabin in the Sierras, which handily brings the drama to a boil. “How many times had they put the world back together?” wonders Galen: “Why not let it fall apart and stay apart, why not let the truth happen?” So builds the dreadful climax and dark denouement of this brilliant narrative.
這個躁動、笨重的家庭，決定去旅行，目的地是寒拉斯一舊房子。這一決定直接性地把劇情推向了高潮。“是有多少回啊，他們把這個世界給整到一起去？” 伽林好奇：“為什么就不能夠順其自然，分了就分了，各過各的，為什么真相就是不能夠露個臉呢？”于是，可怕的高潮來了，故事在精彩的敘述中，黑暗結局。
This is not a relaxing or consoling book. The reader feels some sympathy for Galen, whose suffering turns him into a bulimic and self-hating depressive. But he is also unremittingly selfish, deluded and abhorrent. He gives flesh to the notion that the victim eventually becomes the aggressor; that life taints and ruins, rather than redeems.
讀這本書，并不會讓人感覺輕松，或是得到某種安慰。讀者會感覺很同情伽林。伽林真苦，他都厭食癥了，不想吃東西，自怨自艾，消沉。但是他時不時地表現出自私的模樣，逃避現實，很討厭。受害者最終會變成攻擊者，生活既然已經腐蝕了，那索性就腐爛到底吧，管它什么玩意的救贖。對于這一理論，伽林演繹的是有血有肉。
The dirt of the title represents the final, violent sequence between Galen and his mother. But filth lies all over this novel: the tantalising young cousin who abuses Galen and then sleeps with him; the mother who adores and abhors the boy she brought into the world; and ultimately the muddied and muddled mind of Galen himself.
書名丑事，暗含伽林和他媽之間注定的、暴力的結局。但是骯臟始終貫穿小說：誘人犯罪的表妹虐待伽林，并跟他上床；老媽對兒子是既愛又恨，恨的是他老爸當初怎么沒把他射到墻上；最后是渾渾噩噩的伽林自己，一團糟。
This is a novel of violence, destruction and ruin. There is no salvation. And yet Mr Vann’s soaring writing carries it forward—a reminder of the beauty that can grace even the beastliest things.
這是一部關于暴力，破壞和墮落的小說，沒有所謂的救贖。但是范恩先生高超的寫作卻讓這部小說上升到了另外一個高度——美麗的提示可以使一切變得優雅，包括那最丑陋的東西。
