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Books and Arts; Book Review;
New British fiction；
The writer and the spy；
A clever book that leaves you cold；
Sweet Tooth. By Ian McEwan.
At 64, with a Hollywood film, a Man Booker prize and a gong from the queen, Ian McEwan has become a grand old man of British letters. Publication of his latest novel, “Sweet Tooth”, was announced on the evening news. A reading at the Edinburgh book festival was introduced by none other than the first minister, Alex Salmond.
64歲那年，帶著被改編成的好萊塢電影，伊恩.麥克萬從女王的手里接過了布克獎和獎章。成為英國的最年長的作者。晚間新聞報道了他最新出版的小說《甜蜜的牙齒》。在愛丁堡圖書節的一次讀書會上，竟然是首席部長阿列克斯.薩爾蒙德推薦了這本小說。
For all the attendant publicity, “Sweet Tooth” is not Mr McEwan's finest book. It has neither the darkness of “The Comfort of Strangers” nor the passion of “Enduring Love”, nor even the forensic observation that made “On Chesil Beach” such an uncomfortable and memorable read. It is a clever book—ostensibly about spying, yet really about writers and the alchemy of fiction. But it is also curiously forgettable. What it lacks is not so much an animating spirit, as a heart.
對于所有的參賽作品來說，《甜蜜的牙齒》并不是麥克萬最棒的書。它既沒有《舒適的陌生人》的那種陰郁，也沒有《永恒的愛》那么的激情，甚至沒有那種使《在Chesil的海灘》成為令人忐忑，卻難以忘卻的書的法醫的觀察。這是一本智慧的書——表面看似是關于諜報活動的，其實它是講作者和小說的魔力。但是，說來奇怪，它也容易被忘掉。它缺少的是沒有令人心跳般地虎虎生機。
The novel is set in 1972, a pivotal year in post-war British history, when a series of bloody IRA bombings and debilitating miners' strikes seemed to presage the political and economic chaos that would mark the rest of the decade. Farther afield, the cold war stumbled on, as East and West battled for cultural influence.
小說的故事設定在1972年，英國歷史上戰后的最關鍵的一年，一連串的北愛爾蘭共和軍的流血爆炸，虛弱礦工的罷工似乎預示著政治和經濟的大亂，那混亂也許充斥那個年代的剩下的整個時間。遠方，冷戰磕磕碰碰地繼續著，就像東西方為了文化影響戰斗一樣。
In her final year at Cambridge—nest of an earlier generation of spies—Serena Frome (rhymes with “plume”, the reader is swiftly told, for no discernible reason) has an affair with an older man, who helps recruit her to become a junior spy. At the time the West was spending millions spreading anti-Soviet propaganda, and America was bankrolling newspapers and broadcasters like Radio Free Europe. Serena, a compulsive reader of fiction, is sent on a secret mission to convert a promising young novelist, Tom Haley, to the cause.
劍橋是這個早先一代間諜的的老窩。Serena Frome （與”plume”押韻，給讀者一帶而過，沒有別的意思。）在劍橋的最后一年，和一個老頭之間有段韻事，老頭協助招募她，使她成了一位初級間諜。那時，西方花費數百萬用于反蘇宣傳，美國資助著報紙和廣播，如自由歐洲電臺等。一位癡迷小說的讀者，Serena身負著神秘使命，被送去策反年輕有為的小說家 Tom Haley到這事業來。
The two become lovers. Their hedonistic affair is full of Chablis and long discussions about famous writers and publishers of the time (Martin Amis, Tom Maschler). The book chugs along this way until the end, when Mr McEwan delivers an unwieldy denouement and some unearned sadness. By then it is hard to feel much of anything for these heroes, who are all notions and no depth.
這兩個成了戀人，他們享受著花天酒地，久久地討論著當時知名的作家和出版商（如Martin Amis, Tom Maschler）。這本書遵循著這條線索，跌宕起伏，一直到結束，這時麥克萬寫出了繁瑣的結尾和一些順理成章的傷感。直到此刻我們也很難感受到這些英雄的什么事跡，雖然他們一直貫穿始終，但沒有深度。
