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文藝板塊
Book review
書評
British fiction
英國小說
Down to Brixton
去布里克斯頓
Pomeranski. By Gerald Jacobs.
波美蘭斯基。作者：杰拉爾德·雅各布斯
Vincent Van Gogh once lived in Brixton, where the fledgling artist fell in love with his landlady’s daughter. Formerly famous as a hub of post-war British Caribbean life, more recently a magnet for gentrifying hipsters, the south London neighbourhood boasts a rich cultural history. Until now, though, the area’s literary chroniclers have overlooked the Jewish families who settled in the place Gerald Jacobs calls a “dynamic urban village”.
文森特·梵高曾經(jīng)住在布里克斯頓，在那里，這位初出茅廬的藝術(shù)家愛上了房東太太的女兒。布里克斯頓曾經(jīng)作為戰(zhàn)后英屬加勒比海生活的中心而聞名，最近則是吸引貴族潮人們的磁石，它位于倫敦南部，擁有豐富的文化歷史。然而，直到現(xiàn)在，該地區(qū)的文學(xué)編年史都忽略了定居在這里的猶太人家庭，杰拉爾德·雅各布斯稱這個地方為“充滿活力的城市村莊”。
A long-serving literary editor of Britain’s Jewish Chronicle, Mr Jacobs has written a spirited and entertaining novel of Brixton in the mid-20th century, peopled with characters who balance on a knifeedge between “l(fā)egit gesheft” (above-board business) and more rackety sorts of enterprise. At times, it reads almost like a lowkey, south-of-the-Thames version of “The Sopranos”, but with slices of Bakewell tart in place of Sicilian cannoli.
作為英國猶太編年史的長期文學(xué)編輯，雅各布斯先生在20世紀(jì)中葉寫了一本充滿活力和娛樂性的關(guān)于布里克斯頓的小說，書中的人物性格在“合法的事業(yè)”（正大光明的業(yè)務(wù)）和更多的敲詐勒索的事業(yè)之間保持平衡。有時，它讀起來幾乎像是《黑道家族》發(fā)生在泰晤士河以南的一個低調(diào)版本，但用幾片貝克韋爾餡餅代替西西里大炮。
After the death of Benny Pomeranski in 2000 his son Simon—who has swapped the retail hustles of his parents’ generation for the more genteel profession of drama lecturer— learns about the misadventures that shaped his father’s life. Benny, along with his pals, migrated south from the warbattered streets of the East End (a more familiar stamping-ground for earlier Jewish novelists of London). In Brixton, Benny and his wife Bertha make a decent living from their dress shop, Pomeranski Gowns, but his heart lies with a group of friends who meet in the Astoria café.
本尼·波梅蘭斯基2000年去世后，他的兒子西蒙——從父母那一代的閑散生活轉(zhuǎn)變成了一個更為優(yōu)雅的戲劇演講者職業(yè)——了解了那些他父親生活的種種不幸。 本尼和他的朋友們，從倫敦東區(qū)飽受戰(zhàn)火蹂躪的街道向南遷移（倫敦早期猶太小說家更熟悉的地方）。在布里克斯頓，本尼和他的妻子伯莎靠他們的服裝店波美蘭斯基禮服過著體面的生活，但他的心卻寄托在一群在阿斯托利亞咖啡館見過的朋友身上。
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