Death and the Penguin, 讣 告 与 企 鹅

开一瓶红酒，一起进食，一群好朋友可以共享一顿饭局。看书却是一种很一个人的活动。当然在中学时的英文课，偶而老师吩咐我们阅读某一章的指定读物。又或者老师会叫某个同学站起来大声读某一段。我、一班同学和英文老师打造了《The wind and the Willow》，《Animal Farm》等等的想象世界。那时那是我群体阅读的经验。

毕竟长大后很多时候都是一个人行事，而且长大后我须要自己一个人才能专心，所以阅读变成很孤独的活动。最近想一周看一本书。这个每周计划也蛮顺利。我又读完一本充满黑色幽默的《Death and the Penguin》。

事先我没有了解过作者Andrey Kurkov的生平，可能在畅销书排行榜看过他的名字但是也不确定。想看这本书是因为在游览书店时看见非常吸引我的封面。那是大部份黑与白、轮廓简单化的设计，大大引起我的注意。插图的作者是Ian Bilbey。他的风格有点像和田诚和村上春树和著的爵士群像。Ian Bilbey用色强烈及鲜艳，Paul Smith是主要的客户。对于Andrey Kurkov的《Death and the Penguin》，Ian Bilbey，太多颜色只会破坏那孤寂的感觉和黑色幽默的世界。

以企鹅为宠物已经很怪鸡。小说的主角想有一天完成一本小说，和一些短篇小说但是这之前他离奇地成为了某报章的讣告作者。他孤独一人的生活开始生色。之后他渐渐发现他写的讣告象相士预告未来生死一样的死令，生活不再简单，反而是象被人一步一步推进无可回头的深渊。

很多时候故事的结局不很重要，其情节和作者的叙述才是精髓，像《海边的卡夫卡》，那个阅读过程非常享受。有一晚巧遇Kei，突然兴起，我和他聊《Kafka on the Shore》，大家一致认为ending不是很重要。之前一个人孤单地K书，5周来看了5本书，这些日子也算孤单一人。终于在K完之后能够和友人谈论，之前孤寂的努力也算没白费。现在是不可能回到从前像课堂一样大家一起念书、看书的日子，所以看书这活动是得一个人做。当然，如果想一想，可以和情人在被窝里一起看书，甚至可以读同一本书，但是我不相信这个念头。我情愿浸淫在这美丽的幻想：长大长胖后的我们，回到课堂，叫老师给我们上上课，或就拿本书大家一起念，去找回当初白鞋时代青葱的滋味。

Death the Penguin, Andrey Kurkov, The Harvill Press, 2002 paperback edition.http://www.ianbilbey.com 这个令我有如此回忆的英文老师是Miss Mok。

In The Miso Soup

2006年5月20日星期六凌晨2点钟，我看完了Ryu Murakami (村上龙) 的《In The Miso Soup》。180页，英文版。有类似漫画书的封面(有些人以为我在看漫画) ，它是一本新书。

还未来伦敦前，在中国青少年新世纪读书网 (http://www.cnread.net) 下载电子中文版的《近似无限透明的蓝》。读了几行就没有再继续。可能是看电子书太累人。又或许当时不懂谁是村上龙，所以就没什么有兴趣。但是最近发着Murakami的烧，殃及村上龙，选了英文版《In the Miso Soup》来读。

第一，也谈不上花什么心思去选。在书店闲逛看见这本书在做3 for 2的折扣，已经蠢蠢欲动想买。在图书馆看到这本新上书架的书就马上就借。第二，不是因为要学好英文所以要看英文书，也不是要装品味，只因为从成为图书馆会员到借书都不用花钱。我心想，在英国工作2年，也交了不少税，现在总算有些没有白交的感觉。

2月头搬到Roehampton，家斜对面就是间图书馆。要不是图书馆这么近，要不是不用花半分钱，我也不会去得那样勤。28岁，创了一个不须要炫耀、记下来也不坏的纪录：

9/3/06 Kafka on the Shore
23/3/06 Hey Nostradamus!
29/4/06 A Wild Sheep Chase
4/5/06 South of the Border, West of the Sun
9/5/06 The Butterfly Tattoo
20/5/06 In the Miso Soup

从《寻羊冒险记》开始的小说都是借的。借书期限为3个星期，所以象火车一样在追。终于在凌晨读完《In the Miso Soup》。现在是凌晨4时55分。我失眠。咖啡不想喝，烟不想抽。闲着没事做，或许写些什么，做些生产。

6时22分。之前有顶点的困却完全没有睡意。然后就去泡热水。以前住New Malden时非常喜欢泡热水澡。有时会同时收听电台，或听Sarah McLachlan 的《Mirorball》或Dave Brubeck的《Time Out》。更多时候是静静的什么都不想，让肌肉完全松弛。刚才泡热水澡时睡意渐浓，开始幻想如果能够泡着热水在浴缸睡一觉美的也不错。但是不睡的意识也很强。像拔河一样，我是中点，左边是要睡的天使，右边当然是失眠的夜鬼。突然间想起《In the Miso Soup》，没什么睡意了。
刚开始进入《In the Miso Soup》的世界不是很投入，而且速度也很慢，因为有这种“真的是这样的吗” 的感觉。之后有看个究竟的冲动，所以加速兼走进主角Kenji的悬疑世界。虽然是小说，村上龙对日本民族的社会心态的描述近似事实，相当满足我的崇日欲望。

如果喜欢《In the Miso Soup》，你可能也会喜欢Douglas Coupland的《Hey Nostradamus! 》，个人比较喜欢《In the Miso Soup》。待我看完 Bret Easton Ellis的《American Psycho》，再做比较。

Time out, South of the Border, West of the Sun.

I was on page 125, about to start the 12th chapter of South of the Border, West of the Sun, another brilliant and laid-back book of Haruki Murakami’s. I came to a pause. How about putting on some music? I thought . So I played Time Out, by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. My housemate just bought a nothing-special not-very-famous-brand home theater system. Anyway it was good enough for me to listen to music and see DVDs.

And then I went back to the world of South of the Border, West of the Sun, with a cup of black coffee ready at right temperature. A cigarette? Might be later.

A sudden thought of adding music to this book had struck me, like composing a music score for a blockbuster movie. Of course, Time Out was not the exact match to South of the Border, West of the Sun. What I really meant was the tone of the music did not actually carried out the mood of the book. The only linkage was that the music was jazzy and the book was indulged in a world of jazz. Anyway I finished the chapter fast.

I loved the story, as much as I loved this album. I always thought that I would love the track ‘Take Five’ most. I was afraid of things would change easily and nothings ever stayed the same. Anyhow, things did change, like I preferred the next track, which was ‘Three to Get Ready’.
I gazed out through the living room windows. The sky was partially cloudy. It showed no hints of how good or how bad the weather would be. I meant it was just an ordinary morning, like when you waked up in the morning from the long sleep and felt nothing extraordinary would happen. Sometimes the hue of the surrounding would change, when the mild sunshine came through the clouds. Bizarre. We always mention ‘moving clouds’, but we hardly see its motion. Sometimes we only know their motion by judging the appearing and disappearing of the mild sunshine. Anyway, I thought, the weather of this morning was perfectly laid-back, like a lazy student had forgotten his homework. It was not that type of weather you can call it sunny, cloudy, or rainy. It felt like as if the cloud was too jealous to let me got enough of warm sunshine, but I felt good because the warmth I felt on my skin was not violent. And its inherent ambiguity had made me difficult to forecast.

I looked up at the wall clock and it was 10 past twelve. The day became brighter and the energy which the sunshine carried is higher. So it should be an end of this beautiful morning. When did this beautiful morning have silently begun? Was it an hour ago? Was it at eleven something? I was not very sure, because before I realized things had begun in the middle of something. But I was very conscious about the end. Always. I would always check the ending page to see its page number without reading the end. I would get a slightly hint of pleasure of accomplishment by knowing how far till the end. Surprisingly, when I checked the end page of South of the Border, West of the Sun, and of course, without reading the last sentence of the book, there was a date written after the last paragraph. It was ‘16/7/00’, handwritten with pencil. It stirred my mind. A good friend of mine lent this book to me. I did not think that he was that type of person would compile a list of the books he had read with the date shown at next column, and it had nothing to do with showing off like the restaurant guestbook signed by thousands of customers. Isn’t it a mere feeling of nostalgia to have written down the date of finishing a book? I thought to myself. Of course I did not know when I would finish the book, but it would be soon, just like the beautiful track would end soon.

A Wild Sheep Chase

曾经有个时候看不下村上春树的书了。可能是枯燥的生活和他小说的意境挺吻合。又有可能不是。口味这回事时常在变。林青霞在《重庆森林》里对着金城武在脑里自言自语，“其实了解一个人并不代表什么。今天他喜欢凤梨，明天他可以喜欢别的。” 可能和村上春树的世界疏远很久，那股想自投罗网的冲动又来了。因此，紧接《海边的卡夫卡》，我看了(还是英文版的) 《寻羊冒险记》。当然，现在讨论这本书好像发霉的面包一样过时，但求有些人能有些复古的心态，例如我。

说真的，也谈不上什么讨论，更不是以评论的心态出发，只是像病人一样不吐不快。

有些情节不可思议。但是，毕竟是虚构的小说世界，少一点想象力就会没趣。我很喜欢村上先生这样不着边际说故事的方法。《寻羊冒险记》的主干比起《海边的卡夫卡》容易明白得多，老套地说，前者是河，后者是海。读书背的故事大纲，可以三言两语交代，但是这并不能代表什么。就好象同样的Marlboro light，Scarlett Johansson 和Audrey Tautou抽，就是感觉和视觉效果不同的两回事。以前很迷卫斯理的小说，觉得故事很离奇。长大后，我只读封底的故事大纲。我也很惊奇自己的改变，而且是那种会不到以前的改变。

村上先生的小说人物，多数是逃避枯燥无比的现实社会的类似败者的人，感觉象，这些人物会是说‘你有一百万又怎样’ 的人。可能我也有这种不平衡的心态，所以迷上了村上先生的小说世界。

我喜欢《寻羊冒险记》的结尾。我喜欢老鼠因为自己的弱点而结束这一切。大多数人是因为他们的强点把他们带到美好的境界。有些人不是这样的。有些人知道自己的弱点，知道这弱点会长期跟随着他，所以选择另一条路。例如我，知道自己太依赖家人、太想念朋友，所以决定去冒险。
无论如何，我再一次闯进村上春树的世界，发现有一些自己喜欢的东西是不会过时的，像我喜欢小红莓乐队的音乐，像我喜欢《重庆森林》。

ps: I read A Wild Sheep Chase with the paper cover back you see above. No Need to Argue is one of my favourite album. and Chungking Express is my type of movie.