故事和人物很明显聚焦于不同时代的几类人在纽约的生活。在异乡的中国人,有的侥幸逃过文革却丧失挚友,有的被纽约的浮华吞噬、渐渐忘却自己的身份,有的在患难中遇见真善美、找到爱和温暖。白先勇没有很鲜明的文笔特征,但读着读着就是会不自觉地深深地走入他笔下人物的内心。also i realized how little i know about 中国政治和历史
我是带着蔡康永的口气去读白先勇的书的,因为觉得字里行间都会透露出一种顾影自怜。写李彤的那篇还是有点青涩,到了写tea for two的时候就很流畅了。如果稍微用国内的角度去看,这些去国之���不是mit就是nyu,也未免过于stereotype了。白先勇大概是民国最后一个遗民吧,书中所反应的思考和矛盾与清初的遗民没什么两样,虽然思想性并不够高,但立意是要去记录故国人物,其实这些人都没有生活在美国,在小说的环境中这些人物都还是生活在一个过去的小圈子里,这就是白先勇的追思和记录。到了蔡康永这里,就只剩顾影自怜了。
Although six stories collected in this book are all about "exiles" in New York City, I do find a lack of unifying theme in this book compared to that of Taipei People.
The prose is decisively 20th century, almost a bit outdated. By that I just mean I could very much see some parts of it being included in Chinese textbooks along the works of Lu Sun, Lao She in mainland China (except, of course, they wouldn't be). It is for this reason that I did not enjoy the book as much as I'd thought I would, even though every story here is as delicate as it is emotionally engaging. But the reviews/analyses included in the book really elevated the stories for me, by carefully contextualizing them in the 20th century Chinese literature landscape as well as in Bai's own bibliography.
《纽约客》收集了六部短篇小说,描述了一群从上海/台北来到纽约、寻找美国梦的中国人。有���故事发生在六十年代,有些七、八十年代。这群人在中西文化的夹缝中失魂落魄、沉沦堕落。国内的繁华是他们的,而纽约的热闹却与他们无关。Danny Boy和Tea for two讲的是在艾滋病阴影下的同性恋群体(才知道白先生是gay),梦里不知身是客,一晌贪欢。把那种醉生梦死、繁华已逝、今非昔比的悲怆感写得凄美极了。