喬納森弗蘭岑新作充滿神祕
Jonathan Franzen’s fans will have plenty to read next year. There’s a forthcoming biography of the author by Philip Weinstein, an English professor at Swarthmore College. And in September, Farrar, Straus & Giroux will release Mr. Franzen’s fifth novel, “Purity.”
明年，喬納森·弗蘭岑(Jonathan Franzen)的粉絲們有福了。他的傳記即將出版，作者是斯沃思莫爾學院的英語教授菲利普·溫斯坦(Philip Weinstein)。明年9月，法勒、斯特勞斯&吉魯出版社(Farrar, Straus & Giroux)還將出版弗蘭岑的第五部小說《普麗蒂》(Purity)。
Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, described “Purity” as a multigenerational American epic that spans decades and continents. The story centers on a young woman named Purity Tyler, or Pip, who doesn’t know who her father is and sets out to uncover his identity. The narrative stretches from contemporary America to South America to East Germany before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and hinges on the mystery of Pip’s family history and her relationship with a charismatic hacker and whistleblower.
法勒、斯特勞斯&吉魯出版社的主席、出版人喬納森·加拉西(Jonathan Galassi)說，《普麗蒂》是一部縱貫數十年、橫跨幾個大陸、貫穿幾代人的美國史詩。主人公是一個名叫普麗蒂·泰勒(Purity Tyler，小名皮普[Pip])的年輕女子，她不知道自己的父親是誰，動身去查清他的身份。故事從當代美國追溯到南美以及柏林牆倒塌前的東德，圍繞皮普家族的神祕歷史以及她與一位頗具領袖魅力的黑客與揭發者的關係展開。Like Mr. Franzen’s best-sellers “Freedom” and “The Corrections,” which have each sold well over a million copies, his new novel tackles big themes like sexual politics, love and parenthood. But the novel also marks a stylistic departure for Mr. Franzen, Mr. Galassi said.
弗蘭岑的小說《自由》(Freedom)和《糾正》(The Corrections)都賣了100多萬冊。和這兩本暢銷小說一樣，他的新小說也是探索性政治、愛情和親情等宏大主題。但是加拉西說，新小說還標誌着弗蘭岑在文體方面的新嘗試。
“There’s a kind of fabulist quality to it,” he said. “It’s not strict realism. There’s a kind of mythic undertone to the story.”
“它有一種寓言意味，”他說，“不是嚴格的現實主義。故事有一層神祕色彩。”Mr. Franzen, who has a famously tortured creative temperament, spent the last two years working intensely on “Purity,” Mr. Galassi said. It’s his first novel since “Freedom” came out in 2010, though he’s published an essay collection and a translation of essays by the author Karl Kraus in the interim.
弗蘭岑以慢工出細活著稱。加拉西說，他在過去兩年裏專心創作《普麗蒂》。這是他在2010年出版《自由》之後的第一本小說，不過他在其間出版了一個文集和一本卡爾·克勞斯(Karl Kraus)的譯文集。Mr. Weinstein’s biography, titled “Jonathan Franzen: The Comedy of Rage,” will explore “Franzen’s metamorphoses as a person and as a writer” and includes an analysis of “Purity.” It was written with Mr. Franzen’s consent and cooperation, Mr. Weinstein said.
溫斯坦的傳記《喬納森·弗蘭岑：憤怒的喜劇》(Jonathan Franzen: The Comedy of Rage)將探索“弗蘭岑的個人和寫作蛻變過程”，包括對《普麗蒂》的分析。溫斯坦說，傳記寫作得到了弗蘭岑的同意與合作。
