11. Zadie Smith, White Teeth (2000)
査蒂·史密斯《白牙》(2000年)
Smith, then a 23-year-old prodigy, wowed the literary world with her first novel, which introduced a writer of inimitable wit and scope. White Teeth, which won Whitbread and Guardian first book awards, is set in London, where Archie Jones and Samal Iqbal, friends who met while serving in WWII, have settled to raise their families. Smith opens as Archie, divorced by his second wife, sits in his "fume-filled Cavalier Musketeer Estate face down on the steering wheel". He's chosen suicide on New Year's Day 1975, his car parked in front of a halal butcher's shop, only to be saved by the owner. As White Teeth unfolds, it is chockablock with vivid scenes and characters, a portrait of postcolonial multicultural London: "Children with first and last names on a direct collision course. Names that secrete within them mass exodus, cramped boats and planes, cold arrivals, medical checks", Smith writes. (Vintage)
史密斯在23岁时就凭借处女作《白牙》中独特的智慧和视角而震惊文坛,荣获当年的惠布瑞特最佳处女作奖和《卫报》最佳处女作奖。《白牙》的故事背景是伦敦,讲述的是二战战友阿吉·琼斯和萨马·伊克巴尔两个家庭的悲欢离合。《白牙》以阿吉结束第二次婚姻开头,1975年的元旦,“他坐在充满浓烟的骑士火枪手牌旅行车里,脸朝下,趴在方向盘上”。他将车停靠在一家清真肉铺的门口,做好了自杀的准备,最后被屠夫救下了。随着故事展开,作者给我们呈现了后殖民时代多元文化并存的伦敦生活,刻画了生动的人物形象。史密斯写道:“孩子们的姓名就是文化碰撞的直接展示,隐含了大迁徙、拥挤的飞机船只、寒冷中抵达和医疗检查等意思。”(Vintage出版社)
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