2012年1月25日星期三

一个小说家理查德耶茨的路

伊丽莎白文南




The Los Angeles Times, July 9, 1989 “洛杉矶时报”7月9日,1989年



It was the kind of propitious beginning that most young writers can only dream about, and, by all counts, it should have signaled a career of celebrity and honors. 这是吉利开始,最年轻的作家只能梦想的,而且,从各方面来说,它应该有信号的名人和荣誉的职业生涯。 Richard Yates was 36 years old and his first novel, "Revolutionary Road,"published in 1961, had garnered not the elliptical adjectives that constitutethe usual dust-jacket blurbs, but whole sentences, an entire trumpeting paragraph, from no less than the country's pre-eminent living playwright,Tennessee Williams: 理查德耶茨是36岁和他的第一部小说,“革命之路”在1961年出版,已囊括不是在椭圆形的形容词通常constitutethe尘土夹克blurbs,但整个句子,一个整个鼓吹段,从不下该国的前卓越的生活剧作家田纳西威廉姆斯 :





"Here is more than fine writing; here is what, added to fine writing, makes a book come immediately, intensely, and brilliantly alive. If more is needed to make a masterpiece in modern American fiction, I am sure I don't know what it is." “这里是比罚款写作;这里是什么,补充罚款写作,使一本书马上激烈,精辟地活着,如果有更多的需要,使现代美国小说中的杰作,我相信我不知道。 它是什么。“ Since then, a veritable Who's Who of writers has jumped in with ebullient praise for Yates' literary prowess. 从那时起,成为名副其实的谁是谁的作家跃升耶茨“文学实力的热情洋溢的赞誉 。 Kurt Vonnegut has called "Revolutionary Road" " `The Great Gatsby' of my time." 库尔特冯内古特称为“革命之路”“`了不起的盖茨比”我的时间。“ Critic James Atlas declares it's "one of the few novels I know that could be called flawless." 评论家詹姆斯阿特拉斯宣布,它的“我知道,可称为完美无瑕的几个小说之一 。“



Praise From Styron, Updike 斯泰伦,厄普代克的赞誉





Then there are William Styron, John Updike, Anne Beattie, Robert Stone all sounding their admiration for his impeccably crafted prose. 然后有威廉Styron,约翰厄普代克,安妮蒂,罗伯特斯通所有冠冕堂皇的钦佩,为他抹得制作的散文 。



Finally, he has been championed for three decades by Seymour Lawrence,one of the literary Establishment's most respected publishers. 最后,他三十年来一直倡导的西摩劳伦斯文学建立的最受尊敬的出版商之一。



So it seems almost a case of fatal defiance that Yates has managed to slip past the footlights, remaining unknown not only to the masses of popular-novelreaders but to most literate book lovers as well. 因此,看来几乎是致命的蔑视的情况下,耶茨已经成功地滑过去的脚灯,其余未知不仅流行novelreaders的群众,但最有文化的图书爱好者以及的。



His novels have never become big sellers, with 12,000 copies tops for any one book. 他的小说从来没有成为大卖家,12000份任何一本书的上衣 。 But, more, his spartan existence and his lifelong battle with the whiskey bottle have done nothing to make him into the sort of faddish idol a well-scrubbed yuppie could adore. 但是,他简朴的存在和他的终身战斗一瓶威士忌,做任何事情,使之成为风行偶像的排序一个精心挑选的雅痞可以崇拜他。



Therefore, his current recognition has been all the more startling-an event worthy of the author's hallmark irony. 因此,他目前承认了所有更令人吃惊的事件值得作者的标志具有讽刺意味的。 Photographed by his friend Jill Krementz, he stares out soulfully from his writer's tweeds in the current issue of the ultimate celebrity magazine, Fame-the one with Donald Trump on the cover. 由他的朋友吉尔Krementz拍照,他出soulfully最终名人杂志本期盯着他的作家的花呢,功名封面上的川普之一。





Yates calls the appearance "embarrassing." 耶茨调用的外观“的尴尬。” After all, he rarely hasa spare dime, lives without a car and has weathered much of adult lifewithout a television set. 毕竟,他很少哈萨没有车的备用毛钱,生活和经历了成人lifewithout一台电视机 。 Such cynosures of the decade's taste as "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" passed by without his notice. 作为“富人和名人的生活方式”通过十年的味道等cynosures没有他的通知。



Living in Los Angeles, where he is teaching creative writing at the University of Southern California and working on his 10th book of fiction, he holes up in an unadorned apartment where the rented sofa, easy chair, table and lamp form a perfunctory living-room setting. 生活在洛杉矶,他在南加州大学的教学创作和他的小说的第十册的工作,他孔在素朴的公寓里租来的沙发,休闲椅,桌子和灯的形式敷衍客厅设置。 Facing a bare whitewall is the square table on which the author writes. 面对裸whitewall方桌作者写道。





Suffers From Emphysema 患有肺气肿





The principal artifacts are the cigarette butts that fill the ashtrays (despite the fact that Yates suffers from emphysema and lost a lung to an earlier bout with tuberculosis) and clusters of yellow pencils, which he uses to write his manuscript (even the old manual Royal on which he types his pages goes too fast to allow him control). 主要构件的烟蒂,填补烟灰缸(尽管事实上,耶茨患有肺气肿和肺失去了肺结核的早期发作)和黄色的铅笔,这是他用来写他的手稿(甚至老的手动皇家集群他类型他的网页时速度太快,让他控制)。



Three portraits of his daughters, nailed to the wall with exacting symmetry, are the only objects that identify the place as home. 他的女儿,三个人像钉墙与严格的对称,是唯一的对象确定为家的地方。





Yet it is in this anonymous room that Yates is enjoying new discovery. 然而,这是耶茨是享受新发现,在这个匿名的房间。 "Revolutionary Road," along with his 1976 novel, "The Easter Parade," andthe collection of short stories, "Eleven Kinds of Loneliness" (1962), currentlyare being reissued, after all of his titles had drifted out of print. 与他1976年的小说“革命之路”,“复活节游行”,以及短篇小说“十一孤独”(1962)收集,currentlyare被补发了,毕竟他的标题已经偏离打印出来 。 Justthe week before, Esquire magazine bought two chapters of his book in progress. Esquire杂志Justthe一周前,买了两章他在书的进展 。



"It's a shot in the arm," he says of the sale. “这是一针强心剂,”他说,出售 。 Sitting in a neighborhood bistro in West Los Angeles, Yates, 63, is smiling like any successful novelist, declaring: "I am delighted to be interviewed." 坐在在西洛杉矶附近的小酒馆,耶茨,63岁,是微笑像任何一个成功的小说家,宣称:“我很高兴接受采访 “





A tall, gaunt man who speaks in a deep, graveled voice, Yates generally is not prone to such unqualified cheerfulness. 耶茨一个身材高大,面容憔悴的深,砂砾的声音说话的人,一般不容易出现这种不合格的快乐。 His head, which he often anchors on a fist, swings back and forth as he talks in an unconscious gesture of negativity. 他的头,他经常上一个拳头,来回摆动,因为他在无意识的消极姿态会谈锚 。 When friends speak of him, they describe a person of moral, almost puritanical, rectitude, a perfectionist quick to correct errors, a proverbial "gentleman from the old school." 当朋友对他的发言,他们形容一个人的道德,几乎是清教徒,正直,迅速 ​​纠正错误,一个众所周知的一个完美主义者“从旧学校的绅士“。



`People Shy Away' `人们羞于“



"He has values of integrity that are lost in today's glitz and yuppiness, and you pay for that," says Lawrence, who publishes his imprint at HoughtonMifflin. “他已经失去了诚信,在今天的浮华和yuppiness值,您该支付,”劳伦斯说,在HoughtonMifflin发布他的印记。 "People shy away from him because he tells the truth." “人民害羞远离他,因为他道出了实情。”



The truth Yates tells in his books is of unremarkable middle-class American strapped in dreary lives that they nevertheless often confront with courage.In "Revolutionary Road," Yates depicts a disintegrating suburban marriage; his earnest heroine, April Wheeler, who longs for a world of "marvelous golden people," holds on to a husband whom one reviewer has described as "a kind of repellent Walter Mitty." 耶茨在他的书告诉真相是不起眼的中产阶级美国绑在沉闷的生活,但他们往往面临与courage.In“革命之路”,耶茨描绘一个分崩离析的郊区婚姻; 4月惠勒,他认真的女主角 ,为多头世界“神奇的黄金人”,持有“一种驱蚊沃尔特Mitty”到其中一位评论家所述的丈夫 But, true to form for Yates' principal characters, Wheeler is unable to fulfill her aspirations. 但是,真正形成Yates的主要特征,Wheeler是无法满足她的愿望 。



Nor are Yates' other books optimistic. 耶茨“等书籍,也不是乐观的。 "The Easter Parade" opens with the passage, "Neither of the Grimes sisters would have a happy life..." 通过打开“复活节游行”,“既不Grimes的姐妹将有一个幸福的生活... ...“ and only on the book's final page does Emily Grimes seem to fall into step with the mainstream. ,只在书的的最后一页刘慧卿格赖姆斯似乎陷入与主流的步骤。 In "Eleven Kinds of Loneliness," Yates' short stories portray devastating moments of unwanted solitude. 在“11种寂寞,”耶茨的短篇小说描绘不必要的孤独的毁灭性的时刻 。

` `



'Gray, Deathly World' “灰色,死一般的世界”





Just how dim a picture he gives of everyday life is a matter of critical opinion. 究竟如何暗淡的日常生活提供了一张照片,他是一个问题的批评意见 。 Writing in Nation, Joyce Carol Oates has called Yates' fictional universe "a sad, gray, deathly world." 在国家写作,乔伊斯卡罗奥茨称为耶茨的“虚构的宇宙”一个可悲的,灰色,死一般的世界。 “



Critic and novelist Carolyn See, who has reviewed two of Yates' books, wrote eight years ago: "He's not going to get the recognition he truly deserves because to read Yates is as painful as getting all your teeth filled down to the gum with no anesthetic. . . ." 批评家和小说家卡罗琳见,谁已审查Yates的书,写了八年前:“他的不是去得到他真正值得的认可,因为来读耶茨是为所有你的牙齿填补下来,没有对牙龈痛苦麻醉。“



So it's little wonder that when asked about "Revolutionary Road," the author himself fires off, "You found it depressing, didn't you?" 因此,难怪时,问:“革命之路”,作者本人火灾关闭,“你发现它令人沮丧的,没有你?” Everybody does-or almost. 每个人都这样或接近。



Yates supporter William Styron takes exception to that evaluation. 耶茨的支持者威廉Styron异常评价。 "You don't use the word depressing as a criterion for the excellence of a book," Styron declares. “你不使用这个词作为一个令人沮丧的一本书的卓越标准,”斯泰隆声明 。 "A lot of remarkable books that we all value very highly are depressing. And I didn't find it depressing; it rises above that." “一个显着的书籍,我们所有的价值非常高是令人沮丧的的很多,我没有发现它令人沮丧。以上,上升 “



"I hope he gets more attention," adds Styron, who contributed the cover blurb for the new edition of "Revolutionary Road": "A deft, ironic, beautiful novel that deserves to be a classic." “我希望他得到更多的关注,补充说:”斯泰隆,谁促成“革命之路”的新版本覆盖的Blurb:“一个轻巧,具有讽刺意味的,美观新颖,不愧为一个经典。 “





Downbeat Look at Life 在生命的悲观看





Still, Lawrence, who advanced Yates $1,500 to write "Revolutionary Road," thinks that his downbeat look at life has impeded commercial success."His books are grim portrayals of life in America. People want to be cheered up and entertained." 不过,劳伦斯,先进耶茨1500美元写“革命之路”,认为他在生命的悲观看阻碍了商业上的成功。“他的书在美国严峻的生活写照,人们要欢呼起来并宴请。 “





"He's a very angsted novelist," his old friend Vonnegut says; besides, he points out, Yates writes about people who are "third-rate financially" and "the Harvard Business School people want winners." “他是一个非常angsted小说家,”他的老朋友冯内古特说,此外,他指出,耶茨有关谁是“三流的财政”和的人写道:“哈佛商学院的人都希望获奖者。“





Nevertheless, Yates' buddies have repeatedly tried to heave him up before the crowds. 不过,耶茨“哥们曾多次试图冻胀之前,他的人群。 Four of his books were chosen as Book of the Month Club selections, sent to as many as half-a-million households. 他的书被选为本月会选择书,发送到多达一半是万家庭。 "We tried everything at Delacorte," says Lawrence, who formerly had his imprint there, "but we never could reach a huge audience." “我们试图在Delacorte一切,”劳伦斯说,以前他的印记,“但我们绝不可能达到一个巨大的观众。”



For his part, Vonnegut has proposed Yates three times for membership in the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, with backing by Styron and John Updike. 对于他来说,冯内古特已提出耶茨在美国科学院和艺术和文学学会会员的三倍,斯泰伦和约翰厄普代克的支持 。 But, he says, even the nation's lauded artists and musicians are not necessarily familiar with Richard Yates. 但是,他说,乃至全国的称赞的艺术家和音乐家不一定熟悉理查德耶茨。





To a large degree, Yates' work reflects his life, neither of which have been particularly easy for him to negotiate. 在很大程度上,耶茨的工作,反映他的生活,这两者已特别容易为他谈判 。



"He's had a hard life," says Vonnegut, who's known the author since the '60s when they taught together at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. “他经历了艰苦的生活,说:”冯内古特,谁的已知作者自上世纪60年代,当他们一起任教于爱荷华大学作家工作坊。 He feels hampered by both health and money problems, Vonnegut says. 他认为健康和钱的问题而受到阻碍,冯内古特说。



Yates adds to the list of hardships his two divorces. 耶茨添加到他的两个离婚的艰辛列表 。 ("Anyway, I've got the three daughters, so it can't all be wreckage.") (“无论如何,我有三个女儿,所以它不能全部被飞机残骸。”)





He's been on the wagon for two years, though, he says, "I was much more affable when I was drinking. Now I'm sort of shrunk into myself from the effort to keep from drinking." 他戒酒了两年,但他说,“我更和蔼可亲,当我喝,现在我排序缩水到自己的努力保持从饮用水 。“





Honesty and Irony 诚实和讽刺





Yates talks about his life with a combination of almost bone-crushing honesty and his brand of cool, distanced irony. 耶茨会谈结合几乎骨粉碎诚实和他的酷品牌,关于他的生活渐行渐远的讽刺。 The son of a sales manager in the Mazda lamp division of General Electric, he grew up in New York. 马自达灯师在通用电气的销售经理的儿子,他在纽约长大。 His parents were divorced when he was 3 years old. 他3岁的时候,他的父母离婚。 When asked if his childhood was happy, he says: "Most people looking back believe their childhood was more poignant than anyone else's. So I won't compete with anyone for the poignancy prize. My parents were decent people. My childhood was OK." 当被问及如果他的童年是快乐的,他说:“回头看大多数人相信,他们的童年是比谁的凄美,所以我不会与任何人的辛酸奖竞争,我的父母都是体面的人我的童年“。。。 “



Eager to start writing, he skipped college (as did Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway, he points out) and wound up making a living as a free-lance public relations writer. 急于开始写作,他跳过大学(马克吐温和海明威,他指出)和公共关系作为一个自由撰稿人的生活。





Since then he has paid his bills by teaching creative writing variously at Iowa, Columbia University, and briefly at Harvard Extension and Boston University. 从那时起,他已支付他在艾奥瓦州,哥伦比亚大学的教学创意写作不同的票据,并简要扩展哈佛大学和波士顿大学。





"The business of teaching creative writing offers solace to writers who are down on their luck," he says with deadpan humor, quoting Vonnegut. “创意写作的教学业务提供安慰作家谁是自己的运气,”他说,面无表情的幽默,引用冯内古特 。



When he talks shop, however, Yates' relationship with writers and characters in his novels becomes immediate. 当他会谈店,不过,耶茨“与他的小说作家和字符的关系变得立竿见影 。 April Wheeler, for instance, is "the one who takes your heart and throws it someplace else. She puts her heart into everything. She even put her heart into that silly marriage. I like her enormously. I think she's a wonderful girl. If she were real, I'd find her irresistible." 四月惠勒,例如,“谁需要你的心,并抛出它在别处。她所说到的一切她的心脏。她甚至把到,愚蠢的婚姻她的心脏。我喜欢她的巨大,我觉得她一个美妙的女孩。如果她是真实的,我发现她的不可抗拒的。 “





`My Best Book' “”我最好的书“





"'Revolutionary Road' remains my best book without question," he adds. “”革命之路“仍然是我最好的书,毫无疑问,”他补充说。 "I'm one of these writers who has the misfortune to write his best book first." “我这些作家已不幸先写他的最好的书之一。”





It's such a sense of the sad that often gets Yates compared to F. Scott Fitzgerald. 它的这种意义上的悲哀,常常耶茨相比,菲茨杰拉德 。 "I derive from him more than anyone," says Yates, who discovered his works in the '40s. “我从他比任何人都派生,”耶茨说,谁发现了他的作品在40年代。 "When I was young, he had a false reputation as a popular writer of little substance with one first-class book to his credit." “我年轻的时候,他作为一个受欢迎的作家与一个一流的书,他的功劳小物质虚假声誉。” It took a lot of effort by great explicators, like Edmund Wilson and Malcolm Cowley, he says, to put Fitzgerald on literature's big-hit charts for the duration. 伟大explicators了很多努力,像埃德蒙威尔逊和马尔科姆考利,他说,把文学的大打击图表菲茨杰拉德的持续时间 。



There are other similarities between the two authors, Vonnegut says, pointing out that they look alike and that Fitzgerald had tuberculosis; but mainly there was the same turn of mind. 两位作者之间有其他相似之处,冯内古特说,他指出,他们看起来很像,菲茨杰拉德得了肺结核,但主要是同一回合的心态。



"Yates accomplishes what Fitzgerald did at his best," James Atlas observes, "an evocation of life's unbearable poignance, the way it has of nurturing hope and denying it, often in the same instant." “耶茨完成菲茨杰拉德在他的最好的,”詹姆斯地图集指出,“唤起生命难以承受poignance,培育希望,否认它往往在同一时刻,它的方式 。“ Says Yates of his tendency to see tragedy more than hope: "Something would be wrong if I didn't." 他的倾向比希望更多看到的悲剧耶茨说:“东西是错误的,如果我没有的。 “





He quotes former Israeli diplomat and foreign minister Abba Eban, on the occasion of President John Kennedy's assassination, " `Tragedy is the difference between what is and what might have been.' 他引述前总统约翰肯尼迪遇刺之际,以色列外交官和外长阿巴埃班,“`悲剧的之间的区别是什么和可能已经。 “ To dwell on what might have been is nostalgia, which I think serious writers can easily fall into. Though it's much more satisfactory and more profitable if you can keep your eye on what is." 要纠缠于什么可能已是怀旧,我觉得严重的编写者可以很容易陷入,虽然它的更理想和更有利可图的,如果你能保持你的眼睛是什么 。“





Writes in the Morning 写在早晨



The "what is" of Yates' present life is the simple routine of his work: up at 6 am and writing for five or six hours. “什么是”耶茨“现在的生活对他的工作简单的常规:上午6时和写五六个小时。 "Since I'm getting older the mornings are the only time I have that kind of energy. I get ideas that flow out of the pencil. Afternoons are bad periods for me. The energy's gone." “早上,因为我年纪越来越大,是我唯一一次有那种能量,我得到的想法,流出来的铅笔。下午对我来说是不好的时期。能源的走了。“





His book is almost halfway done, and going well for the moment, though he worries that it's already been four years in the works. 他的书几乎一半,并时刻,但他担心,它已经被四年的作品。 Titled "Uncertain Times," it is drawn from a period of his life in 1963 when he worked as a speech writer for Atty. 这本名为“不确定的时代,”这是来自他的生活在1963年期间,当他为Atty讲话作家工作 。 Gen. Robert Kennedy. 罗伯特肯尼迪的将军。 The title comes from Kennedy's discourse during Yates' hiring interview: "`We're living in very uncertain times, Mr. Yates, and those of us in a position of leadership are obliged to be responsive to issues like civil rights, but at the same time I have a great sense of responsibility here. Do you understand that?' 标题耶茨“聘用采访期间,来自肯尼迪的话语:”'我们生活在非常不确定的时代,耶茨先生,和我们这些在领导地位必须要像公民权利的问题作出反应 ,但在同时我有一个强烈的责任感。你明白吗?“ And I said, `Yes, I do,' without quite knowing what he was talking about," Yates says. 我说,“是的,我这样做,”完全没有知道他在说什么,“耶茨说。





"But the times were uncertain for me. I only took the job because I needed the money, which is an odd thing because everybody else around him was there at some sacrifice of income. I was the only hireling. I never got to know him very well, Mr. Robert Kennedy, but I did write everything that came out of his mouth for eight months. “但时间对我来说不明朗。我只花了工作,因为我需要钱,这是一个奇怪的事情,因为每个人都在他周围其他人有牺牲一些收入。我是唯一的雇工。我从来没有认识他罗伯特肯尼迪先生,但我非常好,没写的一切,来到他的嘴,为8个 ​​月 。



"I hope the title will be ironic." “我希望标题将是具有讽刺意味的的。 “





Yates has ideas for two more novels, which will bring his output close to the 15 books he considers respectable for a lifetime. 耶茨有两个多小说的想法,这将带来他的产量接近的15本书中,他认为一生尊敬的。 "Nobody knows how much time I left," he says, a volcanic cough rumbling up through him every now and then as if to confirm his foreboding. “没有人知道我离开多少时间,”他说,火山咳嗽隆隆通过他的每一个现在,然后仿佛证实了他的预感 。



Later, back in the apartment, he pats a sofa pillow in an idle gesture of domesticity that seems eloquently left over. 后来,他回到公寓,闲置的家庭生活的姿态,这似乎雄辩地遗留在拍一张沙发枕头 。 "Getting out of here is an appealing idea," he says. “从这里,是一个有吸引力的想法,”他说。 "But then, as long as I've lived, getting out of wherever I am has seemed an appealing idea. I've learned to temper that." “但是,只要我住,无论我似乎一个有吸引力的想法。我学会了脾气。 “



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