读John Steinbeck的《伊甸园之东》

4月22日写完毛姆的《刀锋》读后感，本打算歇一歇，做点别的事，却不料没有小说的日子，觉得好像缺点什么。故在书架上找到这本在图书馆门口花了一刀买的John Steinbeck的《伊甸园之东》 East of Eden。

作者Steinbeck是土生土长的北加Salinas人, 曾于1962年获诺贝尔文学奖。我读过他的另一部并不十分出名的小说游记Travel with Charley--in Search of America。拿起这本《伊甸园之东》之时，并不知道这是他倾其一生打造的一部巨作(magnum opus), 一部他自认为是里程碑似的小说，小说里有一段他的家族史，人物Samuel Hamilton的原型是他的外祖父。当我翻开它，吸引我的是开篇浓浓的乡土气息，那一段段Salina Valley真实形象的描写，在我脑海立即化成了一幅幅图画，与自己曾经目睹、认识的北加山峦交织在一起，再一次把连绵不绝的荒山带到自己眼前，它的贫瘠、辽阔、荒凉，映衬着山脚下灌溉的广袤农田曾经让我感慨，它的再现让我对作品产生兴趣，产生好奇，非常想了解作者笔下的Salinas Valley会如何，会有什么故事。而当我翻到第二页时，看到作者对加州州花--罂粟花的独特比喻和描写时更是喜出望外。如果说，拿起沉甸甸的600页书时我尚有片刻犹豫，那么这种犹豫立即被这自然准确形象的文字所驱散。作者在这篇小说里说到，"人们只对自己感兴趣，一个故事如果不是关于听者的，不是听者熟悉的，他们不会去听"，"一个经久不衰的故事是跟每个人有关，否则不会永世流传"，这种说法有它一定的道理。

故事发生在十九世纪末至二十世纪初，从南北战争到第一次世界大战，两个家庭三代人的故事，故事里的地域横跨东西，时间上下五十年。Samuel Hamilton一家是小说里的其一家庭。Sam早年从爱尔兰移民，在Salinas荒凉的山谷里扎根，他虽然拥有很大的农场，育有九个子女，每生一个子女拓宽一片宅院，然这不毛之地终究没能给勤劳、睿智、能干的Sam带来富庻，他日日耕作，依然清贫如洗。

小说的重点是另一个家庭，Adam一家，他的原生家庭--父亲和弟弟，和他后来自己的家庭--一个抛家弃子做了妓女/老鸨的妻子和一对双胞胎。故事从美国东岸康州麻省到西岸，很长。我想就围绕着小说的题目写一点点读后感。

 

《伊甸园之东》这个名字源于《圣经》《创世纪》里第四章。亚当和夏娃生下长子Cain该隐和次子Abel亚伯，该隐务农，亚伯放牧。因着耶和华偏爱亚伯的祭物，该隐妒火中烧杀了弟弟亚伯。耶和华要惩罚该隐，在他身上做了记号，该隐最后离开了耶和华，搬到伊甸园之东诺得住下来。该隐后来生育了儿子，而亚伯却死后无子。

回到小说。小说主人公的名字也叫亚当Adam，他有一个同父异母的兄弟Charles。 Charles因为嫉妒他父亲偏爱哥哥Adam, 一个晚上将他约出家门，把Adam打得鲜血淋漓，还返回家中拿来斧头要砍了Adam。Adam躲在草堆后的水塘里逃此一劫。后来Adam爱上一个极品女子Cathy, 被她的表象所迷惑，两人结婚, 生下一对双胞胎，取名为Caleb和Aron。Cathy后来坦承，这一双胞胎的生父不是Adam, 是他的兄弟Charles，这个疑问在小说中没有得到最后证实，但是如果真如Cathy说的那样，那么Adam没有后嗣，而Charles虽然后来病逝了，却留下了后代。

Adam的两个儿子Cal和Aron虽然是孪生兄弟，长相和性格却迥异。Cal肤色黝黑，个性粗犷，弟弟Aron长得白净精致，小巧的嘴巴，深邃的大眼 ，一头金发，像极了当年的母亲。或许是这个原因，父亲偏爱Aron。17岁那年，Aron提前高中毕业，离家去斯坦福大学读书(读神学)，Cal则在家一边打理农场，一边继续他的学业(注意: 这两个人物其实也是一个务农，一个"放牧")。感恩节到了，Aron回到家中过节。Cal把自己做大豆期货賺的$15，000现金包好，送给父亲做礼物，不料却遭到父亲的拒绝。父亲说，他更希望Cal能像弟弟一样学有所成，而不是去发因战争造成大豆奇缺这样的不义之财。愤怒沮丧无比的Cal一把火烧了这叠崭新的钞票，连夜带着Aron去见他们的亲身母亲，他明知Aron无法接受这个事实，明知这么做会毁了Aron, 但是他就是要报复父亲对他的冷漠拒绝。面对亲身母亲是妓院老鸨这个事实，Aron纯真的世界顷刻塌陷。他绝望地离家出走，谎报年龄，参了军，上了前线，最后战死沙场。

消息传来，Adam中风瘫痪在床。Cal愧疚难当，觉得是自己杀了Aron, 在管家Lee的劝说下，Cal来到父亲床前，祈求父亲原谅。父亲蠕动着困难的双唇，说出一个字: Timshel.

小说从《圣经》故事衍生，扩展开来，又以一个希伯来语结束，可谓匠心独运。如果说这两代人，Adam和兄弟Charles, 他(们)的双胞胎儿子的遭遇和命运，和圣经里的故事有相似之处，有轮回之嫌，那么小说结尾的最后一个字就耐人寻味了。

Timshel的英文意思是thou mayest (you may)，在小说里提到好几次，它想表达的意思是，人有选择权，能爱能恨，天地之宽，道路是敞开的，人可以选择行善，也可以选择行恶，这种选择权是人独有的权利，区别着人和兽的不同。在这一点上，作者或许隐约在挑战着有神论，质疑人是否生而有罪，祖先(该隐)的罪孽是否流淌在我们这些后代人的血液里。作者通过这个字是想告诉读者，人是可以逃脱命运掌控的，因为我们被赋予了选择权。

就像小说的扉页里写的，人的一生不停地在盒子里存放着东西，里面有苦痛，有激情，有美好，有丑恶，有设计(盒子)时的愉悦、绝望，有制作盒子时无语言喻的喜悦，还有盒子最上层覆盖着的爱和感激...... 但即便如此，盒子依然没有装满。作者把这个盒子、这部小说献给太太，也借此把这部展现人生五彩纷呈的巨著留给我们读者，让我们品尝其中的酸甜苦辣，五味杂陈，让我们读者在各自的人生盒子里继续盛装我们的精彩和无奈.....

 

 

 

小说摘抄

“I remember my childhood names for grasses and secret flowers. I remember where a toad may live and what time the birds awaken in the summer -- and what trees and seasons smelled like -- how people looked and walked and smelled even. The memory of odors is very rich.”

"These too are of a burning color--not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of the poppies.”

“And, of course, people are interested only in themselves. If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen.”

“If a story is not about the hearer he [or she] will not listen . . . A great lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting--only the deeply personal and familiar.”

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.”

“I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one. . . . Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil. . . . There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well—or ill?”

“We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.”

“But I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed - because 'Thou mayest.”

“Perhaps the less we have, the more we are required to brag.”

“..it's awful not to be loved. It's the worst thing in the world...It makes you mean, and violent, and cruel.”

“It’s a hard thing to leave any deeply routine life, even if you hate it.”

“Man has a choice and it's a choice that makes him a man.”

“Time interval is a strange and contradictory matter in the mind. It would be reasonable to suppose that a routine time or an eventless time would seem interminable. It should be so, but it is not. It is the dull eventless times that have no duration whatever. A time splashed with interest, wounded with tragedy, crevassed with joy - that's the time that seems long in the memory. And this is right when you think about it. Eventlessness has no posts to drape duration on. From nothing to nothing is no time at all.”

“The Hebrew word, the word timshel - 'Thou mayest' - that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open...Why, that makes a man great...He can choose his course and fight it through and win...I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed - because 'Thou mayest'. ch 24”

“I am sifting my memories, the way men pan the dirt under a barroom floor for the bits of gold dust that fall between the cracks. It's small mining-- small mining. You're too young a man to be panning memories, Adam. You should be getting yourself some new ones, so that the mining will be richer when you come to age.”

“But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man. A cat has no choice, a bee must make honey. There's no godliness there.”  

“For the world was changing, and sweetness was gone, and virtue too. Worry had crept on a corroding world, and what was lost- good manners, ease and beauty? Ladies were not ladies anymore, and you couldn't trust a gentleman's word.”

 

“I remember clearly the deaths of three men. One was the richest man of the century, who, having clawed his way to wealth through the souls and bodies of men, spent many years trying to buy back the love he had forfeited and by that process performed great service to the world and, perhaps, had much more than balanced the evils of his rise. I was on a ship when he died. The news was posted on the bulletin board, and nearly everyone recieved the news with pleasure. Several said, "Thank God that son of a bitch is dead."

Then there was a man, smart as Satan, who, lacking some perception of human dignity and knowing all too well every aspect of human weakness and wickedness, used his special knowledge to warp men, to buy men, to bribe and threaten and seduce until he found himself in a position of great power. He clothed his motives in the names of virtue, and I have wondered whether he ever knew that no gift will ever buy back a man's love when you have removed his self-love. A bribed man can only hate his briber. When this man died the nation rang with praise...

There was a third man, who perhaps made many errors in performance but whose effective life was devoted to making men brave and dignified and good in a time when they were poor and frightened and when ugly forces were loose in the world to utilize their fears. This man was hated by few. When he died the people burst into tears in the streets and their minds wailed, "What can we do now?" How can we go on without him?"

In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror....we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world.”

“The greatest terror a child can have is that he is not loved, and rejection is the hell he fears. I think everyone in the world to a large or small extent has felt rejection. And with rejection comes anger, and with anger some kind of crime in revenge for the rejection, and with the crime guilt—and there is the story of mankind. I think that if rejection could be amputated, the human would not be what he is.”

“Dear Pat,

You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and you said, ‘Why don’t you make something for me?’

I asked you what you wanted, and you said, ‘A box.’

‘What for?’

‘To put things in.’

‘What things?’

‘Whatever you have,’ you said.

Well, here’s your box. Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts—the pleasures of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation.

And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you.

And still the box is not full.

John”

“During the dry years, the people forgot about the rich years, and when the wet years returned, they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.”

“Sometimes in the summer evenings they walked up the hill to watch the afterglow clinging to the tops of the western mountains and to feel the breeze drawn into the valley by the rising day-heated air. Usually they stood silently for a while and breathed in peacefulness.

 

“Old Sam Hamilton saw this coming. He said there couldn’t be any more universal philosophers. The weight of knowledge is too great for one mind to absorb. He saw a time when one man would know only one little fragment, but he would know it well.”