In twelve beautifully imagined stories linked by character and setting, Mark Slouka paints an unforgettable portrait of three generations of men and women under the spell of a landscape with a powerful history, and of a body of water that has a grip on their souls and destinies, defying their understanding even as it elevates and transforms their lives.
Set in a tiny Czech community on the shores of New York's Lost Lake, the stories in Mark Slouka's first collection are elegiac and expansive, illuminated by a quiet, complicated glory in the natural world and by the mysterious motions of the human spirit within it. In "Genesis," the collection's creation myth, an inspired young war veteran gazes into a cow pasture and sees the lake for the first time, and in it the chance it holds for a better life; in the exquisitely written fishing story "The Shape of Water," a young boy's recollection of a momentous catch occasions a later reflection on the elusiveness of memory and the power of invented truths; in "The Exile," a young woman struggles unsuccessfully against an adulterous passion and in the dead of night rows out across the lake to meet her lover on the opposite shore. In all, Lost Lake emerges as a place of epic significance and enduring simplicity, the source and the settling point of all stories--less a body of water than a notion, a dwelling place, a spiritual home.
(美)罗伯特·富兰克林·杨著, 赖逸娟译 ... 它最喜欢的是清晨,太阳照耀着邻家屋顶的那种清晨,完全明亮而金黄色的清晨。 ... 都一定带有至少一个能挑起反应的关联词,而它引用的句子从尤维纳利斯到乔伊斯,从卢梭到罗素,或从欧里庇德斯到艾略特都有。
病人穿着宽松长袍坐在床上,沉默地看着表姐,身周塞满靠枕。“唉,我的朋友,”她突然打断对方话头说,“别给我做工作了,别把我当孩子,我是基督徒。我全明白,我明白,我不能活多久了,我明白要是我丈夫早听了我的话,我就到意大利去了,那,说不定,很可能,我已重新健康 ...
其他人進來,他聽見他們和圖書館員講話。她的聲音現在比較正常了。亞瑟一直認為他應該離開,卻坐著沒動。他喜歡毫無裝飾的高大窗戶讓春季暮光透進來的樣子,也喜歡圖書館房間的莊嚴與秩序。他想到成人們來來去去,終其一生周復一周讀書、從這本讀到下一本, ...
全书精选三十多篇爱伦·坡的代表作,涵盖其在惊悚小说、推理侦探小说、科幻小说和幽默讽刺小说领域的佳作,包括读者耳熟能详的《莫格街凶杀案》《黑猫》《金甲虫》《泄密的 ...
森林王子:毛哥力的叢林故事集: The Jungle Book
In this volume, Wharton's humor is abundantly evident in sly and subtle stories like "Xingu" (in which a ladies' reading group is led to express its enthusiasm for an occult philosophy) and "Charm Incorporated" (about a mild-mannered Wall ...
Mackinac and Lake Stories
For Maurice: Five Unlikely Stories
He held a match close to the bowl of Rubin's pipe , cupping the flame . “ Then why do you do it ? " “ It works best for me that way , Allan . I have arthritis . ” He slanted his eyes left at his pupil . “ Do you ?
Small Daddy had three great cronies , Mickey Devane , Paddy the Watch and Mike Burke down the Lane . Mike lived alone and they all met in his house every second night where they could talk the black hats off each other without any ...