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碰上方方的《风景》是在大学时代，那时候互联网在国内刚刚开始，有一个假期我宅在宿舍里“冲浪”。在当时的互联网上，纯文学还是一个重要的内容分类。不记得是在什么网站上，随便浏览的时候，打开了这篇中篇小说。

那时候白鹿原刚刚获得茅盾文学奖，而我在高中时看完就觉得它必然能得奖。预言得到验证使当时的我对自己的文学眼光颇有些自矜，对于这篇我此前还不知道的作品并没有多少期望。

但作者简洁冷峻的笔触很快吸引了我，尤其读到父亲和母亲吵架的场景：

父亲和母亲的喉咙都大得惊人。平均七分钟一趟的火车都没能压住他们的喧闹。于是左邻右舍来看热闹，那时正是晚饭时候，一个个的观众端着碗将门前围得密密匝匝。他们一边嚼着饭一边笑嘻嘻地对父亲和母亲评头论足。母亲朝父亲吐唾沫时，就有议论说母亲这个姿势没有以前好看了。父亲怒不可遏地砸碗时，好些声音又说砸碗没有砸开水瓶的声音好听。不过了解内情的人会立即补充说他们家主要是没有开水瓶，要不然父亲是不会砸碗的。所有人都能证明父亲是这个叫河南棚子的地方的一条响当当的好汉。

寥寥几笔，画面感极强。呼啸而过的火车，嘶吼暴跳的父母，嬉笑点评的邻居，但这画面是被静音的，慢动作的，只有作者平静而疏离的画外音，缓缓流淌。后来我在电影中见到这种手法，总忍不住想，这手法可能来自方方。

继续阅读方方的《风景》

While walking by a bookstore, I caught sight of The Testaments’ cover through the window. Intrigued, I went in and bought a copy. I would have preferred a paperback, but only hardcovers were available.

In the following days, I carried the book with me, reading it whenever I had time. After all, it was the highly anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed The Handmaid’s Tale and had won the Booker Prize even before its publication.

Unfortunately, after reading it from cover to cover, I found myself disappointed.

(Spoilers ahead!)

To be fair, it was an engaging read. The book comprises narratives from three women in Gilead: Aunt Lydia, the powerful Aunt we knew from The Handmaid’s Tale; Nicole, a girl who grows up in Canada; and Agnes Jemima, who grows up in Gilead.

Aunt Lydia’s narrative recounts how she became an Aunt in Gilead, secretly working against the regime and documenting her secret plans in a hidden journal. The other two girls’ narratives were written after Gilead’s fall, hence the name Testaments. As the story unfolds, Nicole’s true identity is revealed, making the story’s direction quite clear.

This is where my dissatisfaction begins: from that point on, Aunt Lydia outsmarts all the villains, and a happy ending is achieved all too easily. Isn’t the fight for freedom supposed to be difficult?

At one point, I wondered if Nicole might fail her mission due to carelessness or the tattoo on her arm—in a film, that would be a clear hint at a plot twist, right? But nothing of the sort occurred.

I also hoped that Aunt Vidal might take over or Commander Judd might become suspicious. Alas, neither scenario materialized.

Everything falls within Aunt Lydia’s calculations, and everything goes according to plan. I couldn’t help but wonder—if Aunt Lydia were truly that intelligent, could she not have escaped Gilead long before?

Moreover, the book lacks any scenes that made me pause and ponder, as was often the case while reading The Handmaid’s Tale. It seems to me that all the possible themes were already explored in the first book, making this sequel little more than a response to readers’ desire for closure. As for the Booker Prize? Perhaps the judges were just fans. Who knows?

应读书会约稿，交作业如下。

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在书店看到这本书的时候，觉得有些恍惚，不确定是不是同名的其他书籍。看了作者和内容简介，才确认是重新出版了。

在新版中没有任何地方提到该书其实很早就在大陆出版过，仿佛完全没有发生过一样。但我手头就有当时的书，封面是这个样子的。

继续阅读《伦理思想的突破》再读