读者应该永远敬畏短篇小说家

“And as the sun came up, we prayed, each within ourselves, our usual prayer:

To still be here when the sun next set.

And discover, in those first moments of restored movement, that we had again been granted the great mother-gift:

Time.

More time.”

用死亡做引子来讲人世间的事情，多角度多人物叙事，支离破碎的故事线，这些在20世纪50年代之后的英语小说当中都已经不再稀奇了。但是 George Saunders 不愧是以短篇小说著称的作家，实在是非常擅长“小材大用”，两次扫墓成就一本长篇的才能是令人敬畏的。尽管如此，我还是想说：更喜欢桑德斯的短篇哈哈哈……