她说
这篇书评可能有关键情节透露
前段看了阿加莎克里斯蒂自传。老太太从60岁上开始动笔话平生，直写了十五年方告完工。事无巨细，细描细绘。好在文笔生动，时时忍俊不禁。比如描写她的第一个保姆，没人知道她到底多大年纪了。赶上人口普查，阿加莎父亲犯难，不得不开口问该替她填几岁，老太太狡黠把皮球踢回来：随您填好了，先生。
好的，可是，呃，我必须知道。
先生，您觉得怎样好就怎样填吧。
虽然阿加莎父亲觉得老太太至少得七十五了，出于礼貌，不得不硬着头皮说：
呃，大概，五十九上下？
受伤的表情迅速掠过老太太满是皱纹的脸，她不平：我看起来就那么老吗？
不，不，该怎么说呢？
老太太口风严实：您认为什么合适就填什么吧，先生。
没法从老太太嘴里问出真实年龄，阿加莎父亲最后只能自作主张填了64岁。
类似这样栩栩如生的场景，随处可见，时不时停下抚掌大笑。饶是如此，终于还是胡乱跳过关于与第二任丈夫在伊拉克考古挖掘的章节。细述平生之时，掺杂许多对生活的看法，对于我这个缺少生活智慧的人，不乏启示。
关于写作
其实不仅小说，任何文章包括学术论文，似乎也适用呢。其中的冲动、狂喜、忐忑、猜疑不一而足。
You start into it, inflamed by an idea, full of hope, full indeed of confidence. If you are properly modest, you will never write at all. So there has to be one delicious moment when you have thought of something, know just how you are going to write it, rash for a pencil, and start in an exercise book buoyed up with exaltation. You then get into difficulties, don’t see your way out, and finally manage to accomplish more or less what you first meant to accomplish, though losing confidence all the time. Having finishing it, you know that it is absolutely rotten. A couple of months later you wonder whether it may not be all right after all.
There always have to be a lapse of time after the accomplishment of a piece of creative work before you can in any way evaluate it.
关于爱情婚姻
“No man ever had a wife like you. Every year I have been in married to you I love you more. I thank you for your affection and love and sympathy. God bless you, my dearest, we shall soon be together again.” 阿加莎父亲在病逝前对其母亲如是说。
阿加莎父亲去世后，阿加莎安慰说父亲已在另一个世界得到安宁，母亲冲口而出：“Yes, I would, I would do anything in the world to have him back—anything, anything at all. I’d forced him to come back, if I could. I want him, I want him back here, now, in this world with me.”
父母恩爱婚姻耳濡目染之下，小阿加莎心里怎能不对自己未来充满期盼？别人问她如何走上写作道路，她却从未设想成为一个职业作家，即使出版了2本书之后仍没有把自己跟作家划上等号。反而一直希望拥有象父母那样幸福的婚姻，“We were conscious of all the happiness that awaited us; we look forward to love, to being looked after, to being cherished, and admired, and we intended to get our own way in the things which mattered to us while at the same time putting your husband life, career and success before all, as was our proud duty”。
然而，她的第一个婚姻持续了14年之后终于解体，她感慨“I suppose many women realize sooner or later, that the only person who can really hurt you in life is a husband. Nobody is close enough. On nobody else are you so dependent for the everyday companionship, affection, and all that makes up a marriage。”用唐朝的李冶的话，“至亲至疏夫妻”，简简单单六个字，已然道尽。
关于失去
面对失去，想必或多或少有过那样的感受：为什么这一切都是真的？为什么我还活着？怎样才能摆脱记忆？老太太温言劝慰：One should take one brief look, and say: “yes, this is part of my life; but it’s done with. It is a strand in the tapestry of my existence. I must recognize it because it is part of me. But there is no need to dwell upon it.”
她亦是有过不足为外人道的痛苦经历方说出这番话。丈夫移情别恋要求离婚，她神秘失踪了十几天，英国举国皆惊。原来躲在一家旅馆，而且用丈夫新欢名字入住。她对这一段经历讳莫如深，自传里只字未提。BBC专门为此拍过一部片，解释为在痛苦的冲击下短暂失忆。生命中总有些事情不愿再提起，还是尊重当事人，什么也不要问了吧。
Once you think of time and infinity, personal things will cease to affect you in the same way. Sorrow, suffering; all the finite things of life, show in an entirely different perspective.
面对时间与永恒，个人多么渺小。无论发生了什么，接受它，放下它，继续往前走。
书的最后，老太太说：
Thank God for my good life, and for all the love that has been given to me.
Agatha Christie: An autobiography, 1977. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company.
好的，可是，呃，我必须知道。
先生，您觉得怎样好就怎样填吧。
虽然阿加莎父亲觉得老太太至少得七十五了，出于礼貌，不得不硬着头皮说：
呃，大概，五十九上下？
受伤的表情迅速掠过老太太满是皱纹的脸，她不平：我看起来就那么老吗？
不，不，该怎么说呢？
老太太口风严实：您认为什么合适就填什么吧，先生。
没法从老太太嘴里问出真实年龄，阿加莎父亲最后只能自作主张填了64岁。
类似这样栩栩如生的场景，随处可见，时不时停下抚掌大笑。饶是如此，终于还是胡乱跳过关于与第二任丈夫在伊拉克考古挖掘的章节。细述平生之时，掺杂许多对生活的看法，对于我这个缺少生活智慧的人，不乏启示。
关于写作
其实不仅小说，任何文章包括学术论文，似乎也适用呢。其中的冲动、狂喜、忐忑、猜疑不一而足。
You start into it, inflamed by an idea, full of hope, full indeed of confidence. If you are properly modest, you will never write at all. So there has to be one delicious moment when you have thought of something, know just how you are going to write it, rash for a pencil, and start in an exercise book buoyed up with exaltation. You then get into difficulties, don’t see your way out, and finally manage to accomplish more or less what you first meant to accomplish, though losing confidence all the time. Having finishing it, you know that it is absolutely rotten. A couple of months later you wonder whether it may not be all right after all.
There always have to be a lapse of time after the accomplishment of a piece of creative work before you can in any way evaluate it.
关于爱情婚姻
“No man ever had a wife like you. Every year I have been in married to you I love you more. I thank you for your affection and love and sympathy. God bless you, my dearest, we shall soon be together again.” 阿加莎父亲在病逝前对其母亲如是说。
阿加莎父亲去世后，阿加莎安慰说父亲已在另一个世界得到安宁，母亲冲口而出：“Yes, I would, I would do anything in the world to have him back—anything, anything at all. I’d forced him to come back, if I could. I want him, I want him back here, now, in this world with me.”
父母恩爱婚姻耳濡目染之下，小阿加莎心里怎能不对自己未来充满期盼？别人问她如何走上写作道路，她却从未设想成为一个职业作家，即使出版了2本书之后仍没有把自己跟作家划上等号。反而一直希望拥有象父母那样幸福的婚姻，“We were conscious of all the happiness that awaited us; we look forward to love, to being looked after, to being cherished, and admired, and we intended to get our own way in the things which mattered to us while at the same time putting your husband life, career and success before all, as was our proud duty”。
然而，她的第一个婚姻持续了14年之后终于解体，她感慨“I suppose many women realize sooner or later, that the only person who can really hurt you in life is a husband. Nobody is close enough. On nobody else are you so dependent for the everyday companionship, affection, and all that makes up a marriage。”用唐朝的李冶的话，“至亲至疏夫妻”，简简单单六个字，已然道尽。
关于失去
面对失去，想必或多或少有过那样的感受：为什么这一切都是真的？为什么我还活着？怎样才能摆脱记忆？老太太温言劝慰：One should take one brief look, and say: “yes, this is part of my life; but it’s done with. It is a strand in the tapestry of my existence. I must recognize it because it is part of me. But there is no need to dwell upon it.”
她亦是有过不足为外人道的痛苦经历方说出这番话。丈夫移情别恋要求离婚，她神秘失踪了十几天，英国举国皆惊。原来躲在一家旅馆，而且用丈夫新欢名字入住。她对这一段经历讳莫如深，自传里只字未提。BBC专门为此拍过一部片，解释为在痛苦的冲击下短暂失忆。生命中总有些事情不愿再提起，还是尊重当事人，什么也不要问了吧。
Once you think of time and infinity, personal things will cease to affect you in the same way. Sorrow, suffering; all the finite things of life, show in an entirely different perspective.
面对时间与永恒，个人多么渺小。无论发生了什么，接受它，放下它，继续往前走。
书的最后，老太太说：
Thank God for my good life, and for all the love that has been given to me.
Agatha Christie: An autobiography, 1977. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company.
- 作者: Agatha Christie
- 出版: Bantam
- 装帧: Hardcover
- 时间: 1990