From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and thought-provoking tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart.
The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under―but rather than face the music, he’s spending his days in the woods, bu...
From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and thought-provoking tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart.
The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under―but rather than face the music, he’s spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife Imelda is selling off her jewelry on eBay, while their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge-drink her way through her final exams. And twelve-year-old PJ is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home.
Where did it all go wrong? A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favor to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil―can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life? And if the story has already been written―is there still time to find a happy ending?
作者简介
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Paul Murray was born in 1975 in Dublin. He is the author of several novels, including An Evening of Long Goodbyes, which was short-listed for the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. Skippy Dies (2013) was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Mark and the Void (2015) was joint winner ...
Paul Murray was born in 1975 in Dublin. He is the author of several novels, including An Evening of Long Goodbyes, which was short-listed for the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. Skippy Dies (2013) was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Mark and the Void (2015) was joint winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize, and named one of Time’s Top 10 Fiction Books of the year.
原文摘录
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People imagined poems were wispy things, she said, frilly things, like lace doilies. But in fact they were like claws, like the metal spikes mountaineers use to find purchase on the sheer face of a glacier. By writing a poem, the lady poets could break through the slippery, nothingy surface of the life they were enclosed in, to the passionate reality that beat beneath it. Instead of falling down the sheer face, they could haul themselves up, line by line, until at last they stood on top of the mountain. And then maybe, just maybe, they might for an instant see the world as it really is. (查看原文)
2 有用 大林煎饼 2023-12-23 13:11:02 美国
今天在电影院看杨德昌电影展映周的预告片才反应过来这本小说为何似曾相识，这不就是《一一》的故事吗，不过语法当然不一样。读完的感受是很“好看”，像吃家庭装的乐事薯片，咔嚓咔嚓，转眼间一大袋就瘪下去。整体情节上有机巧的排兵布阵，悬念迭出，人物性格有卡通的成分，但也因此有源源不断的戏剧冲突，不至于故事停摆。心理活动写得充沛，而且本身有趣，不仅服务情节连贯性。而且喜欢作者的态度，可以说是一种黑色幽默，就写人... 今天在电影院看杨德昌电影展映周的预告片才反应过来这本小说为何似曾相识，这不就是《一一》的故事吗，不过语法当然不一样。读完的感受是很“好看”，像吃家庭装的乐事薯片，咔嚓咔嚓，转眼间一大袋就瘪下去。整体情节上有机巧的排兵布阵，悬念迭出，人物性格有卡通的成分，但也因此有源源不断的戏剧冲突，不至于故事停摆。心理活动写得充沛，而且本身有趣，不仅服务情节连贯性。而且喜欢作者的态度，可以说是一种黑色幽默，就写人物怎么一步步走向毁灭，几乎像施虐。临近尾声，你会明白作者不会写诗歌正义，所以人物的最终结局是毁灭还是被拯救，全在于他一念之间，弦始终紧绷，直到最后一句。我觉得是一个很好的写作参考，不是奇珍异味，都是熟悉调味，但葱姜蒜末下得足，依然成功爆香。 (展开)
1 有用 威叔在香港 2023-10-29 21:21:39 中国香港
2023.10.29【无剧透】四星半。整体上是一部荒诞又悬念迭起的爱尔兰小城四人家庭悲喜剧，但故事的厉害之处在于，它既有肥皂剧式的抓马，又有希区柯克式的紧张和惊悚，还讨论了原生家庭、童年创伤、女权、LGBT、性侵犯、网约骗局、恋童癖、性录像勒索、甚至气候变化/环境保护等一揽子时事/热点/敏感议题。手法上，全书结构非常复杂，用了第三+第二人称两种叙事，还有大篇幅的【无标点符号意识流写作】，可以说是一... 2023.10.29【无剧透】四星半。整体上是一部荒诞又悬念迭起的爱尔兰小城四人家庭悲喜剧，但故事的厉害之处在于，它既有肥皂剧式的抓马，又有希区柯克式的紧张和惊悚，还讨论了原生家庭、童年创伤、女权、LGBT、性侵犯、网约骗局、恋童癖、性录像勒索、甚至气候变化/环境保护等一揽子时事/热点/敏感议题。手法上，全书结构非常复杂，用了第三+第二人称两种叙事，还有大篇幅的【无标点符号意识流写作】，可以说是一部试探和挑战了小说世界叙事多样性、复杂性、甚至可能性边界的【纯炫技】作品。这样的作品成为今年布克奖的头号热门，的确不足为奇。结尾近三十页转为【话剧】式文本：在暴风雨夜，全书所有人物都从不同地方汇集到一起，在漆黑林中“枪是否会响+谁会被打死”成为终极悬念，是在600余页后给读者的巨大回馈，非常精彩。 (展开)
1 有用 左岸单行道 2023-12-13 07:46:26 美国
Irish family saga. 多角度多人称叙事，作者无论写rebellious teen girl, adolescent gamer boy, 还是更加dark and tangled成人世界都游刃有余。个人对Dixie和Imelda的经历有emphathy但对其角色喜好无能。
0 有用 霍格沃茨走读生 2025-04-21 22:22:41 江西
大长篇，感觉像是看了部美剧，每个人的视角都很有意思，作者是个精分怪啊，怎么能把每个人的心理都描写得绘声绘色。
0 有用 沙帷 2024-08-01 22:36:00 美国
经典的【每个人在每个时代和每个人生阶段都有他们的问题】但这些问题都是最最最典型的没什么新意 高潮是个好故事但是前部分铺垫过长 结构也不新鲜了