大约十年前,我便读了《一滴泪》的英文原本A SingleTear.当时感受很深,至今犹在记忆中。这是我读到的第一部‘右派分子’的自述。运用高超的文学剪裁,把二、三十年的苦难——从个人、家庭到亲友——生动地勾勒了出来。作者文笔的流畅自然,显示出他在英美文学与语言上的深厚造诣。他将三十年的坎坷人生归结为“I came. I suffered.Isurvived”(‘我归来、我受难、我幸存’),尤使我为之击节。在中国文史传统中,这正是所谓‘春秋笔法’。当然,作者的隽语是从西哲(Julius Caesar)的名言:“I came, saw and overcame”(拉丁原文是veni, vidi,vici)脱化而出的,经过莎翁的引用(As You Like It V.ii),在西方早已家喻户晓。但作者融合中西的文学修养和匠心独运,即此可见。
From Publishers Weekly
English literature professor Wu affectingly recalls 30 years ofrepression as a Chinese intellectual. Seeking "a meaningful life in abrave new world," Wu left a graduate program at the University ofChicago in 1951 to teach in his homeland, only to discover that"thought reform" (brainwashing) had enveloped his new university.Quoting FDR and Patrick Henry, he found himself denounced as areactionary and sent in 1958 to a state labor farm and prison, whereseveral inmates starved to death. Wu's account is laced with irony andleavened by his frequent recourse to use of literature--including worksby Steinbeck, Shakespeare, Eliot and the Chinese poet Du Fu--to gaininspiration and perspective. Wu was granted parole in 1961, but wasswept up in the Cultural Revolution and in 1968 sent to thecountryside, where he witnessed the peasants' suffering under thedespotic local cadres. He returned to teaching in 1974 and wasultimately rehabilitated in 1979. Yikai, Wu's wife, narrates threechapters on how living apart from Wu affected her and her children. Thefamily now lives in the United States.
From Library Journal
Wu served as an English interpreter in China in World War II, thenpursued graduate studies in English literature in the United States. Hewent back to China in 1951, accepting a position at a university (wherehe met and married Li). Branded an "ultrarightist" in 1958, he spentyears in and out of reeducation camps. His account is complemented byLi's narration of the hardships she and their three children endured.One wonders why there are more quotations from Western literature thanfrom Chinese literature, and the reconstructed dialog occasionallyseems contrived, but this book remains a remarkable testament to humancourage. Though not as detailed on prison life as Bao Ruo-wang'sPrisoner of Mao ( LJ 9/15/73), it is recommended for its broaderportrayal of the oppression of both the prisoner and his family underChinese communism. - Kenneth W. Berger, Duke Univ. Lib., Durham, N.C.
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