OPEN A BOOK,OPEN THE WORLD
繼以古代希臘小說Apollonius of Tyre為原型的The Porpoise，善交錯古今並重述神話的Haddon，這次再度將目光轉回那些流傳千年的古老故事，深入挖掘這些神話與寓言的核心，並以全新視角詮釋。
重塑人類形體、挑戰神祇、逃離宿命、遭受孤立與排拒的青春，自首部小說The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time深夜小狗神祕習題便嶄露橫溢才華的Haddon，以素來細膩真誠，且蘊含深刻同理的筆觸，穿梭於希羅神話裡的典型情節，捕捉並重新描繪了橫跨時空，當代和古希臘的人類共同處境。那些以不同形式存在，卻總繞不開愛、死亡、慾望與恐懼的生命難題。
From the “terrifyingly talented” (London Times) author of THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG-IN THE NIGHT-TIME and THE PORPOISE, eight mesmerizingly imaginative, deeply-humane stories that use Greek myths and contemporary dystopian narratives to examine mortality, moral choices and the many variants of love.
Greek myths have fascinated people for millenia, seeing in them lessons about fate and hubris and the contingency of existence. Mark Haddon digs into the heart of these ancient fables and sees them anew. The dawn goddess Eos asked asks Zeus to give her lover Tithonus eternal life, but forgets to ask for eternal youth. In “The Quiet Limit of the World” Haddon imagines Tithonus’ life as he slowly ages over thousands of years, turning the cautionary tale of tempting the gods into a spellbinding meditation on witnessing death from the outside, and ultimately, how carnal love evolves into something richer and more poignant with time. In “The Mother’s Story,” Haddon takes the myth of the minotaur in his labyrinth, in which the beast is the spawn of the monstrous lust of the king’s wife Pasiphae, and turns it into a wrenching parable of maternal love for a damaged child, and the more real monstrosities of patriarchy.
Other stories play with contemporary mythic tropes – genetic engineering, trying to escape the future, the viciousness of adolescent ostracism – to showcase how modern humans are subject to the same capriciousness that obsessed the Greeks. Throughout Haddon’s supple prose showcases his astonishing powers of observation, of both the physical world and the workings of the psyche. His vision is clear-eyed, but always resolutely empathetic.
