好書推薦： ‘Memory Wall’ by Anthony Doerr

因為太喜歡 ‘All the Light We Cannot See’，我把作者Anthony Doerr第一本短篇小說集 ‘The Shell Collector’ 找來讀，這次又等到了他的第二本短篇小說集 ‘Memory Wall’。 

書裡的七個短篇各自獨立，不同的地點（從南非，德國，立陶宛，韓國，中國，到美國），不同時代，不同人物，但連繫它們的是同一個主題：記憶。 這本書贏得了2010年The Story Prize。 

第一篇‘Memory Wall’是個帶有科幻色彩的故事，發生在南非Cape Town。 在這個不遠的未來，先進的醫學手術可以把人腦中的記憶轉錄到一盒盒膠帶裡，只要戴上相連的頭盔和配套的記憶刺激機器，插入記憶膠帶，當事人就可以重回記憶片段，甚至任何有做過這項手術的旁人，也可以親臨其境，比看電影更逼真百倍。 市面上已經有很多商販在偷賣記憶膠帶，記憶已成一種買賣商品。

孀居於富人區的白人老太Alma患了老年癡呆症，記憶逐漸衰退。 過去三年裡，她存下了數百個記憶膠帶盒，貼滿了一整面牆。 服侍她多年的黑人僕人Pheko忠心耿耿，和幼子在貧民窟相依為命，對Alma的財富從無非分之想，但Alma的房子馬上要上市，而Pheko將失去工作。 然而他沒料到，不法之徒Roger帶著孤兒Luvo每夜堂而皇之地進出Alma的家，竊取Alma的記憶，想要找到Alma的先夫在臨終前找到的一塊稀有化石的下落。 Luvo在不斷地進入Alma的記憶世界的過程中，Alma的人生也成了他的記憶。 沒想到失智的Alma在又一個入侵的夜晚，忽然恢復了神智。。。故事的發展急轉直下，充滿驚險和曲折，但憂傷中又有出人意料的愛心，非常非常動人。

這篇獲得the National Magazine Award for Fiction.

第二篇 ‘Procreate, Generate’刊在英國Granta雜誌上，Doerr因此被入選best young US novelists。 一對夫妻在求子無成之際，求靠人工授精，過程間的種種痛苦絕望，將兩人原本平靜的婚姻折磨到日漸疏離。 Doerr的描述細膩而含蓄。 故事的結尾，太太在等待再一次人工授精的結果，先生打電話來， “Tell me it’s going to be okay,” Herb whispers, the receiver of his office phone clamped to his ear. “Tell me you love me.”  Imogene starts to tremble.  She shuts her eyes and says she does.  這樣樸素的述說，卻叫人感同身受。

第三篇‘The Demilitarized Zone’最為短小（9頁），一名被派駐到韓國三八線的美軍，他的爺爺曾是韓戰老兵。 在寄回家的信件中，他描寫對峙兩方的緊張氣氛，高分貝的不停大喇叭propaganda響徹整夜，他的徬徨恐懼，唯有駐地四周的飛鳥給他平靜，可惜不知道這些異國鳥兒的名字。 他想，“Grandpop，I think, would know.”  但爺爺患了Alzheimer，已經不可能再跟孫子追敘過往。 

第四篇 “Village 113”贏得了O. Henry獎。 這個故事是講三峽工程喔！ 113村的村民被告知，不到一年後，三峽大壩將要把整村淹沒。 對村民來說，村里的一磚一瓦是他們世代相傳的記憶；但為了多數人的利益，少數人必須要做出犧牲。 “Memory is a house with ten thousand rooms; it is a village slated to be inundated.”  全村的村民只能盡力拆遷村裡的一景一物，而賣種子的婦人帶走的是物種，在新的村子裡，這些種子代表他們對113村的回憶和想念。 “What is a seed if not the purest kind of memory, a link to every generation that has gone before it?” 

第五篇 ‘The River Nemunas’ 贏了Pushcart獎。 痛失雙親的少女從美國飛抵立陶宛投靠外公。 看到母親小時後釣魚的照片，她突生意念，和鄰居老太太每天一起去河上釣魚，但外公說sturgeon鱘魚已經絕種了，不可能釣到了。 “They are gone, Allie, he says.  You only break your heart more with this fishing.  You only make yourself more lonely.”  但她執意尋找鱘魚， “So what, grandpa, you don’t believe in anything you can’t see?  You believe we don’t have souls?  You put a cross on every headstone you make, but you think the only thing that happens to us when we die is that we turn into mud?” 為的只是想延續母親年少時同樣的回憶，因著經歷跟母親的記憶更貼近，稍稍撫慰她那哀慟的小心靈。

第六篇‘Afterworld’，以時空交錯的敘述方式，講述一個患有癲癇症的猶太少女幸運地逃離德國，但孤兒院的其他女孩都無一幸免地被納粹送往集中營致死。 多年後，在她回憶裡，得救的幸運永遠纏繞著對同伴的內疚。 

第七篇‘The Deep’發生在大蕭條時期的底特律。 14歲的Tom因為心臟defect，醫生說他活不到成人。 Tom的媽媽處處保護他，總是叫他‘Go slow’。 但Tom遇到同學Ruby，一個嚮往在海底開車的紅髮女孩。 Tom的世界被Ruby打開，他們一起去沼澤地探險，那些簡單的快樂充滿他們純純的愛。 這一篇贏了全球短篇最高獎金Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award。

七篇故事，個個精彩。 這本書相當文學性，不是消遣類的暢銷書。 Doerr的文筆宁静恬淡，行文细腻精炼。 推薦給喜歡文學短篇的讀者。

Quotes:

“To say a person is a happy person or an unhappy person is ridiculous. We are a thousand different kinds of people every hour.” (Memory Wall)

“She cannot remember a spring more colorful.  Flowers seem to be exploding out of the mud.  By April there is scarlet and lavender and jade everywhere.  Behind the Government House zinnias are coming up with a deep, almost unnatural vigor—as if they were pouring up out of the earth.  She kneels over them for a half hour, studying the month, stout stems of the seedlings.  Soon so many plants in her garden are coming up she has to start pulling them.  It is as if someone is underneath the earth, pushing her vegetables up with his fingers.  Has spring always been like this?  Startling, overpowering?  Maybe she is more sensitive to it this year.  Bees drift through the alleys with their heavy baskets, seemingly drunk; to stand beneath the sycamores is to stand in a blizzard of seeds.” (Village 113)

“Don’t tell me how to grieve.  Don’t tell me ghosts fade away eventually, like they do in movies, waving goodbye with see-through hands.  Lots of things fade away but ghosts like these don’t, heartbreak like this doesn’t.  The axe blade is still as sharp and real inside me as it was six months ago.”  (The River Nemunas) 

“Every hour, all over the globe, an infinite number of memories disappear, whole glowing atlases dragged into graves. But during that same hour children are moving about, surveying territory that seems to them entirely new. They push back the darkness; they scatter memories behind them like bread crumbs. The world is remade.” (Afterworld)

“I used to think...that I had to be careful with how much I lived. As if life was a pocketful of coins. You only got so much and you didn't want to spend it all in one place...But now I know that life is the one thing in the world that never runs out. I might run out of mine, and you might run out of yours, but the world will never run out of life. And we're all very lucky to be part of something like that.”