《這不是告別》作為全美媒體和讀者的年度之選,一出版就迅速橫掃《紐約時報》暢銷書榜長達45周,席卷全球三十多國。故事講述了一頭紅發(fā)、穿著肥大男款襯衫的Eleanor,與沉默寡言、沉迷于音樂和漫畫世界的Park之間的故事。
"What pirate story?"
“什么海盜故事?”
"You know, there's that character who's always reading a comic book about pirates, the story within the story, the pirate story."
“你知道的啊,里面有一個角色總是看跟海盜有關(guān)的漫畫書,故事里的故事,叫做海盜故事?!?/p>
Park tried to get her to talk about Watchmen; they'd just read the fourth chapter. "What do you think of the pirate story?" he asked.
帕克跟她談《守望者》,他們剛讀完第四章。他問:“你怎么看海盜故事?”
"I don't know," Park said. "Probably not."
帕克說:“我不知道,可能不會吧。”
He could tell Eleanor was nervous on the bus. She was quiet, and she kept running her bottom lip through her teeth, making it go white, so that you could see that her lips had freckles, too.
回家的校車上,他看得出埃莉諾很緊張。她很安靜,不斷咬著下嘴唇,搞得嘴唇發(fā)白,帕克因此看到她嘴唇也有雀斑。
# Park #
#帕克#
His mother sighed.
媽媽嘆了口氣。
He called his mom during lunch to tell her that Eleanor was coming over. His counselor let him use her phone. (Mrs Dunne loved the opportunity to be good in a crisis, so all Park had to do was imply that it was an emergency.)
午休時他打電話給媽媽,說埃莉諾要過來。輔導(dǎo)老師讓他用她的電話。(唐恩太太特別喜歡在別人有難時做好人,所以帕克只要暗示她事出緊急即可。)
"I'm nice to everybody," his mom said. "You know that."
媽媽說:“我對任何人都客氣,你知道的。”
"I just wanted to tell you that Eleanor is coming over after school," he told his mom. "Dad said it was all right."
他跟媽媽說:“我只是要跟你說埃莉諾下課后會過來。爸爸說可以的?!?/p>
"You have to be nice to her, you know."
“你知道,你得對她客氣點。”
"Fine," his mother said, not even pretending that she was okay with it. "Is she staying for dinner?"
媽媽說:“好吧,”她根本懶得假裝她接受此事,“她要留下來吃晚飯嗎?”