基本信息·出版社：Harper Collins Omes ·页码：304 页 ·出版日期：2009年06月 ·ISBN：0007307543 ·International Standard Book Number：0007307543 ...
| 商家名称 |
信用等级 |
购买信息 |
订购本书 |
|
|
 |
Evening Is the Whole Day |
 |
|
|
Evening Is the Whole Day |
|
基本信息·出版社：Harper Collins Omes
·页码：304 页
·出版日期：2009年06月
·ISBN：0007307543
·International Standard Book Number：0007307543
·条形码：9780007307548
·EAN：9780007307548
·装帧：平装
·正文语种：英语
·外文书名：晚上即是一天
内容简介 When the Rajasekharan family’s rubber-plantation servant girl is dismissed for unnamed crimes, it is only the latest in a series of precipitous losses that have shaken six-year-old Aasha’s life. In the space of several weeks her grandmother passed away under mysterious circumstances, and Uma, her older sister, left for Columbia University, forever. Aasha is left stranded in a family, and a country, slowly going to pieces.
Circling through years of family history to arrive at the moment of Uma’s departure, Evening is the Whole Day illuminates in heartbreaking detail one Indian immigrant family’s layers of secrets and lies, while exposing the complex underbelly of Malaysia itself. Sweeping in scope, exuberantly lyrical and masterfully constructed, Preeta Samarasan's debut is a mesmerizing and vital achievement, perfect as a reading group selection, and sure to earn her a place alongside Arundhati Roy and Zadie Smith.
作者简介 Preeta Samarasan was born and raised in Malaysia, but moved to the United States in high-school. She received her M.F.A. from the University of Michigan, where an early version of this novel received the Hopwood Novel Award; she also recently won the Asian American Writer’s Workshop/Hyphen Magazine short-story award. She currently lives in central France with her husband and dog.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
专业书评 From Publishers Weekly
Set on the outskirts of Ipoh in Malaysia, Samarasan's impressive debut chronicles another bad year in the Big House on Kingfisher Lane. With the death of Paati, the grandmother, and the disgraceful departure of Chellam, the family's servant girl, the wealthy Rajasekharan family is in shambles. Skillfully jumping from one consciousness to another, Samarasan moves back in time to reveal the secrets that have led to the family's unraveling. Father Raju's dreams have been stifled by his unrealized political ambitions, and his home life is no consolation. Vasanthi, his wife, bristles at reminders of her lower-class roots and wouldn't mind seeing Uma, their oldest daughter, "destroyed by an endless string of disappointments." Uma all but disconnects herself from the family in anticipation of escaping to Columbia University, and her six-year-old sister, Aasha, whose desire to recapture Uma's love is a primary focus of the book, must settle for interactions with a ghost only she can see. There's little familial tenderness, and the few instances of compassion displayed (by Raju's visiting brother) are mistaken as perverse. Though the narrative is occasionally unwieldy or claustrophobic, the language bursts with energy, and Samarasan has a sure hand juggling so many distinct characters. (May)
Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Six-year-old Aasha sees ghosts, but her unhappy mother seems to look right through her and her funny brother, Suresh, and smart sister, Uma. All Chellam, a much-abused servant, wants is a pair of glasses, while in spite of her cataracts, Paati, the malevolent old matriarch in a family that redefines the term dysfunctional, is as mercilessly watchful as a vulture. Questions of perception abound in this psychologically acute and boldly plotted tale of descendants of immigrants from India living in material comfort and emotional impoverishment in ethnically complex Malaysia. At the root of their misery is Paati’s successful lawyer son’s decision not to marry one of the worldly women in his circle but, rather, to wed his cruel neighbor’s desperate daughter. Instead of the worshipfully grateful wife he envisioned, she turns out to be stone-cold and small-minded. As the story begins, in 1980, Chellam is leaving in disgrace, while Uma has become uncharacteristically uncommunicative. Shocking secrets exert a malevolent force, and all are slowly revealed as Samarasan repeatedly loops back in time. Extraordinarily incisive, Samarasan provocatively links the sorrows of one distraught family to Malaysia’s bloody conflicts in a surpassingly wise and beautiful debut novel about the tragic consequences of the inability to love. --Donna Seaman --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
