李翊云的《千年敬祈》，冷静叙述，认真思考
那天和一个师姐聊起来，她说李翊云要去普林斯顿做creative writing的教授了，是和颜宁去普林斯顿生物系做教授的消息发在同一个公告里。我说，啊，李翊云，我是她的粉丝啊，当年我还写了一篇她的小说《千年敬祈》的读后感。
而之所以会和这个师姐连上，却是因为我那篇《那个成了平行线的朋友》，这个素不相识的师姐找到了我，告诉我文中的Christina 是不是在纽约苏富比艺术大学做CEO的Christine? 我依照她给的链接点过去，果然是她，她真的一点也没变，依然是简单的学生头，短而直，刚刚齐肩。我又从她公开的社交网站上看到了她许多照片，她有一个小女儿，是个漂亮的混血，我看到了她的妹妹的照片，还有前男友，唯一不敢确定的是她的丈夫是不是还是我在北京见到的那个帅气的犹太男孩。她看起来状态非常好，做的是艺术教育方面的事情。 Christina当年是在北大生物系做外教的，李翊云是北大生物系毕业的，现在去了普林斯顿教写作，Christina的妹妹是普林斯顿毕业的，学的也是文学。 这个世界多么奇妙，糖葫芦似的，一颗一颗，都串在一起了。
这篇读后感是许多年前写的了，那时候没有什么中文书可以看，我看的大多是英文书，也曾尝试用英文写作，写了个短篇的开头，题目记得是叫“drifting away”。 而现在，我几乎都不看英文了，更不用说写了。
再多说几句李翊云，李非常有语言天分，每一本书都进步很快。她在得了MacArthur 天才奖之后的发言给我影响深刻，她说一口地道的英语，几乎没有口音，简直令人难以置信她不是native speaker。我写这篇书评的时候，她还刚刚出道，才出了一本书，但是已经可以看到她在文学上的潜质，看到一个天才在文学道路上一路奔跑，势不可挡。就像我在书评里说的，她很快就会成为大师。哪一天，她得了诺贝尔文学奖，我一点也不会奇怪的。
题图： 李翊云
I pondered after I closed the book of Li, YiYun’s A thousand years of good prayers.
With little kiddos and a hectic full time job, my best reading time falls on the feeding time.
It was deep at night, I sat comfortably in my rockchair, with Jia sound sleep in my arms. I tried to picture a woman in her mid thirties, with a round face and big eyes, who is called big apple by her close friends. One who shares a similar age and education background as me. I might even bump into her in Peking University campus. Yet it is hard for me to believe those stories originated from a woman with such a background. They are too heavy to come from one who never endured such pains.
She is unbelievably calm (or, shall I say emotionless ) to deliver all those stories. Yet you can feel her care for those inferior members of our society. She speaks for those whose voices are too weak to be heard, Those struggle to survive and strive to make ends meet. Think about granny lin in Extra or Lao Da in Persimmons. Those are not sweet and cheerful stories you would expect from a person like her, a typical middle class, one who enjoys a peaceful and comfortable life in US.
So I wondered where she came from and what shaped her minds and her writing style. All I can tell is she is much more thoughtful and mature than her age. She sure knows how to tell a story and attracts the attention of the audience. I finished reading this book fairly quick. I don’t necessarily enjoy the stories themselves but I was deeply attracted.
Her English writing skill is way above most of non-native speakers. The flow is smooth and the vocabulary is rich. Sometimes it is a bit Chinglish which is understandable considering so many Chinese slangs to be translated. I was also reading “Lake with no name” by Dianne wei Liang, another PKU graduate who lives oversea and writes in English. Comparing to wei, I think Li’s English writing skills is better. Though I had expected it to be even better.
However, I think what singled her out is her plot and her story itself. Most of them have bitter and unexpected endings. The example in case is “A thousand years of good prayers”. I was surprised to find out that the Father in the story was not a rocket scientist in most of his life and the daughter divorced for a reason that was partially contributed to her dad. What a smart arrangement.
Most of her stories is set in modern China that is experiencing a whole deal of changes economically. Those are inharmonious stories dotted in this prosperous society. What touches people most is her strong sympathy towards those living in the bottom of the society. There is something common in humanity that people share despite of different culture backgrounds. That is the powerless, the suffering, the confusion as well as yearning for justice, love and understanding. You feel the deep sorrow out of those stories, you feel the black humor reflected in this collection. But you can do nothing but ponder and sigh.
She also dares to use sensitive words like naked, penis or make love. She is courageous to touch sensitive topics like gay or the highest figure in Chinese history. You can feel the gasp of fate and sarcastic tone in her writing. Like Immortality. A person who happens to bear a resemblance to Mao zedong but suffered up and downs for that sake and eventually found life was nothing but a big joke. She also vividly illustrates the confusion and struggle of well educated immigrants. Those share same migration paths like she or me, like Han in Son and the daughter in A thousand years of good prayers.
She posses all qualities to write a masterpiece, a deep influence of a remote and ancient culture that is appealing to outsiders, brilliance to come up with attractive plots, deep humanity and sincere souls echoed in serious readers . She is well on her way to present a masterpiece. I would not be surprised one day she becomes a major symbolic icon for oversea Chinese authors. I also believe what she is doing is truly meaning to help the westerns to know the real life and real emotions of the modern Chinese society.
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