小说从古代一路写到现在，推陈出新，玩出花样的难度就变得越来越大了。莉迪亚·戴维斯作为我们这个年代最有实验性，最具探索精神的作家之一，好像还并没有为国人所熟知。上面这《Vatieties of disturbance》还没有译介，查了一下国内好像只翻译出版了她的一本《几乎没有记忆》。实际上她在国际上已是非常受人瞩目，并于前年获得了布克国际奖。
我在纸业上写下那个词，但他加了一撇。（I
put that word on the page, but he added the apostrophe.）
《好品味比赛》：
The husband and wife were competing in a Good Taste Contest
judged by a jury of their peers, men and women of good taste, including a
fabric designer, a rare-book dealer, a pastry cook, and a librarian. The wife
was judged to have better taste in furniture, especially antique furniture. The
husband was judged to have overall poor taste in lighting fixtures, tableware,
and glassware. The wife was judged to have indifferent taste in window
treatments, but the husband and wife both were judged to have good taste in
floor coverings, bed linen, bath linen, large appliances, and small appliances.
The husband was felt to have good taste in carpets, but only fair taste in
upholstery fabrics. The husband was felt to have very good taste in both food
and alcoholic beverages, while the wife had inconsistently good to poor taste
in food. The husband had better taste in clothes than the wife though
inconsistent taste in perfumes and colognes. While both husband and wife were
judged to have no more than fair taste in garden design, they were judged to
have good taste in number and variety of evergreens. The husband was felt to
have excellent taste in roses but poor taste in bulbs. The wife was felt to
have better taste in bulbs and generally good taste in shade plantings with the
exception of hostas. The husband’s taste was felt to be good in garden
furniture but only fair in ornamental planters. The wife’s taste was judged
consistently poor in garden statuary. After a brief discussion, the judges gave
the decision to the husband for his higher overall points score.
《Interpreter
of Maladies》中，当地的一个医生传译员为从美国回到印度旅游的一家子当司机。妻子对他一直很好，他甚至幻想两个人以后能够远隔重洋仍能保持联系。然而等丈夫带孩子出去逛景点的时候，妻子却对他吐露了一个惊天的秘密，她并不爱她的丈夫，她的婚姻生活一片惨白，孩子是她跟别人一夜情的产物。故事结尾，传译员留给妻子的联系方式，被她不经意抛到车窗外去了，一切终究是泡影。这个故事让我想到了《运转手之恋》开头屈中恒的名言：“人有时候反而会向只有一面之缘的人，透露他最深沉的秘密。” 他在里面也扮演一个呆萌的，傻人有傻福但到最后却没有善终的出租车司机。我们总是对于陌生人有着不知从哪里来的依赖感和安全感，幻想他们比起我们身边的人更能理解自己。人与人之间的隔阂和无法沟通已经严重至此了么？当然极端情况下，要是在这样完全不加警惕的关系中送了卿卿性命，你就可以登上新浪社会版头条了。
