First of all, I think the completion and publication of this novel is a pioneering work in itself. The author's own financial work is very busy, and he has to take care of children and do housework. His spare time is limited and his energy is not very good. To finish such a novel with more than 500,000 words, it is too pale to say "persistence". My experience is more about the author's persistence and love for literature and life. For a literature lover, it is not easy to write, and it is even harder not to write. There are many contradictions, but I still choose to write them down.
Secondly, as a reader, I want to say some thoughts and feelings about the novel itself.
First, the writing is plain, delicate and exquisite.
There is no dispute in writing. If mountains, water, sky and clouds can form a style of writing, it is very valuable to writers. As a calligraphy lover, I understand that forming my own style of writing is like forming my own style of writing. Without deep feelings for calligraphy, how can people with kung fu get it? Literature and art were easy to imitate in ancient times, but it was difficult to innovate and seek individuality. Nanfei's writing style makes it easy for readers to see the bright windows, beautiful mountains, beautiful water and flowers in jathyapple in the morning, just like the rural scenery in her hometown. I believe that the style of writing in Nanfei was not formed on purpose. Many years ago, I went to her hometown, located in the lower reaches of Guanhe River in Jiangsu (consistent with Xiguan River in the novel), between the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, combining "there are heroes in the north and scholars in the south". During the Spring Festival this year, I drove in Jiangsu, passing by Guanhe area, and temporarily "visited" Xiguanhe Town in the novel. The village of the author's hometown is very different from our Shandong (the houses in the village are centralized, and the houses and fields are completely separated). Houses are mostly built in the ground, and every household is a "villa". Behind the house, the countryside is green. If rape is in full bloom, it will be like a picture scroll, opening the door and pushing the window, and the fragrance will burst; Open your eyes at will, and the scenery is endless. This kind of scenery does not have the grandeur of the snowy mountains and wilderness, nor the light on the clear spring stone, but it is quiet and beautiful, calm and calm. The obstacles in the world are far from winning, but they are solid and impressive, stirring poetry and heroism, or attracting people to marvel, but those places are just "watching" and living in them, but they are not practical.
During the Spring Festival this year, the plague raged and I passed by the Guanhe area. I couldn't stop to take pictures, but I took a few pictures in the car.
One side of the soil and water supports one side of the people, and the writing style flies south, which is the pastoral land blown by her hometown and the wave of irrigation.
Second, the plot of grasping the heart and pulling the lungs is contradictory.
The story of the novel is not complicated, and two story clues appear alternately in the two basic scenes of rural middle schools and provincial hospitals. Personally, I think that Cao Gang, one of the twin brothers who lost his memory in a car accident, was caught in an emotional entanglement between the Western Regions and Luoshan. I think another story clue is Sun Wan's tragic experience. Through the profile description of hospital affairs, especially the 7.29 incident, the novel reflects the fame and fortune of the society, and also reflects the complex and even ugly human nature. Judging from the overall plot structure, the author is not particularly looking for a unique article layout, which is like her plain writing. The plot arrangement of the whole novel is like a "big twist", which seems unremarkable, but the plot arrangement of each chapter is very sure and chewy. The author's skills in characterization, plot grasping and plot unfolding are profound and expressionless.
Reading this novel, I have two feelings. One is that I can't let go. Cao Gang is a contradictory figure, and his fate is very attractive. Another feeling is that I think the author (who may be familiar with him) is telling stories to our old friends, that is, telling them truthfully, they are all "true stories". As listeners, we just want to hear, and the story has just fallen.
If the story is "arresting people", I think it has something to do with the contradictions of most characters. Needless to say, Cao Gang's contradiction. Xiyu is also very contradictory. She couldn't let go of her beloved "dead husband" and couldn't help but refuse her "big brother Cao Gang" who is both spiritual and spiritual. Jia Quan is infatuated with the Western Regions, but she thinks that the Western Regions will not love herself. Although she wants to get close to him, she is afraid to speak. In fact, Sun Wan doesn't like Li Changqing either, because family opinions are still about getting married or not, which eventually leads to tragedy. These plots are intertwined, which makes the novel seem plausible, but in fact it is undercurrent, tangled and turbulent, and difficult to explain.
The plot unfolds in the scene, and the two scenes of middle school and hospital have profound implications. Middle school symbolizes education and is closely related to how people live; Hospital symbolizes health, which is related to how people die. In the novel, the content revealed in the school scene is positive and simple, always warm, just like an old high fever fire; Although there was a Li who was not "enthusiastic" at first, he finally warmed the western regions. There are many types of people involved in hospital scenes, but the background color is cold; Although efforts have been made to treat Yu Miao, a student suffering from leukemia, this is mainly the result of Cao Gang's personal efforts, and the hospital itself has not done much. In connection with the recent frequent incidents between doctors and patients, this novel has no intention of showing more practical significance.
Third, the hospital: the theater of life and death, fame and fortune.
Hospital is a familiar scene for the author, which has a prominent integration effect in novel creation. Nowadays, most hospitals are public hospitals, and so are novels. Hospitals are first and foremost places to cure diseases and save lives. Hospital or officialdom, or shopping malls, life and death, fame and fortune, love and hate, where you will go are all staged here, day after day. The author's choice of hospital is not only unique in material, but also very condescending from the perspective of novel creation. To some extent, hospitals are the epitome of China society. This year, a sudden plague struck, and the hospital once again became a social hot spot. People in China spend the Spring Festival in the Year of the Rat around the hospital. In a sense, a deadly robbery is happening and being staged in the hospital. The "retrograde angel/hero" who swiped the screen in the circle of friends is heading for the hospital. As a reader, I might as well imagine that the author's second novel may still be inseparable from the hospital. Now the beginning and end of life are basically in the hospital. Hospitals are ideal hotbeds and theatres for novels.
Fourth, what kind of existence is memory?
What attracted me most about this novel was the "change" brought by Cao Gang's amnesia. Although Roxanne is still married and has a daughter, she still feels strange. Due to amnesia, Cao Gang's love for Jed's wife is illegible. It is precisely because Cao Gang reappeared the memory of her husband in a certain procedure that the western regions showed their affection for her husband's death. What does memory mean to a person? Legally speaking, the body of a natural person is based on the flesh, and the flesh exists among others. But how significant is the law to people's thoughts and feelings? This problem is actually a serious and profound philosophical problem. Life accumulation can be externalized into education, position, fame and fortune, but internal accumulation may be memory. If the human brain is a computer, memory is the document in the hard disk, and amnesia is to empty the original document. A person's real identity depends on the body, just like the computer's hard disk, CPU, memory, case (skull) and other hardware, the content is truly meaningful. Without a body, memory cannot exist. Even a healthy body without memory is equivalent to a new computer. We often say that history cannot be forgotten, which seems to be the reason. The novel raises such a question through the plot of special characters.
Of course, as a novelist, the author did not concentrate on reading this theme. In fact, Cao Gang soon regained his memory. The author pays more attention to Cao Gang's inner contradiction and discusses the eternal theme of literature: humanity. After amnesia recovered, Cao Gang showed the complexity and fragility of human nature incisively and vividly (I won't show it too much).
From my personal prejudice, the regret of this novel is that the "amnesia effect" seems to be insufficient, and the contradiction turned to the aftermath of the 7.29 incident at the climax, so that I think that roxanne died too early in the novel, and Cao Gang's contradiction will fade after her death. This kind of evaluation is really not a "taste dish", but a taste menu. Generally speaking, the author has been writing after work, and the first novel has reached such a height and depth. As a friend, I didn't expect it, and I sincerely congratulate her. I have no doubt about the author's talent. I have always suspected that the author still has so much time. Recently, I saw the author and said that a new book was being brewed. What is the surprise? As long as you love writing, there is always time.
"Low tide" is just a novel, and low tide is definitely for high tide!