[新鮮書市]Jennifer Weiner新書《永遠的好朋友》

Jennifer Weiner新書《永遠的好朋友》

來源：Los Angels Times 編輯：Vicki

躺在炎炎夏日的海濱，當太陽正在哄着不安靜的沙灘入睡時，你正在做什麼呢？在溫暖的沙粒間穿梭於半夢半醒中？何不拿起Jennifer Weiner新書《永遠的好朋友》呢？這又是怎樣的一份令人豔羨的愜意呢？

BFFs who are pretty shallow

It's a scorcher(大熱天) of a summer. One when the sun lulls a beachgoer to sleep（安撫一個海濱入睡） on the warm sand and a lackadaisical （無精打采）mind meanders （漫遊）between dreaming and wakefulness. Taking a plunge into（突然陷入） "Best Friends Forever," Jennifer Weiner's latest novel, I expected a well-tanned afternoon read about friends with a bond that anyone would envy -- not one quite this pale.

The story opens on the night of a 15-year high school reunion, with Valerie Adler, local TV weather girl in Chicago, taking a cellphone photo of a naked man in a parking lot. "You ruined my life!" she tells him, a refrain （疊句）heard throughout the book. A refrain shared by Addie Downs, in separate instances about the same high school jerk. A refrain that is at its best a tepid exaggeration（不冷不熱的誇張）, and at its worst is a clumsy（笨拙的） device to make the reader keep reading.

Having not seen one another since they graduated (Addie didn't come to the reunion), Valerie shows up at Addie's house after thinking she's run over the cad.

So many flashbacks（很多倒敘）

Through a series of flashbacks, told by Addie, we expect to unfurl （打開）a close friendship of two girls who for some reason became estranged （疏遠的）until brought back together by the incident. The expression "best friends forever" brings to mind a long relationship of bonding, sharing secrets, dreaming together, competing, maybe fighting, but eventually supporting one another. Instead, "BFF" is Addie's story. With Valerie inked as a one-dimensional caricature（一維漫畫）, it appears unlikely the author could have developed a compelling relationship between the two. Instead, Weiner chooses to tell the tale of Addie Downs' tragic life.

"This isn't 'Days of Our Lives,' " Valerie claims. Perhaps Valerie is wrong. This line alludes to（暗示） the amnesia（遺忘症） the friends jokingly wished upon the high school jerk. While the friends realize a case of amnesia is too far-fetched（難以捉摸）, apparently Weiner does not: Addie's brother suffers from short-term memory loss as a result of a teenage car accident and lives in a home. Addie's parents both died when she was a teenager (father: aneurysm, mother: breast cancer a year later).

To round out the soap opera theme, Addie became tragically obese （肥胖）due to a teenage eating disorder but lost the weight before the opening of the book. A healthy portion of flashbacks takes us through the entire weight loss program, topped off with the requisite affair with a married man.

C'mon, get real

Addie hasn't had an easy time of it, but the melodrama（情節劇）, with its full set of "ruined my life" events, could tempt some readers in.

Conversely, little is known about Valerie's life. She does talk Addie into a spontaneous road trip as she did once before when they were younger. The antics（古怪可笑的舉動） they embark upon（開始，着手） could have produced a "Thelma & Louise" aspect, but that never fully materializes（成爲現實） due to their lack of desperation, the kind of desperation that creates the bond of "until death do us part," you know, Best Friends Forever.

Weiner has created a world that demands too great a suspension of disbelief. That a long-lost friend would show up at her high school chum's childhood home, assume she still lived there and not expect her parents to open the door? That a bank teller would just say yes to a robbery as long as you stashed some of the cash in her car on your way out? Or that a puddle（坑） of blood that is big enough to be noticed in the dark of night could also be small enough that the bleeder can get up and run away unharmed?

"Best Friends Forever" may please Weiner fans who love her knack for strong one-liners. It's worth a toss（投，拋） in the beach bag. But expect a spray-on tan in the end.

Wallen is author of the novel "MoonPies and Movie Stars."

Keke View：

Jennifer Weiner 1970年出身於路易斯安娜州，在康涅狄格州長大，畢業於普林斯頓大學的英語文學專業，她的作品《她的鞋》（IN HER SHOES ）被拍成電影由卡梅隆迪亞茲，託妮柯利特和雪莉麥克雷恩主演，她的另外的代表作有GOOD IN BED (2001), LITTLE EARTHQUAKES, (2004), GOODNIGHT NOBODY (2005)。

在Jennifer Weiner 的新作《永遠的好朋友》中，我們可以發現她將兩個主人翁的friendship通過無數的生活悲喜劇聯繫在了一起，看似淺顯卻那麼生動，那麼Do You Have The Best friend Forever?(你有一生的朋友麼？)

我們都知道沒有人可以live alone在這個繁華喧囂的世界, 所以我們有了所謂的friends. Also, because they are friends, 他們就有性別、年齡、學歷和事業等方面的differences. 這些都是不可改變的 hard facts；正因爲他們是我們的朋友，我們應該respect且help對方。

True朋友can在語言和motion上找到common points，這是怎樣的一筆treasury？當我們have朋友，我們可以find 我們曾經沒有過的experiences和answers；可是在迷茫的時候find the road；朋友還可以然我們learn a lot。詩人Gibran（紀伯倫）曾經說過：“和你一同smile過的人你也許很快就把他forget，而同你一同cry過的人你也許一生就會remember他”。

Maybe你poor，maybe你很common，maybe你have nothing，但是你決不能沒有friends。一人一生只有幾十years，說長且short，而且註定experience太多的風風雨雨。

One person的天空是狹小的，monotonous（單調的），friendship組成的天空是broad，燦爛的。Besides，友情可以你的ife增添fun，讓you更洞悉outside world。憂傷時，friends can take it with you，which will relieve you a bit；快樂時，happiness will be strengthened when it is shared with others。友情是人生一筆priceless財富。

在新作《永遠的好朋友》中，Jennifer Weiner 告訴我們一生的friends可以用來承擔痛苦，分享快樂，無論分開多久，so你呢？我的friend?你和你的朋友之間又有怎樣的stories呢？你有Best Friend Forever麼？