Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi

Transcendent Kingdom

Yaa Gyasi

出版社

Knopf

出版时间

2020-07-14

ISBN

9780525658184

评分

★★★★★
书籍介绍
Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief--a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's phenomenal debut.
用户评论
Racial trauma, relationship with god, depression and addiction. I can never be a mom- i don’t want my child to go through that.
诗一般的语言,Gyasi很值得日后翘首以待。我对宗教很无感,所以这本书没有那么relatable.
继令人瞩目的 《Homegoing》之后,Gyasi 的第二部作品里,我们跟着主人公Gifty,第二代加纳移民,斯坦福神经系统科学毕业在即的博士生,回忆、刨析她的移民家庭成长经历、她断断续续的宗教信仰,科学研究课题,她的思考和内省,这些都围绕着一直追寻的问题--从一家四口,到现仅剩下两人的家庭里,患有抑郁症却拒绝帮助的母亲,和对世界仍有很多不解的自己,Are we going to be OK? 相较作者上一部的主题,这则故事更容易贴近,对移民经历伴随着的歧视,对宗教和科学的关系,对父母的,对精神疾病的,对人生的,种种困惑都让读者不难理解。书的前部分主人公对待周遭一切那种带着科研式的观察而带来的距离感,很符合人物给人的感受;而Gifty 的人物发展,她逐渐接纳世界给人以希望,也不失真实。
【有声书】一直以为读的是一本memoir,但是读到一半总觉得在religion和science这个天平上,作为神经科学phd的主人公来说science的内容有些少,才发现这原来是一部小说。写作风格润物细无声,压抑的感性,克制的愤怒,没有喊的口号,没有cliche的鸡汤,甚至对于绝望,痛苦,抑郁,冷漠,距离,抛弃的描述都很新颖,像假装在脑海里跟妈妈说话,如果妈妈动了身体,就表明我可以出门;还有就是日记里的代号延续到现实的叙述,像是把自己抽离出来了。科学与信仰,这亘古不变的讨论话题,作者给了一些自己的想法,也给了读者一些想象的基础。
其实是一本不错的书了。从其他评论可以想见作者的第一本会有多好。
3.5,喜欢很多个小片段,但整个的overarching小说不够吸引我
看到1/3处突然就get到了
作为异乡人在第一学期里经历又思考许多后,书里信仰和科学之间的讨论远无Gifty以及她家人因identity所遭受的排斥那样令我触动。最终一切又归于和解与平静,然而现在的我是不是也在幻想着十年后的美好日常来逃离现在的自闭生活呢?我想让那个困于罪恶,痛苦与绝望的初中生Gifty直起腰板去面对沟通改变这一切,可我甚至没法说服自己走出四叠半,大概一切都还是不会改变的。 各处插入的neuroscience小知识我很受用
收藏