摘要：《恶棍来访》(A Visit from the Goon Squad) 是美国作家珍妮弗·伊根(Jennifer Egan) 荣获普利策奖的后现代主义小说。这部作品通过13个相互关联的章节，以时间跳跃的非线性叙事，描绘了音乐产业从业者群体跨越四十年的生活轨迹。
《恶棍来访》(A Visit from the Goon Squad) 是美国作家珍妮弗·伊根(Jennifer Egan) 荣获普利策奖的后现代主义小说。这部作品通过13个相互关联的章节，以时间跳跃的非线性叙事，描绘了音乐产业从业者群体跨越四十年的生活轨迹。
It began the usual way, in the bathroom of the Lassimo Hotel. Sasha was adjusting her yellow eye shadow in the mirror when she noticed a bag on the floor beside the sink that must have belonged to the woman whose peeing she could faintly hear through the vaultlike door of a toilet stall. Inside the rim of the bag, barely visible, was a wallet made of pale green leather. It was easy for Sasha to recognize, looking back, that the peeing woman’s blind trust had provoked her: We live in a city where people will Steal the hair off your head if you give them half a chance, but you leave your stuff lying in plain sight and expect it to be waiting for you when you come back? It made her want to teach the woman a lesson. But this wish only camouflaged the deeper feeling Sasha always had: that fat, tender wallet, offering itself to her hand—it seemed so dull, so life-as-usual to just leave it there rather than seize the moment, accept the challenge, take the leap, fly the coop, throw caution to the wind, live dangerously (“I get it,” Coz, her therapist, said), and take the fucking thing.
“You mean steal it.”
He was trying to get Sasha to use that word, which was harder to avoid in the case of a wallet than with a lot of the things she’d lifted over the past year, when her condition (as Coz referred to it) had begun to accelerate: five sets of keys, fourteen pairs of sunglasses, a child’s striped scarf, binoculars, a cheese grater, a pocketknife, twenty-eight bars of soap, and eighty-five pens, ranging from cheap ballpoints she’d used to sign debit-card slips to the aubergine Visconti that cost two hundred sixty dollars online, which she’d lifted from her former boss’s lawyer during a contracts meeting. Sasha no longer took anything from stores—their cold, inert goods didn’t tempt her. Only from people.
“Okay,” she said. “Steal it.”
Sasha and Coz had dubbed that feeling she got the “personal challenge,” as in: taking the wallet was a way for Sasha to assert her toughness, her individuality. What they needed to do was switch things around in her head so that the challenge became not taking the wallet but leaving it. That would be the cure, although Coz never used words like “cure.” He wore funky sweaters and let her call him Coz, but he was old school inscrutable, to the point where Sasha couldn’t tell if he was gay or straight, if he’d written famous books, or if (as she sometimes suspected) he was one of those escaped cons who impersonate surgeons and wind up leaving their operating tools inside people’s skulls. Of course, these questions could have been resolved on Google in less than a minute, but they were useful questions (according to Coz), and so far, Sasha had resisted.
一切始于拉斯莫酒店洗手间，那个司空见惯的场景。萨莎正对着镜子调整黄色眼影时，突然发现洗手池旁的地上躺着一只包——隔间里传来女人隐约的排尿声，这包显然属于那位正享受着"保险库式"厕所门保护的女士。包口边缘若隐若现地露出淡绿色皮革钱包的轮廓。事后回想时，萨莎清楚地意识到，正是那个排尿女人盲目的信任刺激了她：我们生活的这座城市里，人们只要逮到半点机会连你头发都能偷走，可你却把财物大咧咧扔在这儿，指望回来时它们还乖乖等着？这让她想给那女人上一课。但这个念头不过掩饰着萨莎内心更深的冲动：那个丰腴柔软的钱包，仿佛在主动邀请她的触碰——如果就这么放任不管，生活该多么乏味平庸啊。不如把握当下、迎接挑战、纵身一跃、破笼而出、不顾一切、铤而走险（"我懂"，她的心理医生科兹说），把这该死的玩意儿顺走。
"你是说要偷它。"
科兹正逼着萨莎说出那个词。比起过去一年她顺走的其他东西，对钱包用"偷"字确实更难回避——自从她的"症状"（科兹的术语）开始加剧：五串钥匙、十四副太阳镜、孩子的条纹围巾、望远镜、奶酪刨丝器、折叠刀、二十八块香皂，以及八十五支从签借记卡单据的廉价圆珠笔，到价值二百六十美元的紫黑色维斯康蒂钢笔——那支笔是她从前任老板的律师那里顺来的，当时正在开合同会议。萨莎早已不碰商店里的东西，那些冰冷呆板的商品诱惑不了她。只有人身上的物件才行。
"好吧，"她说，"偷它。"
萨莎和科兹把那种感觉称为"个人挑战"：顺走钱包是萨莎证明自己强悍与独特的方式。他们需要做的是扭转她脑中的逻辑，让"不偷钱包"成为新的挑战。这就是解药，虽然科兹从不用"解药"这类词。他穿着花哨毛衣，允许她直呼"科兹"，但骨子里却是个老派的谜——萨莎至今搞不清他是弯是直，是否写过名著，或者（她有时怀疑）他根本就是个冒充医生的越狱犯，就像那些会在患者颅腔里落下手术工具的冒牌货。当然，这些问题谷歌搜索不用一分钟就能解决，但科兹说这些疑问很有价值，所以萨莎至今忍着没查。
1. 重点单词和短语
① provoke（激起、挑衅）
- 原句：...the peeing woman’s blind trust had provoked her...（那个排尿女人盲目的信任刺激了她...）
- 例句： His rude comments provoked an angry reaction from the crowd.（他粗鲁的言论激起了人群的愤怒。）
② camouflage（掩饰、伪装）
- 原句：But this wish only camouflaged the deeper feeling...（但这个念头不过掩饰着更深的冲动...）
- 例句： She camouflaged her nervousness with a smile.（她用微笑掩饰自己的紧张。）
③ lift（偷窃，口语化表达）
- 原句：...a lot of the things she’d lifted over the past year...（过去一年她顺走的许多东西...）
- 例句： He got caught lifting a candy bar from the store.（他在商店偷糖果时被抓了。）
④ inert（无生气的、呆滞的）
- 原句：...their cold, inert goods didn’t tempt her.（那些冰冷呆板的商品诱惑不了她。）
- 例句： The computer screen remained inert after the crash.（死机后，电脑屏幕一片死寂。）
⑤ assert（主张、证明）
- 原句：...a way for Sasha to assert her toughness...（萨莎证明自己强悍的方式...）
- 例句： She asserted her authority by making tough decisions.（她通过强硬决策来确立自己的权威。）
⑥ inscrutable（难以捉摸的）
- 原句：...but he was old school inscrutable...（但他骨子里是个老派的谜...）
- 例句： The CEO’s expression was inscrutable during the meeting.（会议期间，CEO的表情深不可测。）
2. 学习常用句表达
① It began the usual way...（事情像往常一样开始...）
- 原句：It began the usual way, in the bathroom of the Lassimo Hotel.（一切始于拉斯莫酒店洗手间，那个司空见惯的场景。）
- 例句： It began the usual way—with an argument over money.（事情像往常一样开始——因为钱吵了起来。）
② What they needed to do was...（他们需要做的是...）
- 原句：What they needed to do was switch things around in her head...（他们需要做的是扭转她脑中的逻辑...）
- 例句： What they needed to do was find a new strategy.（他们需要做的是制定新策略。）
这部小说犹如一座英语表达的宝库，每个章节都像精心切割的钻石，从不同角度折射出当代英语的璀璨光芒。正如书中反复强调的时间主题，语言学习者也该抓住每个"当下"，在文学阅读中积累最鲜活的语言样本。
来源：李子园外语