十一种孤独

"I can't be certain that this house has a window... God knows, Bernie, God knows where a window would be, a window for all of us."

"Eleven Kinds of Loneliness" depicts the lives of ordinary New Yorkers in the 1950s and 1960s following World War II with a bleak tone. The novel chronicles the loneliness of eleven characters, all of whom lack security and face difficulties in life: white-collar workers who have been fired, a cab driver with a vivid imagination, a young man who aspires to become a writer, couples who are confused about marriage, eccentric teachers, a new transfer student, tuberculosis patients, the wife of an invalid, a jazz pianist, and struggling officers or veterans. Yates describes the ordinary lives of these ordinary people, depicting their loneliness, despair, and sense of loss. He once said, "If there is a theme to my work, it is only the simple one of loneliness. Nobody escapes it, nobody should try to escape it; it is the tragedy of human life."

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"The forgotten best American writer."

- The Times

"Yates is a master."

- Sebastien Faulks

"Just mentioning the title of this book easily gains agreement and resonance among an entire generation of readers. Yates created a New York version of 'Dubliners'."

- The New York Times

"One of the greatest American short story collections of all time."

- Kurt Vonnegut

"Yates is one of the most outstanding realist writers who naturally inherited Hemingway's plain style and Carver's minimalism. However, Yates gives us more than that; his work has a kind of transparency that comes from Fitzgerald, his literary hero."

- The Guardian

"One of America's greatest post-war novelists and short story writers. He contributed some of the finest stories of his time and brought joy to readers lucky enough to read them today."

- The Independent

作者简介

“被遗忘的最优秀的美国作家”——理查德·耶茨（RichardsYates，1926—1992），“焦虑时代的伟大作家”，作品有《革命之路》、《十一种孤独》、《复活节游行》、《恋爱中的骗子》、《好学校》、《年轻的心在哭泣》、《冷泉港》等。耶茨作为二十世纪中叶美国主流生活的忠实记录者，批评家们将他与契诃夫、菲茨杰拉德、约翰·契弗相提并论。他的处女作长篇小说《革命之路》甫一推出即获成功，获得美国国家图书奖提名。1962年他的第一部短篇小说集《十一种孤独》出版，更被誉为“纽约的《都柏林人》”。耶茨的作品曾获《纽约时报书评》、《君子》、《华盛顿邮报》等媒体的好评，有四本小说入选“每月一书俱乐部”。此外他还拥有一大批作家拥趸，其中不乏著名作家，如库尔特·冯古内特、安德烈·杜波依斯，他的作品也影响了许多作家，如雷蒙德·卡佛，他被誉为“作家中的作家”。