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发帖数: 237 | 1 上周末，奥巴马总统带着女儿玛利亚在华盛顿的政治和散文书店买书。
华盛顿——奥巴马总统从未踏足车臣崎岖的山区，但如果他翻开上周末自己购买的
小说中那本《生命如不朽繁星》(A Constellation of Vital Phenomena)，他便会被带
往那片暴力和悲剧不断的土地。在那里，无辜者被卷入战争的几率和战斗人员一样高。
或许，在今年波士顿马拉松比赛现场的爆炸案让车臣重返各大媒体的头版位置后，
奥巴马正寻求更深入地了解族裔流血冲突的根源。也可能，他是在思索自己同俄罗斯的
紧张关系。
不管怎样，相比于办公桌上那些满是图表的情报文件，这部小说能让奥巴马总统对
世界上冲突最残酷地区之一形成更为深切的感性认识。
“我想，身处他这个位置的人总是会接收大量事实和数据，”该书作者安东尼·马
拉(Anthony Marra)沉思着说，“但这部小说是关于经历、关于心理和灵魂的。”
阅读清单打开了一扇通往总统内心世界的难得的窗户，让外界得以窥见，除了那些
占据了他白天大部分时间的重复而平淡的简报外，这位总司令官可能还会想些什么。白
宫床头柜上的书会让总统放松心情、逃离烦心事或是得到灵感。有时，它们还能影响总
统应对摆在面前的危机和挑战的方式。
许多都会被用来作为礼物。当然，像《哈罗德和紫色蜡笔》(Harold and the
Purple Crayon)这样的童话书籍肯定不会对应对茶党(Tea Party)国会议员起到什么启
迪作用。但即便它们被送人，其中一些书也能反映出奥巴马读过哪些书，或想读什么书
。这些书是关于身份认同和再造，关于身为美国人意味着什么，关于家庭、爱、背叛和
救赎的著作。
以前的很多美国总统都饱览美国历史和人物传记他，但与他们不同，奥巴马的口味
倾向于文学。这与他的第一本回忆录深入探索种族和自我问题这一点相符。尽管奥巴马
也看了不少关于亚伯拉罕·林肯(Abraham Lincoln)的书，但他似乎更想摆脱——至少
在精神上摆脱——哈里·S·杜鲁门(Harry S. Truman)所称的美国刑罚体系的明珠（指
白宫——译注）。
奥巴马比较耐人寻味的选择之一是钟芭·拉希莉(Jhumpa Lahiri)的《低地》(The
Lowland)。这本书的主角是来自印度的兄弟俩，一个来美国开启了全新的生活，另一个
在祖国投身政治。拉希莉说，父亲来自肯尼亚、母亲来自堪萨斯州的奥巴马，可能联想
到了自己颇为矛盾的历程。
“他和我一样，对美国怀有一种双重看法，许多人都这样，许多土生土长的美国人
也对这个国家有一种不同的视角，”拉希莉说，“在某种意义上，他也有一部分来自美
国以外，他既体现了那种矛盾，也体现了那种丰富。”
总统选的另一本书是朱丽·大冢(Julie Otsuka)的《阁楼里的佛》(The Buddha in
the Attic)。作者记述了日本女性作为移民工人的“照片新娘”被带到美国、结果全
家在二战期间被定性为敌国侨民、身陷集中营的故事，探究了移民与美国的课题。
朱丽·大冢说，“如果有什么人知道来自非常艰难的处境的外来者有何感受，如果
有什么人必须与不同文化打交道，”那么这个人就是奥巴马。
同样地，前白宫主人的书籍选择，也让外界得以窥见总统的思想。
乔治·W·布什(George W. Bush)的前助手特维·特洛伊(Tevi Troy)说，当年再次
当选的理查德·M·尼克松(Richard M. Nixon)在重读了罗伯特·布莱克(Robert Blake
)所著的本杰明·迪斯雷利(Benjamin Disraeli)的传记后，受到启发，要求他的内阁成
员写辞职信。特洛伊对历届总统在流行文化方面的消费习惯进行了研究。比尔·克林顿
喜欢看非小说的书，包括传记、历史作品，还有他那个时代出现的有关信息经济的书籍。
布什比许多美国人想象的更喜欢读书，他和自己的高级政治顾问卡尔·罗夫(Karl
Rove)进行了阅读竞赛，竞赛不只要衡量读完的书册数，还要衡量累计的页数，甚至文
字版面的平方英寸“面积”。他对林肯格外着迷，在任期间阅读了14本关于这位南北战
争(Civil War)时期的总统的书籍。
布什的阅读有时产生了影响。比如，纳坦·夏兰斯基(Natan Sharansky)的著作《
论民主》(The Case for Democracy)就启发他在第二个任期专注于在全世界传播自由。
阿利斯泰尔·霍恩(Alistair Horne)描述阿尔及利亚战争史的书籍《野蛮的和平战
争》(A Savage War of Peace)告诉布什，法国撤军之后丧生的人更多，这一点强化了
他不愿从伊拉克撤军的信念。
著有《杰斐逊读的书、艾森奥威尔看的电视和奥巴马推送的帖子》(What
Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted)一书的特洛伊说，“奥巴马选择
的书更难读。”
不过，在奥巴马准备明年撤回大部分驻阿富汗美军之际，他挑选了卡勒德·胡赛尼
(Khaled Hosseini)的《追风筝的人》(The Kite Runner)和詹姆斯·索尔特(James
Salter)的回忆体小说《所有一切》(All That Is)，后者描述了一名由二战海军军官转
变成图书编辑的人搜寻爱情的故事。
奥巴马选择了两本以俄罗斯为背景的图书，马拉的书《生命如不朽繁星》是其中之
一，另一本是贾森·马修斯(Jason Matthews)的《红麻雀》(Red Sparrow)，这是以普
京主政的莫斯科为背景的一部间谍惊悚小说。
马修斯曾在中情局工作33年。他说，“你肯定会以为，在每天看完为总统准备的内
参后，他最不想读的东西就是间谍小说了。”
奥巴马曾经开玩笑说，他没时间读书，“我基本上只是在用牙线清洁牙齿时有点时
间看看SportsCenter（电视节目）”。他还买了尼古拉斯·达维多夫(Nicholas
Dawidoff)的《合理冲撞》(Collision Low Crossers)——讲的是他在全美橄榄球联赛(
National Football League)的生活经历，以及大卫·爱泼斯坦(David Epstein)的《运
动基因》(The Sports Gene)——讲的是提高运动员成绩的科学。
在《荒野》(Wild)这部书中，谢莉尔·斯特尔德(Cheryl Strayed)回忆了她在失去
母亲、婚姻，甚至几乎失去自己之后，投入沿着太平洋山嵴径(Pacific Crest Trail)
的上千英里长途跋涉的经历。奥巴马选择这本书，可能是认同她的这种精神之旅。
斯特尔德说，“我觉得奥巴马真的像作家们那样，审视了自己的灵魂。当然，像许
多人一样，我也认同奥巴马的经历。真的有许多人喜爱他，他有很多良师。但他是一个
靠自己的奋斗成功的人。《荒野》中很大一部分内容都在告诉人们，最终我们都必须依
靠自己。”
作者PETER BAKER2014年01月01日。翻译：陈亦亭、张薇、王湛
In Obama’s Book List, Glimpses of His Journey
By PETER BAKER
President Obama, with his daughter Malia, buying books last weekend at the
Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington
WASHINGTON — President Obama has never visited the rugged mountains of
Chechnya, but if he digs into one of the novels he bought last weekend, “A
Constellation of Vital Phenomena,” he will be transported to a land of
unremitting violence and tragedy, where the innocent are caught up in war as
often as the guilty.
Perhaps Mr. Obama is seeking a deeper understanding of the roots of the
ethnic bloodletting after Chechnya vaulted back to the front pages this year
with the Boston Marathon bombings. Or perhaps he is thinking about his
troubled relationship with Russia.
Either way, the novel would give the president a more visceral feel for one
of the world’s most brutal conflicts than the graphic intelligence papers
that cross his desk.
“I imagine someone in his position gets a lot of facts and figures,”
Anthony Marra, the author of the book, mused the other day. “But the novel
is really about the experience, about the psyche and the soul.”
A reading list offers a rare window into the presidential mind, a peek at
what a commander in chief may be thinking about beyond the prosaic and
repetitive briefings that dominate his days. The books on the White House
night stand provide relief, escape or inspiration. At times they can
influence a president’s approach to the crises and challenges he confronts.
Many of the nearly two dozen volumes Mr. Obama picked up at Washington’s
Politics and Prose bookstore will be gifts, and certainly children’s tales
like “Harold and the Purple Crayon” offer few lessons for dealing with Tea
Party congressmen. But even if they are given away, some of the books
reflect what Mr. Obama has already read or would like to read. They are
volumes about identity and reinvention, about what it means to be American,
and about family, love, betrayal and redemption.
Unlike many of his predecessors, who devoured American history and
biographies, Mr. Obama’s tastes lean toward the literary, in keeping with a
man whose first memoir deeply explored issues of race and self. While Mr.
Obama has read his share of Abraham Lincoln, he seems more intent on
breaking out, mentally at least, from what Harry S. Truman once called the
crown jewel of the American penal system.
One of Mr. Obama’s more intriguing choices was Jhumpa Lahiri’s “The
Lowland,” about two brothers from India, one who comes to build a new life
in America and the other who becomes ensnared in politics back home. Ms.
Lahiri said Mr. Obama may relate to his own conflicting paths as the son of
a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas.
“He has a sort of double vision of America as I do, as many people do, many
people who have been both brought up and bred within America but also have
a different perspective of the country,” Ms. Lahiri said. “In a sense,
part of him comes from outside America and he embodies both that
contradiction and that richness.”
Another presidential choice, Julie Otsuka’s novel “The Buddha in the Attic
,” explores issues of immigrants and America as she chronicles the tale of
Japanese women brought to the United States as “picture brides” for
migrant workers, only to have their families wind up in World War II
internment camps.
“If anyone knows what it’s like to be an outsider from very, very
difficult circumstances and someone who had to go back and forth between
cultures,” it is Mr. Obama, Ms. Otsuka said.
The book choices of previous White House occupants offer similar looks into
presidential thought.
A re-elected Richard M. Nixon was inspired to ask his cabinet to write
letters of resignation after rereading Robert Blake’s biography of Benjamin
Disraeli, said Tevi Troy, a former aide to George W. Bush, who has made a
study of what presidents have consumed in popular culture. Bill Clinton
consumed nonfiction, including biography, history and volumes about the
emerging information economy of his era.
Mr. Bush was more of a reader than many Americans imagined — he had reading
contests with Karl Rove, his top political adviser, measured not just by
the number of books finished, but the cumulative number of pages and even
square inches of text. He was particularly drawn to Lincoln, reading 14
books about the Civil War president while in office.
His reading at times had impact. Natan Sharansky’s book “The Case for
Democracy” helped inform Mr. Bush’s second-term focus on spreading freedom
around the world.
And Alistair Horne’s history of the war in Algeria, “A Savage War of Peace
,” taught Mr. Bush that more people died after the French withdrew —
reinforcing his own reluctance to pull out of Iraq.
“Obama’s book selections have been harder to read,” said Mr. Troy, the
author of “What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted.”
But as he prepares to pull most American troops out of Afghanistan next year
, Mr. Obama picked up Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner” and James
Salter’s evocative “All That Is,” a story of a World War II naval officer
turned book editor searching for love.
Mr. Marra’s book was one of two Mr. Obama selected set in Russia, the other
being Jason Matthews’s “Red Sparrow,” a spy thriller in Vladimir V.
Putin’s Moscow.
“You’d think after he picks up the president’s daily briefing, the last
thing he’d want to read is a spy novel,” said Mr. Matthews, who spent 33
years in the C.I.A.
Mr. Obama, who once joked that he had so little time for reading that he
just flossed his teeth and watched “SportsCenter,” also bought Nicholas
Dawidoff’s “Collision Low Crossers,” about life in the National Football
League, and David Epstein’s “The Sports Gene,” about the science of
athletic performance.
In selecting Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild,” her memoir of losing her mother,
her marriage and almost herself until she takes a thousand-mile backpacking
trip along the Pacific Crest Trail, Mr. Obama may identify with her interior
journey.
“I think President Obama has really searched his soul in the way that
writers do,” Ms. Strayed said. “I certainly, like many people, identify
with Obama’s journey. He’s really had a lot of people who loved him well,
who had a lot of teachers. But he’s really a self-made man. So much of ‘
Wild’ is about how we ultimately have to make ourselves.” |
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