英国小说书评--去布里克斯顿

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Down to Brixton
去布里克斯顿
Pomeranski. By Gerald Jacobs.
波美兰斯基。作者：杰拉尔德·雅各布斯

Vincent Van Gogh once lived in Brixton, where the fledgling artist fell in love with his landlady’s daughter. Formerly famous as a hub of post-war British Caribbean life, more recently a magnet for gentrifying hipsters, the south London neighbourhood boasts a rich cultural history. Until now, though, the area’s literary chroniclers have overlooked the Jewish families who settled in the place Gerald Jacobs calls a “dynamic urban village”.
文森特·梵高曾经住在布里克斯顿，在那里，这位初出茅庐的艺术家爱上了房东太太的女儿。布里克斯顿曾经作为战后英属加勒比海生活的中心而闻名，最近则是吸引贵族潮人们的磁石，它位于伦敦南部，拥有丰富的文化历史。然而，直到现在，该地区的文学编年史都忽略了定居在这里的犹太人家庭，杰拉尔德·雅各布斯称这个地方为“充满活力的城市村庄”。
A long-serving literary editor of Britain’s Jewish Chronicle, Mr Jacobs has written a spirited and entertaining novel of Brixton in the mid-20th century, peopled with characters who balance on a knifeedge between “legit gesheft” (above-board business) and more rackety sorts of enterprise. At times, it reads almost like a lowkey, south-of-the-Thames version of “The Sopranos”, but with slices of Bakewell tart in place of Sicilian cannoli.
作为英国犹太编年史的长期文学编辑，雅各布斯先生在20世纪中叶写了一本充满活力和娱乐性的关于布里克斯顿的小说，书中的人物性格在“合法的事业”（正大光明的业务）和更多的敲诈勒索的事业之间保持平衡。有时，它读起来几乎像是《黑道家族》发生在泰晤士河以南的一个低调版本，但用几片贝克韦尔馅饼代替西西里大炮。
After the death of Benny Pomeranski in 2000 his son Simon—who has swapped the retail hustles of his parents’ generation for the more genteel profession of drama lecturer— learns about the misadventures that shaped his father’s life. Benny, along with his pals, migrated south from the warbattered streets of the East End (a more familiar stamping-ground for earlier Jewish novelists of London). In Brixton, Benny and his wife Bertha make a decent living from their dress shop, Pomeranski Gowns, but his heart lies with a group of friends who meet in the Astoria café.
本尼·波梅兰斯基2000年去世后，他的儿子西蒙——从父母那一代的闲散生活转变成了一个更为优雅的戏剧演讲者职业——了解了那些他父亲生活的种种不幸。本尼和他的朋友们，从伦敦东区饱受战火蹂躏的街道向南迁移（伦敦早期犹太小说家更熟悉的地方）。在布里克斯顿，本尼和他的妻子伯莎靠他们的服装店波美兰斯基礼服过着体面的生活，但他的心却寄托在一群在阿斯托利亚咖啡馆见过的朋友身上。

These "Astorians" comprise not only "fairly conventional male Jewish shopkeepers" with dreams of a racier existence, but some gay and black confederates. A series of escapades, charmingly told if loosely connected, depict Benny and his mates—among them "Maxie the Ganoff" or "thief", "Spanish Joe" and "Fancy Goods Harry"—as they sidestep the law to recapture the "rule-breaking" thrills of their slumland youth. "Benny the Fixer" and his chutzpadik gang nurture Robin Hood fantasies as they raid a crooked jewellers or cheer on the career of "Kid Joey", a half-Jamaican, half-Irish Brixton boxer. They believe a "moral framework" blesses their scams. Not so "Little Jack" Lewis—a big cheese among "South London's more felonious residents", weapons-grade thug and sinister proof that playing at crime may lead swiftly down into darkness.
这些“阿斯托利亚人”不仅包括梦想变得更有活力的“相当传统的犹太男店主”，还包括一些同性恋者和黑人同盟。一系列结构松散但叙述迷人的冒险故事中描述了本尼和他的朋友“马克西·加诺夫”/“小偷”、“西班牙的乔”和“花哨商品哈里”：他们违背法律，重获贫民窟青年的“违规”惊险刺激。“掮客本尼”和他鲁莽的帮派抢劫了一家经营不正当的珠宝店，幻想成为罗宾汉，还为一半牙买加血统、一半爱尔兰血统的布里克斯顿拳击手“小孩乔伊”加油打气。他们相信“道德框架”让他们的骗局能够进行下去。“小杰克”路易斯是“伦敦南部凶恶人群”、武器级恶棍和进行犯罪游戏的邪恶证据中间的重要人物，他可能会迅速坠入黑暗。
Colourful and episodic, "Pomeranski" scatters its stories liberally. A detour to Kingston, Jamaica, gives readers a tantalising glimpse, but no more, of the island's long-settled Jewish community. It might have benefited from a tighter focus on fewer figures, such as near-tragic Sam "the Stick" Golub, crippled in childhood and driven by a "constant quest for revenge". Ultimately, the book endorses Bertha's scorn for the "nonsense" of treating "petty thieving and threatening people as a sort of political stance". Mr Jacobs, though, keeps the mood genial and the yarns flowing. The wheezes of his Astorians add an exuberant shot of yiddishkeit to "the everlasting drama that was Brixton".
多彩而偶发的“波梅兰斯基”把它的故事自由地散布开来。绕道去牙买加金斯敦的路途吊了读者的胃口，但没有让他们看到在这座岛屿定居已久的犹太社区。这可能从对少数人的密切关注中获益，比如悲惨的山姆“棒子”戈卢布在童年时就成了跛子，是“不断追求复仇”的目标使他向前。最终，这本书对伯莎鄙视的“小偷小摸和以政治立场之名来威胁别人”的“一派胡言”表示赞同。尽管如此，雅各布斯先生还是以平和的心态完成了这个故事。他的阿斯托利亚人故事把犹太人的热闹添加到了“布里克斯顿永恒的戏剧”中。

来源：经济学人

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