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Product Description
Amazon. co.jp
新進気鋭の英国作家を中心に編まれた私小説のアンソロジー、『Speaking with the Angel』を買いたくなる理由はたくさんある。収録作品はどれも軽妙で独創的な物語だし、もちろん未発表のものばかりなのだから。さらに大義名分もある。じつは編者であり執筆者のひとりでもあるニック・ホーンビィには自閉症の息子がいて、赤裸で胸が痛む序文の中で、そんな子どもたちを助けてやれる教育機関の重要性を説いている。自閉症の子どもは「言語能力がないし、言語習得の動機もないし、生まれつき世界を探検したい欲求もないのだから」。そんなわけで、本の売り上げの一部が世界の自閉症チャリティーのために使われることになっている。
しかし、これ自体が素晴らしい作品集なので、チャリティーのために買う必要はない。たとえばロディ・ドイルの「The Slave」では、42歳の家族持ちの男が、キッチンの床でドブねずみの死骸を見つける。そしてなんと、この迷惑な「自然界からの急襲」が彼を「中年の危機」へと追い込んでいくのだ。「Last Request」で著者ジャイルズ・スミスが登場させるのは、「最後の晩餐」を専門に調理する刑務所の料理人である。ひどく自信家のシェフが仕事を語る場面はおかしくて、しかもショッキングだ。
処刑前には、常識的な範囲で3品までのコースメニューなら、好きなものが食べられる。それにコーヒーか紅茶と、希望すれば菓子かビスケットがつく。もちろんアルコールはダメだ。なかには、リンゴを口にくわえたブタの丸焼きが食べたいというバカもいたし、看守長の頭を欲しがる野郎もいた。
それ以外の作品、たとえばホーンビィ自身による「Nipple Jesus」では、スキンヘッドの用心棒が美術館のガードマンになり、ポルノ雑誌から切り抜いた乳房の小片を何千枚も張り合わせた磔刑コラージュの警備をするうちに、それに惚れ込んでしまう。
収録された物語には、どれも政治やポップ・カルチャーがふんだんに取り入れられていて、時代の先端をいく感じがある。けれども、わいせつな言葉や俗語が乱発されているのは、これら12人の小説家に共通する本質的な「もろさ」の表れなのだろう。
Amazon.com
There are lots of reasons to buy Speaking with the Angel, an anthology of first-person narratives by bright, young, mostly British literati: these are smart and original stories, none of them previously published elsewhere. What's more, it's for a good cause. Nick Hornby, editor of the collection and author of one of the pieces, has an autistic son, and in a raw and wrenching introduction he stresses the importance of educational institutions to serve such children, who "have no language, and no particular compulsion to acquire it, who are born without the need to explore the world." Accordingly, a portion of each sale benefits autism charities around the world.
Still, this is a collection that stands on its own merits, and requires no act of charity to purchase. In Roddy Doyle's "The Slave," for example, a 42-year-old family man discovers a dead rat on his kitchen floor, and this unwelcome incursion from the natural world plunges him into a midlife crisis. In "Last Requests," Giles Smith introduces us to a prison cook who specializes in, well, last suppers. It's both hilarious and shocking to encounter this egomaniacal chef on the job:
They can have what they like, within reason, up to a maximum of three courses, with coffee or tea and a piece of confectionary or a biscuit if they want it. No alcohol, for obvious reasons. Obviously, you'll get the jokers, like the one who said he wanted a whole roast pig with an apple in its mouth. Or the governor's head, one of them said he wanted.Elsewhere, in Hornby's own "NippleJesus," a skinhead bouncer becomes a museum guard and falls for the painting he's charged to protect, a crucifixion collage made up of thousands of tiny breasts cut out of porn magazines. The stories in Speaking with the Angel all feel up to the minute, abounding with references to politics and popular culture. Yet the obscenity and slang ultimately amount to a form of bluster, an acknowledgement of the intrinsic fragility that all 12 of these narrators share. --Victoria Jenkins
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PRIME MINISTER: With your permission, Mr. Speaker, I wish to make a statement to the House regarding certain incidents of a personal nature. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
PRIME MINISTER: With your permission, Mr. Speaker, I wish to make a statement to the House regarding certain incidents of a personal nature. Read the first page
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