万物生长

万物生长三部曲 #1

by Feng Tang, 冯唐

《万物生长》是冯唐的“北京三部曲”的第二部，记录了医科大学新生秋水的八年求学和成长历程。一个是曾共同埋首于数学公式、徘徊在校园小径上的女友兼同学；一个是偶然相识、成熟又风情的情人兼姐姐，两个女人在秋水心中争夺领地，而秋水也从与两个女人的相处中得到成长。全书鲜活地展现了秋水与他的兄弟们在医科大学的八年光阴，还涉及很多对生活现状的描绘与议论，显得尖锐、幽默又不失智慧。

书中有不少北京话的语言特色，恣意张扬、笑点频出，有一种高级而不流俗的冯唐式的幽默和狡黠。秋水由青涩走向成熟，荷尔蒙的汹涌也逐渐变为对生活与现实的迷惘，《万物生长》写出了我们每个人青春的痕迹，从中可以找到那个年少的自己的影子。

Genres: China, Fiction

276 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Joyce]

冯唐的书真是看半本叫绝，看一本还行，看第二本就觉得怎么有点千篇一律呢，真是看不下去了

[Rick Harrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting fellow Feng Tang is! A medical doctor well read in the Chinese classics and American and Brit Lit as well. He's also a media personality and an entrepreneur. He jokes that "sexuality is almost [his] trademark." I'm a random reader even or especially in English, and I like finding oddball treasures. This is one of them, not least because I have a lot of confidence in the author's use of language. I can trust that he's a genuine stylist and can enrich my own Chinese.

I've been making a push to get inside the Chinese language, but it's hard. I read as much as I can in English where I'm still a learner, and Chinese is like another whole universe to saddle my ignorant self with. But last time I left China, I swept up a bunch of Chinese books for very little money onto a Chinese Kindle app. I had a Chinese phone number and a work address, and some WeChat cash, and so far I retain access to the books I bought, even though the cell number is dead.

I guess the books will die when the device dies. They want to send me a text code before I can reclaim the account stateside, which has become Catch-22. Of course there's no way in to big tech by phone in China any more than there is here. I know this isn't very interesting to anybody, but it would be if it had sex in it to crude detail. I can't remember how or why I found this guy, but I've got a few of his books now and I look forward to reading them all, in the time crunch before device and brain death.

His books came and went in my Kindle library, presumably because the Chinese censors don't always know what to do with him. Just like here, prudishness gets mixed up with conservative politics and so no one is quite sure if he's dangerous. There's a long tradition in China of using sexual innuendo as code for criticism of the emperor. There was that whole cute grass-camel cartoon, where the censors took a while to figure out that the name for the cute child friendly camel sounded like "F your mother." That's about the level of Feng Tang's porn. More like a typical stand-up comic, but more real and beyond just laughter.

The book is an entirely frank deep dive into the crude and bawdy lives of bright students who must share bunks in a tiny dorm room with at least five others. They eat, sleep and fornicate there, and know precisely how gross each other can be. They forgive each other their trespasses, especially when they drink. The book is real, but especially because its author loves to read, and even to read the classics. But the detail is about like what I tell you about my Kindle. Uninteresting, except maybe you can actually relate to it. Life is like that.

So how does this even get to be literature? Well, for one thing there are lots of literary allusions, which seems de-rigueur even for lesser writing in China. His are both overt and by way of locution. For another, he spends a lot of time talking about language from the first person vantage of someone who translates English medical literature for love and bragging rights. The protagonist - quite apparently there are heavy elements of autobiography here - is talented with calligraphy and translates the Chinese classics for his more narrowly focused classmates. I could find no political foul here, but if you don't know much about what we call China's repressive regime, you'll probably be surprised and the level of frankness.

Hmmm I wonder if they need a translator. Too bad translation pays slave wages, but what if it were to have an English language audience? I just might have to give it a try, if only it could get me . . . bragging rights.

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, entertaining and sexy, unfolding a story about growth with love, chaos, perplexity and carefreeness. I particularly like what's been said at the beginning of the book, there are two ways of growing up - take in what you didn't understand before or let go of those you still haven't figured out. In that sense, I am forever along this growth journey.

[Brilliant · Rating 3 out of 5]

看过，却忘记了一切情节，连主人公秋水都是查百度才想起来的，对于这种意识流的小说感觉很难记忆，也许有一些金句吧，但更喜欢的其实是一些具体的精致情节，比如校内网转的那篇短文，十多年过去，还会历历在目。

[Lawrence Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

可以看看

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

终于把三部曲看完了。习惯了这种风格之后渐渐觉得其实写得不错……

[Zhu · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, obviously i read more than one book from him, lol. and clearly i loved it that much i thought it a five star read. 青春啊 咯咯

[Ethan J · Rating 4 out of 5]

我操这本书跟《十八岁跟我一个姑娘》并没有太多区别吧，只是人物和情节换了换，有的时候会觉得段子都有点重合了。Anyways，这篇的故事性还是略强于《十八岁》，描写青春爱情的那种懵懂让人觉得很美好

[Ruofan · Rating 3 out of 5]

更喜欢他的“十八岁给我一个姑娘”。

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Waste of time

[Xinning Zheng · Rating 3 out of 5]

我和你说的世界可能不是一个。我的世界有‘有所为，有所不为’，有‘天大的理，敌不过我高兴’，有’这许事儿我只为你做‘。