貪虎里里長914的狂想曲:好書推薦《聖徒節與謀殺案》

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June 16,2009

好書推薦《聖徒節與謀殺案》

法國科西嘉島上，深具獵人本性的異國女子遇害

冷靜的督察遇上不冷靜的女督察

聖徒節期間調查死亡真相，卻串接起一個個生命故事

沒想到情感網與線索同樣迷離

沒想到謀殺案不止一樁

沒想到是一趟心靈療傷的旅程

──這是科西嘉送給台灣的洞察禮物

這是《人籟論辨月刊》去年11月所做的特刊 - 《聖徒節與謀殺案》，在這一期中這本懸疑小說被完整的刊載。而在上星期，這本小說的作者杜睿(Jean-Louis Tourné)，同時也是一位銀行家，在百忙之中從希臘來到台灣，與人籟一起舉辦了科西嘉推理之夜。

我則是相當幸運的去貪虎了一晚的義大利美酒與美食...咳～重點是，和作者杜睿，還有在場的許多部落客分享了很多有趣的想法。

其實《聖徒節與謀殺案》這本小說表面上是一本推理小說，但其實比較接近於懸疑小說的感覺。這本書開始於我們所陌生的科西嘉島，所以我想先大略介紹一下這個陌生而特別的海島...

科西嘉，一個位於地中海上的島嶼，地圖上看起來就像是個伸出食指的左手腕，她是地中海島嶼中山脈最多的一個島。

不過這個海島除了是拿破崙的出生地而聞名之外，也因她美麗的海岸線和沙灘而成為觀光客的度假勝地。

科西嘉島自古以來被幾個不同國家所佔領，也因此發展出不同於法國大陸的文化，科西嘉這個海島擁有自己的語言和文化風俗民情，所以一直以來都有獨立的運動在科西嘉島進行著，這點倒是跟台灣有很類似之處。

回到《聖徒節與謀殺案》這本小說。它的故事由一宗謀殺案開始，隨著案情一點一滴的解開，在看似陽光的科西嘉其實有著黑暗的一面，兩大家族間的鬥爭與復仇，科西嘉人的排外心結等等，在光與影之間，人們總是不斷的徘徊著，為了利益衝突或者自己所愛，做出不一樣的選擇...

（點我可看大圖）

故事在主要發生在科西嘉的康波村(Campo)，還延伸到了科西嘉的首府Ajaccio和Porticcio這個城市。熱愛地圖的里長於是孤狗了一下地點，這樣在閱讀小說時感覺又更真實了一些...

聖徒節(La Toussaint)，在每年的11月1日，主要紀念過世的聖徒；而11月2日是逝者節(La fete des morts)，是紀念祖先的日子，這本小說就是在這樣的節日氣氛中行進著。除了節日的意義之外，在書中的每個角色都失去過一個或至少一個親友，這也是本書的另一層想探討的主題 - 失去。每個人都會面臨失去至愛、失去親友、失去財富、失去...，每個人也都會有不同面對或不面對的處理方式，甚至，為了不再失去，人們願意付出一切的代價。

在這期特刊當中，除了刊載這篇精彩的小說之外，還有許多由魏明德神父親自到科西嘉所拍攝回來的相片，搭配著劇情，就更讓小說有想像的空間了。在上星期五的餐會裡，我和魏神父聊到了這些照片和小說的時間線，因為在閱讀之前，科西嘉島對我來說就是陽光、山與海，在閱讀的時候，我以為作者描寫的是幾十年前的科西嘉，因為故事裡的人物是那樣的幽閉和互相猜忌，雖然也有幸福和愛的部分。我知道互相猜忌是一種人性，和時間無關，但在現今文明和不同種族文化的衝擊下，科西嘉仍保有非常傳統和封閉的風俗民情，這點是讓我比較驚訝的。而親自拜訪過科西嘉的魏神父也有同樣的感覺，他說，離開觀光客最多最熱鬧的海灘以外的科西嘉，完全就是另外一個截然不同的世界，也因此這本小說的時間線是現在，而不是過去。

這點，是和另一個海島，我的祖國台灣，很不一樣的地方。

小說的劇情圍繞著兩大家族間的愛恨情仇，也因為謀殺案，外來的警方不得不介入調查，在科西嘉很明顯可以感受到「在地」和「外地」的分別，而排外也是再自然不過的一件事了。為了家族的整體利益和名聲，即便是犯罪都可以被秘而不宣，就算是警方也一樣，更何況是「外地」來的警察。然而在台灣，這個高度融合外來文明的海島，要是發生一樣的事情，恐怕會有很多人爭先恐後搶著當"爪耙子"吧，然後就是某週刊文情並茂、劇情光怪陸離+腥羶色的"深入報導"了...="=|||...

其實作者跟台灣真的很有緣，他曾經在台灣的金融界工作過一陣子，所以很喜歡台灣。在這本小說之後，他的下一本小說《黑色福爾摩莎》(Black Formosa)也即將在台灣出版，這本小說就是取材於作者居住在台灣時的一些經驗和想法，在看過《聖徒節與謀殺案》之後就更期待這本小說的上市了。

非常感謝人籟舉辦這個聚會，雖然規模不大，但卻讓參與的人擁有非常美好的一次經驗。很多時候我們在閱讀作品時沒能那麼幸運能見到作者，並且有機會和作者深入探討小說的內容和其他想法。我很幸運報名了這次的活動，也希望在未來能有更多參與這類活動的機會。

============英文版分隔線============

A foreign woman was murdered in Corsica, France.
A composed male inspector met up an agitated female inspector.
A sequence of stories had linked up during the
Investigation of the murder in La Toussaint.
Unexpected and puzzled relationships and hints,
More than one murder cases,
Unexpected journey of healing for wounded souls.
-- A diaphanous gift for Taiwan from Corsica.

'Les Saints et les Morts' was the topic of the special edition of Renlai monthly magazine in November 2008, in this special edition the whole mystery had been published. The author of this novel, Jean-Louis Tourné, also a banker, had arrived in Taiwan last week, and held a party with Renlai Monthly called "A Ratiocinative Night in Corsica."

I was very fortunate to attend this party with fascinating Italian foods and wines. Well, the point was, I had a great time with Mr Tourné and the invited bloggers, which we had shared lots of thoughts together.

Basically, 'Les Saints et les Morts' is a detective fiction, however, the story does not only revolve around the detective work, as we might perceive think, but infact it has a more mysterious and suspense element to the story.

The story starts in Corsica where some of us might not be so familiar with, so I would like to briefly introduce this fascinating island.

Corsica, is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It looks like a left wrist with a index finger pointing out. It is the most mountainous island in the Mediterranean region.

This island is not just famous for the birthplace of Napoléon Bonaparte, but also popular in tourism with its beautiful coastlines and beaches.

Corsica was once ruled by several imperial powers throughout history, and therefore had developed a culture that is somewhat different from mainland France. Corsica had its own local language and culture, and there were several Corsican independent movements going around, which is very similar to Taiwan.

Back to 'Les Saints et les Morts.' The story began with a murder case, as the mysterious case started that reveals gradually, which we saw the dark side of Corsica. Such as the fights and vendetta between the two families, the discrimination agaist all foreigners, etc.. People always wavered between light and dark, making various decisions, in order to get what they want the most.

The story takes place in Campo, Corsica, and also extended to Ajaccio abd Porticcio. I had googled these cities as you can see from the picture above, that kind of made it more realistic as I read the novel.

'La Toussaint' is on 1st November, and is a day of mourning the death of the Saints; 'La fete des morts' is on 2nd November, and is a day for mourning the ancestors. This novel is written in a mourning atmosphere. Apart from this, all characters in the story had lost someone, and this is also another subject in this book - lost. Everybody would have to face the lost of his/her love, lost of his/her family, lost of wealth, etc.. Everyone has a different way to face distress and hardship in a different way to deal with them, and furthermore, in order to lose no more, someone would pay ANY price for that.

In this special edition of Renlai monthly magazine, there was not just an exciting fiction, but it also includes many photos of Corsica which were taken by Benoît Vermander. These photos increased my imagination as I read through the story. In last Friday's dinner party, Benoît Vermander and I had discussed about these photos and the timeline of the story. Before reading this novel, Corsica for me was a "Sunny", mountainous island, and while I was reading it, I thought the story was describing decades ago in Corsica, but I was wrong. What I saw in the book was a closed up island, and the people were conservative and resentful, although there were still love in certain people's mind. I knew being conservative and resentful were part of humanity, it got nothing to do with time, but as the impact on its culture from all sorts of civilization and modern technology, Corsica still kept its very own culture, and this is something that surprised me. Father Benoît Vermander had visited the island and spend weeks in there also had similar feelings. He said, if you go away from the beach areas where most tourists would go in Corsica, you would discover a totally different world. Therefore, the timeline of this fiction is present, not past.

This, is very different from my motherland, Taiwan.

The story of this fiction was based on the love and hates of the two families, and a murder case, so a police inspector from mainland France had to come and investigate. In Corsica, you can easily distinguish between the "outsiders" and the locals, and it is in their nature for the locals to be exclusive. In order to sustain the benefit and fame of the family, even the crimes could be muted and covered up to the police, not to mention a "foreign" police investigator. If same story happened in Taiwan, this highly merged with modern civilization island, the case would probably be solved within a short period of time due to a bunch of informers. Then followed by a series of exaggerated report of the family scandals in the newspapers and magazines.

It is interesting to know that the author, Mr Tourné, has worked in Taiwanese banking for several years, and he enjoyed his times in Taiwan. His next fiction novel, 'Black Formosa,' is going to be published in the near future. This novel is written during Mr Tourné's stay in Taiwan and the story is about Taiwan, so I am really looking forward to reading it in future.

Finally, I would like to thank Renlai for having this wonderful dinner party, which I had a great time there. For most of the time people can't get a chance to see the author of a book, and I was fortunate to have this opportunity to see and chat with the author. Hope there will be more similar activities in the future with Renlai.

Posted by fiennes522 at 樂多Roodo! │18:30 │回應(4) │引用(0) │好書大家推

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標籤：懸疑,聖徒節與謀殺案,Les Saints et les Morts,Jean-Louis Tourné,杜睿,科西嘉