guide This drink has a strong aftertaste, just like real life / Lying Axe Some people may feel clichéd, but I still want to start with "Mystic River". Childhood friends Jimmy, David and Sean were playing on the street one day when two men who looked like police detectives suddenly appeared and took David into the car; Jimmy and Sean watched the car leave until they got home and informed Parents, the grown-ups just realized that things are different.A few days later, David, who was kidnapped and tortured, escaped, and the two child molesters were brought to justice, but the three friends drifted away.After a few years, the three grew up, Jimmy ran a grocery store after being in the underworld and jailed, Sean moved out of the town to become a police detective, and David had his own family.One day, a female body was found in the park. When Sean rushed to deal with it, he found that the dead girl was Jimmy's eldest daughter, and the prime suspect was David who returned home in blood on the night of the crime.

Misunderstandings, regrets, buried sins and the reality of having to keep going, "Mystic River" begins like this. The original novel of "Mystic River" was published in 2001 and written by Kelin in 2003.Directed by Eastwood, it was put on the big screen. The novel of the same name was later published in translation in China, and the audience and readers gave quite positive comments.In my opinion, the story of "Mysterious River" is definitely a good popular literature. Popular literature is not the kind of work that has to be listed in the history of literature with extremely avant-garde writing skills or extremely genius artistic style, but it is a work that most people can understand. Stories narrated in an accepted style; since this kind of novel does not make fuss about technique, it must show its ability in the content in order to change from ordinary to good.In other words, the novel "Mysterious River" is easy to read and beautiful, and there are some things in it, so that every time we look back, we can experience something about human nature.However, I guess at that time, the vast majority of readers did not attribute Lehane's "Mysterious River" to a certain type of novel.

After all, the label of genre novels also has both come on!and don't touch!Effect. I remember a friend who finally overcame the psychological barrier of not reading mystery novels and finished reading Block's "Eight Million Ways to Die", asked me inexplicably, this story is very good, but where is the coldness?This is exactly what type labels don't touch!Effect.To use a more general analogy: If a novel has a mystery story sticker on it, a reader who admires the superhuman intelligence of Sherlock Holmes (or any common element of mystery fiction) may immediately pick it up from the new book platform of the bookstore , take it to the counter to pay the bill, and read it on the way before returning home; but a reader who hates Sherlock Holmes who always loses 250,000 to 80,000 (or any common setting in mystery novels) may not even touch it. .The paradox is: the so-called genre novels are actually popular literature; since such stories are easy to read, wouldn’t it be a pity to be insulated from them just because of the genre label?

From "Mysterious River" to popular literature, we went around in a circle, in fact, because we want to talk about "Pre-War Wine". "Mystic River" author Dennis.Lehane published five series of works in the 1990s at the end of the last century before publishing the two completed works of "Mysterious River" in 2001 and "Isolation Island" in 2003 ; This series, called Kenzie/Gennaro, takes Patrick and Angie, a male and female detective partner, as the protagonists, and the Boston city full of dragons and snakes as the background, telling the story of human nature in the cruel neighborhood.Most of this series is classified as the hard-liner in the pedigree of reasoning novels. The first book in the series is "A Drink Before the War" and "Wine Before the War".

I just talked about the labeling of genre novels, so let's ignore the classification of this book and go straight to the story. The story of "Antebellum Wine" begins after a memory-like monologue: the protagonist Patrick walks into a low-key luxury hotel in a well-dressed manner, where three political figures are preparing to meet him.The leading senator said that a black cleaning woman who worked in the state capitol stole some confidential documents from another senator's office and disappeared without a trace. A generous bounty, asking Patrick to get the file back as soon as possible.Patrick and his partner Angie followed the clues to find the hiding place of the cleaning woman, and demanded that the other party hand over the documents, only to find that they were attacked inexplicably. From small incidents to big troubles, it seems to be a common way of progressing the main line, However, in addition to the main axis of finding people, the story of "Pre-War Wine" also has many side stories, and all the side stories are almost related to several themes that are gradually revealed as the main story unfolds.

The first theme to notice should be violence. Violence does not necessarily refer to the kind of blood spattering on the spot or the explosion scene with sparks flying. In fact, in all aspects of life, violence has always been ubiquitous. One of the most common types may be the most obvious in domestic violence books. The best example comes from Patrick's partner Angie.Angie is a beautiful and capable female detective, but she is married to a husband Phil who will be violent to her; once Patrick wanted to stand up for her so he beat Phil up, but Angie was angry for a few weeks. He talks; Jenna, the janitor who the senator claims is stealing documents, the teenage leader of a new street gang, and even the main character, Patrick himself, are (or were) victims of domestic violence struggling to survive.

Pulling back from this interpersonal perspective reveals another pattern of violence. This violence exists between different street gangs, between different races (or what we are more familiar with called ethnic groups living on this island), and between politicians and the general public; Appearances run the gamut: from petty disputes sparked by open-armed fights, by bigoted misconceptions born of ingrained beliefs, by a gesture of empowerment to deceive, exploit, incite, or fool as one pleases Authorizers who empowered themselves in the first place. From this point of view, violence seems to be everywhere, but the parties in it should not always be helpless.

Of course, there may be no easy solutions to some of the most gigantic problems (such as racial issues), but, in an ideal democracy, voters have the ability to decide whether to continue to grant power to politicians after evaluating their behavior; Looking at this action that may cost society and mobilize a lot of manpower to complete, things like domestic violence that only happen in one's own house should not be difficult to solve. What is the reason for the existence of arrogance? In fact, the reason that allows these violence to live freely is often a simple emotional factor. As Angie said to Patrick, Phil has not always been such a jerk, because once the emotion has been paid, it cannot be taken back, because the emotion will always exist after the emotion is paid, so when the violent user wears some kind of attachment to our emotions We can’t fight against it sensibly, but willingly accept being fooled, manipulated, and even weave beautiful reasons for the perpetrators to package their acts of violence.This kind of emotional factor that belongs to mortals, is realistic, and knows to deviate but can only drift with the tide, is another theme that can be seen everywhere in "Before the War", sometimes moving, sometimes embarrassing.

But when the object of affection responds violently, no matter what, we always have another emotion born. In short, this kind of emotion called hatred, in the hearts of all the characters who are violent for their loved ones, always competes with the aforementioned emotions, and it has also become an important theme hidden between the lines in "Before the War".Gang fights or racial discrimination are expressions of hate, and even axiom or justice may be a form of hate.However, when violence has been practiced and a wound has been left in the heart, no matter whether you let love overwhelm hate or hate subverts love, the wound will not disappear; Well, it leaves a healed scar, which throbs faintly or bleeds quietly in the dead of night.

The world is not perfect.So does everyone who lives in it. But life must go on.Therefore, the characters in "Pre-War Wine" are like us in reality. They have one appearance in the workplace or among the crowd, and another appearance in the family or when they are alone; He has a penchant for pointing fingers, a father who is a firefighting hero has irrational fear and uncontrollable violence, a brave and ruthless gang leader has unbearable childhood memories, and a smart and powerful detective has emotional entanglements that are weak to master.As Patrick said in the monologue at the beginning of the story, there were people who died last summer, and most of those people were innocent, and people deserved more than some people.There were also people who killed people last summer, and none of them were innocent. I know very well that I am one of them.I stared into the narrow barrel of the gun, looked into eyes full of fear and hatred, and found my own reflection in those eyes.I pulled the trigger to make it disappear.

There are good and bad people who died, but no one who survives is innocent. From this point of view, the main axis of the story of "Pre-War Wine" is extremely heavy, and it seems that it is suspected of being difficult to swallow. However, under the control of Lehan's superb narrative skills and rhythm, through the first-person narrator Patrick The sleazy mouth makes the reading experience of "Pre-war Wine" unexpectedly light and humorous.The non-couple Patrick/Angie (Patrick is single, Angie is married; Patrick is interested in courting Angie, but Angie has repeatedly turned her down) work-partner interactions often have a sort of situational comedy to them. Tune. Having said that, Patrick and Angie are not the first male and female detective partners. Judno, the creator of mystery novels, who was about the same time as the murder queen Christie, had created the pair of working partners Ke Baisha and Lai Tangnuo; ) are generally responsible for field tasks, while women (Ke Baisha and Angie) are mostly responsible for backup work.However, the similarities between these two groups of partners probably only end there. Compared with Lai Tangnuo, an unlicensed lawyer who is both wise and courageous, and makes most of the female characters in the series love to death, Patrick Lehan's He seems to be closer to ordinary people, he will be careless, he will be deceived, and his plan is relatively straight. He does not have Lai Tangnuo's ability to devise incredible schemes at will; Compared with Shakespeare, the Angie created by Lehan is just like her name, the incarnation of an angel: beautiful and slender, with a sense of love and righteousness, although most of them work in logistics, but when she is really on the front line, her marksmanship is even more accurate than Patrick. Although it is impossible to determine whether Lehan deliberately created these similarities and differences, these settings faithfully reflect the changes of the times. After the war, the United States still maintains a society where men are superior to women. This is not only the reason why the thin but gentle Lai Tangnuo fascinated other female characters, but also the reason why Jadeno portrayed Ke Baisha as a huge vulgar, different from The reason for the vast majority of female characters; and in 1994 when Patrick and Angie first appeared, the relationship between men and women seemed to be more equal than before, and women acted more autonomously. In the story of "Before the War" In the movie, Patrick is trying to quit smoking, but Angie is still smoking. Patrick's marksmanship is not very good, but Angie is much better.Although she is a woman of the new generation, Angie still has to face the frivolous and teasing situation of the male characters in the story (and sometimes her own partner Patrick) in words, which also reflects the situation in the so-called new era of gender equality. , some gender-derived inequalities still exist. Having talked about these themes of "Antebellum Wine", let us return to the matter of genre fiction. In fact, he took on a small case at the beginning, but as the plot developed, he got into more and more troubles, overturned the skirts of the noble class (whether they were politicians or wealthy businessmen and celebrities) and exposed the unsightly filthy inside, with himself and even The imperfection of the whole society fights against, ridicules (maybe to everyone, or to oneself) to ridicule and fight against all deviations. These elements that can be seen everywhere in "Pre-War Wine" are all Dash.Hammett, Raymond.Chandler, Ross.McDonald and Lawrence.It is a setting commonly used by creators of hard-line crime novels such as Block and others.Hard Boiled, a branch of traditional reasoning novels, has no detectives with insight into the overall situation, and no elaborate tricks. Instead, it pulls out the cruel side of the street to show the filth and beauty of human nature. So, yes, "The Wine Before the War" is certainly a novel of the genre, but it is also a very good and very readable story. The oppression of patriarchy, unequal love, mutual hatred, misunderstanding, use and care between classes may leave imprints in the so-called good childhood that must be contended with for a lifetime, and inexplicable insolent violence may arise in the relationship.These raw materials mixed in "Pre-War Wine" are completely drawn from the real life you and I soaked in it, like a glass of strong wine with strong stamina, the more aftertaste, the more feelings emerge, reality, and Xiaonuannuan Tenderness, helplessness, and the unbearable sadness that has to be borne.Life is a fierce battle that cannot be escaped. Le Han's "Wine Before the War", like all detectives rolling in the cold and hard streets, do their best to resist some kind of distortion. Although they cannot change the world, they can hold a little hope . Now, this cup of human wine is on the table; are you ready to let it enter your throat?