明亮珍貴之物Bright Precious Thing
上海文藝出版社Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House
明亮珍貴之物
鄰家小女孩、狗狗、密友……蓋爾·考德威爾以坦誠而富有感染力的語言，記錄下她人生的重要時刻和親愛的夥伴，匯成一部50後女性知識分子的“個人史”。叛逆的得州農場女孩、冒失的文藝青年、冷靜堅定的獨立女性、善解人意的朋友、智慧又慈愛的鄰家婆婆……她們是不同人生階段的蓋爾，是一位女性的自我進化痕跡。
站在人生暮年回憶過往，蓋爾遇見了保護她免遭欺辱的姐妹、善解人意的老師、永遠愛她的狗狗們，也遭受過感情挫折和數次騷擾。在愛的澆灌和與惡霸的抗爭中，她成為一位堅定、自由的女性。如今，蓋爾已經年過七旬，與鄰家小女孩的交往成為她人生智慧的傳承。
Bright Precious Thing
The little girl next door, dogs, close friends… In candid, moving language, Gail Caldwell records the important moments and dear companions of her life, gathering them into the "personal history" of a woman intellectual born in the 1950s. The rebellious Texas farm girl, the impetuous young lover of literature and art, the calm and resolute independent woman, the understanding friend, the wise and loving old woman next door: these are Gail at different stages of her life, the traces of one woman's evolution.
Looking back from late in life, Gail meets again the sister who protected her from being bullied, an understanding teacher and the dogs who always loved her, and remembers heartbreak and more than one experience of harassment. Nurtured by love and fighting back against bullies, she became a resolute, free woman. Now in her seventies, her friendship with the little girl next door has become the way she passes on what life has taught her.