2020第一本书读完了，来自Nicholas Sparks的作品。这位美国仁兄真能写，不仅仅是纯爱，连家长里短的琐碎也能生动表现一二。但是狗血和俗套似乎是很多传统言情故事偏不开的情节，这也是看书时偶尔的荒谬感。
书的名字叫做分手信，也是之前略疑惑的地方，后来才知道John就类似中国的大龙，建国一样，说是二战期间美国的一种现象，士兵长期在外，等待他的爱人在时间的变故中放弃了执着，于是他们的信件开头大多是Dear John, Dear Tom之类，就有可能是要分了(查了一下，一般他们爱用My Smith之类)。到底是真是假不知道，但Dear John Letter就成了分手信的代名词，因为这个文化点挺有意思，就啰嗦复述了一下。
书是分为三个部分，开始，经过，结局。以一个引子开篇，一个后续完结。很完整的平铺直叙的故事。但豹豹更愿意从父子，爱情，军旅三个部分来看待而不是时间发展顺序来回忆。书的开篇很抓人，这也是开始读这本书后一口气读了好几章的原因。
When a person sets a thing in motion, there’s a feeling of unease, almost regret, until you learn the truth.不看到最后的真相不死心(开始以为是单指爱情，读完才知道包括男二Tim的病情后续以及女主的家庭情况)
Part of me aches at the thought of her being so close yet so untouchable, but her story and mine are different now. It wasn’t easy for me to accept this simple truth, because there was a time when our stories were the same, but that was six years and two lifetimes ago.
很多感情无法再触碰，过往的岁月如同两辈子那么长。
But I did meet her; that’s the thing that makes my current life so strange. I fell in love with her when we were together, then fell deeper in love with her in the years we were apart.
以上是开篇部分，会发现文字简单却动人。只是后面的故事飞起后就觉得故事章节前后落差太大。但不可否认这本书豹豹还是很喜欢，仅凭着书里父子关系这条线的描述就足够了。书中John的父亲自小有自闭症，做事严格按照程序，唯一的乐趣便是在自己的小书房里鉴赏各种纪念币硬币。硬币是父子之间曾经的记忆，关系分裂的伤口，黏合的渠道以及最后馈赠的源泉。这一部分并没有做过多的笔记，完全是沉浸其中，读到儿子因为军队记律无法在身边，父亲独自料理自己的后事时真得几次放下这本书。
For the first time since he’d been there, the fear was almost gone. He held the paper close to his face, and I could see the page shaking slightly. His lips were moving as he concentrated on the words, and I forced myself to study him, hoping to memorize his face forever.
It was the last time I ever saw him alive.
父亲害怕医院，抗拒陌生的环境，人生的最后几个月最终接受了孩子的建议，去了当地一家尊重他生活习惯的疗养院，这是来到疗养院后最后的一处两人之间的描写。读到这段真的哭了。
军旅生涯的部分如果放开了说估计豹豹能扯半天，我不知道我是否感应到了作者字里行间埋下的情绪，其实能感觉到轻微讽刺。也或许是个人过度解读了，因为某些原因就不评论了，只贴一些句子。
The whole experience was just about the most ridiculous and idiotic thing the army ever made me do. And that’s saying something, because I’ve done a lot of idiotic things for good old Uncle Sam and the Big Red One. At the end, our commander walked through the ward, congratulating my squad on a job well done. I wanted to tell him that maybe our time would have been better spent learning modern war tactics or, at the very least, tuned in to the Weather Channel. But instead I offered a salute and an ackknowledgment, being the good army grunt I am.
在这里知道了山姆大叔就是秃头鹰
以及
These days, they never say who the enemies are supposed to be, but everyone knows it’s the Russians, which makes even less sense, since they’re supposed to be our allies now.
呵呵，看点军事的应该知道俄罗斯的确给了我们很多缓冲。
In the aftermath of Baghdad’s fall, every soldier in my squad was thrust into the roles of policeman and judge. As soldiers, we weren’t trained for that.
From the outside and with hindsight, it was easy to second-guess our activities, but in the real world, in real time, decisions weren’t always easy. More than once, I was approached by Iraqi civilians and told that a certain individual had stolen this or that item, or committed this or that crime, and was asked to do something about it. That wasn’t our job. We were there to keep some semblance of order—which basically meant killing insurgents who were trying to kill us or other civilians—until the locals could take over and handle it themselves. That particular process was neither quick nor easy, even in places where calm was more frequent than chaos. In the meantime, other cities were disintegrating into chaos, and we were sent in to restore order. We’d clear a city of insurgents, but because there weren’t enough troops to hold the city and keep it safe, the insurgents would occupy it again soon after we cleared out.
这两三段很长，但仔细品品很有看头。跑到人家的地盘上攻陷了所谓的暴乱，然后一堆烂摊子又觉得烦扰。
People can at least relate to that, and I’ve learned that they don’t want to hear the real truth, which is that most of the time Iraq wasn’t so bad but sometimes it was worse than hell. Did people really want to hear that I watched a guy in my unit accidentally shoot a little kid who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or that I’d seen soldiers get torn into pieces when they hit an IED—improvised explosive device—on the roads near Baghdad? Or that I’d seen blood pooling in the streets like rain, flowing past body parts? No, people would rather hear about sand, because it kept the war at a safe distance.(中东地区沙漠地带)
过多的就不多说了，如果说这本书最好的部分，那就是第一章，以一个老生常谈浪子回头为诱饵让人想迫不及待往下翻。也学到了很多词汇，Orange shirt gave me the once-over, noting my crew cut.在文中once-over 是看了一眼，出现频率很高，以及平头发型crew cut还有I’m a walking cliché作为教材典型。
其他的像是女巫中出现的海豚porpoise本文中再次见到，escapades恶作剧在吹小号的天鹅中也有复现，虽然说单词不用刻意去记，但稍微留点心停下来再看两眼还是有必要的。
最后，关于文中感情部分因为个人觉得太纠结，对于文中女主角Savannah的行为表示部分理解又部分瞠目结舌，以及作者将配角Tim一家写得实在是过惨反而很同情他。所以这一部分就不说了，也不是个人的菜。
总之，书在一周内读完了，做个记号。书可以在library genesis下载，豆瓣上也有资源，这位美国言情大叔的14本资源很广，喜马拉雅有音频，一共是8张碟子，只听了三张，不算好听不算难听，能听系列。读这本书的时候穿插了一小部分的The Trumpet of the Swan，书是真好看，但是怀特先生本人的朗读真的是有点不好听，吞音很多，没有朗读调调。所以直接看书就好。
就这些。
