1.
The Grace of the Hedgehog
Author: [Fa] Myolier Barbery
The novel mainly describes two literary and art lovers, one in one and one small. Both of them live in their own world and are at odds with the people around them. Among them, Renee is a concierge. In order to act like a concierge and not be hurt by the huge Paris, she dressed up stupidly and vulgarly every day. In fact, she was an "admirer of Kant" and had eagerly studied Husserl's work on phenomenology. I want to spend my whole life reading, watching movies and listening to music. I also read speculative fiction and often think about aesthetic issues.
By chance, she caught the attention of Japanese Personality because of her elegant spiritual realm. Gran is a rich man who sells high-end audio, not only rich, but also very connotative, familiar with Eastern and Western cultures. Single lovers of literature and art spend most of their time and energy absorbing literature and art.
Even if it is just a concierge, whether deliberate or unintentional, early or playing, he/she will always meet the same kind or acquaintance, and rejoice and comfort for this.
Invited to dinner with Grand, a still life painting provokes Renee to think about the commonality of art, forgetting the inferiority complex that comes with being a concierge. But real life and spiritual life coexist, and most of life is shrouded in the shadow of reality. After every contact with Gran, Renee was terrified and imaginary.
The other heroine, Paloma, is a little girl under thirteen years old. She was intelligent, born into a wealthy family, and thought she saw through the hypocrisy and emptiness of the adult world. Although only thirteen years old, Paloma knew what cynicism was and wrote in-depth essays such as the World Movement Journal and The Profound Thought.
About death, about the world, about facing, these things that must be endured in life are painful enough to make people who know that they exist something that is not easy to move. In a moment of disappearance, we can also explore eternity and what was once the hope and beauty of life, that is, the "forever" in "once".
The philosophical writer also borrowed Paloma's example of the value of life: what matters is not death, but what we are doing in the moment of death.
2.
"Come Up and Breathe"
Author: [English] George Orwell
The plot is simple, and it can even be said to be a bit boring. The 45-year-old fat bowling suddenly decided to go back to his hometown alone for a vacation one day, but when he returned, he found that his hometown had been eaten away by industrialization, and the place of play in the old memory no longer existed. After escaping for a few days, he could only return to his original life. But savoring it can make people fall into contemplation, and a bitter smile is emitted from the bottom of their hearts.
Interspersed with detailed memories of childhood life, it is a bit boring at first glance. But it is really these memories and the humorous language that occasionally pops out, which makes the image of bowling more plump, middle-aged, blessed, can chatter about what they are interested in, and the fat man who is suppressed by ordinary life.
Eventually, after escaping for a few days, Bowling was left to plunge back into his boring and depressed life, back to hilda with an anxious face, back to the gas bill, the smell of tuition, the smell of raincoats and Monday's office.
Black humor, crying and laughing, crying and laughing, is such a real feeling of life, who is not so?
3.
"The Day Time Stops"
Author: [English] Rachel Joyce
The Day Time Stops is the work of British writer Rachel Joyce, published between her hit "A Man's Pilgrimage" and her sequel, "Queenie's Love Song.". Compared with the "abundant hope" of these two works, "The Day Time Stops" is actually much more desperate. It shows the elusiveness of life, even tears apart all the "quiet years", and the development of events, as if opening a "Pandora's box" - just the last bit of light left, will it be hope?
Life is too hard, but we are still struggling and trying, because if we just give up, we will not have the opportunity to know that sometimes someone will put a candy in the palm of our hand, and we will not have the opportunity to experience the beauty of being loved. Although the process is very painful, the time is very long, like Jim, one day will find Byron.
At that time, grief can also blossom in the land of life.
So what exactly does this kind of story bring to the reader? Readers who miss their childhood will be touched by the liver and gallbladder of Byron and his wise "little friend" James; female readers may be helpless to the fruitless fate of Byron's mother; if they are keen on "watching" love, then the "sadistic" plot between Jim and Erin may be extremely sad... The brushwork is close to life, "The Day Time Stops", in fact, let everyone find their own life. Our life is so "weak and can't help the wind", a domino falls, no domino can be spared.
But what does such a life really mean, is it despair, or is it the hope of the next moment? No one will write this answer, which may be the profundity of life.