Reading the contradictory literature award winner Mai Jia's eight-year masterpiece "Life Sea Sea" (I)

"Life Sea Sea" is the latest masterpiece of Mai Jia, the winner of the Contradiction Literature Award, which took eight years to publish in 2019, was printed for the 34th time in 2021, and ranked first in the Category of Chinese Literary Fiction in Douban in 2019. With "Life Sea Sea", Mai Jia was awarded the "Outstanding Writer of the Year" at the Southern Literature Festival in September 2020.

First, life is not easy, the world is sad and happy

In the tone of the first-person "I", the novel describes the ups and downs of the life of several people, and the setbacks and sufferings experienced can be seen, which can be described as writing the hardships of life and the joys and sorrows of the world.

The protagonist of the novel, Lin Zhengnan, who is called "Colonel" by the people in the village and "Eunuch" behind his back, is a very intelligent character. Learn carpentry, the skill is not worse than the master. In the barracks, he was promoted all the way to the battalion commander, or a sharpshooter who walked through Yang in a hundred steps and shot a hundred shots.

After only a few months of recuperating in the hospital, he was so impressed that he became a well-known military doctor without a teacher, and both in the Kuomintang troops and the Communist troops who later surrendered to the Kuomintang troops frequently received meritorious awards and was a heroic figure who enjoyed the reputation of "a golden knife."

The fate of the "Colonel" began with the inscription on his belly. The "Colonel" helped Dai Kasa's female agents to recover a life with superb medical skills, but she saw that she was shrewd and capable, and insisted on accepting him as a Kuomintang spy. With the heart of loyalty to the country, in order to steal useful information, he maneuvered between Kuomintang agents and Japanese female ghost guys.

The "colonel" sat in the cells of the Kuomintang and squatted in the prison of the Japanese devils, but what made him most humiliated was that the number one traitor, secret agent Yoshiko Kawashima, engraved her own name on his belly and swore her "independent possession" of him, and the colonel has been poisoned by these words ever since.

The "little blind man" deliberately spied on him, and he cut off his tongue, broke his tendons, and was thrown into a Communist prison. At the trial, the "little blind man" and the like openly wanted to unzip the "Colonel' in public and look at the words on his belly, and the Colonel was driven mad, and from then on he went mad until he was old.

The novel also writes about the fate of "my" family. "Grandpa" was criticized and hostile by the whole village because he had informed the colonel of his escape, and finally he was ashamed and hanged himself, and the "second brother" died of depression at a young age. Among them, "I" from the beginning of the decade-old ignorant child, to the end of the book, has reached the age of 62, during which the 16-year-old fled to a foreign country to save his life, and only returned to China after 22 years, suffering all sorrow and criticism.

"My" ex-wife, Ben was born into a family of scholars, but was killed by the Red Guards, fled to Spain and was humiliated by the "dragon head", married to "I", with courage and wisdom to break into business and create a life, but eventually died in a car accident.

Aunt Lin, who took care of the "colonel" for her life, was miserable and helpless, and she was the first batch of rightists to reform through labor, went to the stage to fight, paraded the streets, cleaned the toilets, and was sent to prison. After taking care of the "Colonel", he chose to die with the Colonel.

Second, born to the sun, forge ahead

However, the author did not stop writing here, leaving only the reader with the sad heart of "fearing the beachhead and saying trepidation, zero Ding Yang sighing zero Ding". There is an American slang saying, "Every dark cloud is studded with silver edges", and the author writes about the hope and courage of people in desperate situations to live in the sun and forge ahead.

When she was young, "Aunt Lin", who loved the "Colonel", chose to marry the "Colonel" after he went crazy, took care of his mother-in-law who was disabled in the wind and candles, and took care of the crazy colonel, and was called "Living Guanyin" by the villagers.

While working as a barefoot doctor, he weaves silk and clothes for people, maintains the livelihood of the two, and heals the wounds of the "colonel". "Life has squeezed her dry, but she remains optimistic and enthusiastic, even humorous"

The "colonel" also learned to raise silkworms with the help of "Aunt Lin", and was recognized as the best person in the village, and the silkworms he raised were seriously ill and had high prices. "It seems that fate destined him to show his talents in all aspects for the rest of his life, even if he was beaten to the ground by fate, he still had to fight back."

When "my" ex-wife died, she said to "I", who did not want to live in pain and felt that there was no love for life, "Life is in the sea, dare to die is not called courage, and courage is needed to live." ”

After several years of wandering and eating in the garbage, "I" had a chance to start a big garbage business, make a fortune, and repay the society, and the garbage that once made him lose face was given back to him with double dignity.

The title "Life Sea sea" is a southern Fujian dialect, which says that life is like the sea, ups and downs, to take the ebb and flow of the tide as the experience of life, even if desperate, even if painful, but also burst out of hope, the courage to live.

The works of the Mai family that have sharpened a sword for eight years, after reading, make people cherish the life in front of them more while deeply feeling that life is not easy, because the ordinary that you don't look at may be a luxury that some people can't want; it will make people more optimistic and heroic in life, because the suffering you once thought was really insufficient compared to the sins suffered by others.

Cherish life, love life, and wish all the lovely people in the world a good life. A good book worth reading!