#Read a book a week #Xiaoxiao 2020 12 (February 5) "The Non-Existent Daughter", read February 21-22, 2020.
Author: Kim Edwards, Assistant Professor of English at the University of Kentucky, USA, is the author's feature-length debut.
How do you evaluate this book? I'm afraid it's not more convincing than the following sentence.
"The Kite Chaser" topped the New York Times in thirty weeks, and "The Non-Existent Daughter" did it in seven weeks.
Everyone will be moved by the touching feelings in the book. The characters in the story hold you tight like a spell, letting you see how a marriage based on fairytale love is torn to pieces by the most secular philosophy of life. Lies, secrets, fears, sorrows, all in this beautiful novel. --The Washington Post
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > a white lie, a guilt that has been carried for a lifetime, whose fault is it? </h1>
"Non-existent daughters" the whole book takes the development of time as a clue, starting from the birth of a pair of dragon and phoenix fetuses, David, as an orthopedic surgeon, sent his wife Nora to the clinic to give birth on a snowy night, did not expect that the obstetrician overturned on the snow road, David had to personally deliver his wife, after the birth of the child, David found that the baby girl in the twins was a Down child.
So David remembered his sister, who also suffered from Down's disease, and after his death at the age of twelve, David's mother had been unable to come out of her grief, and he was afraid that the same tragedy would happen again, so he hid the fact of his daughter Phoebe from his wife, falsely claimed that her daughter had died, and asked caroline, a nurse at the same clinic, to send her daughter to a nursing home for adoption, so a well-intentioned deception turned out to be the beginning of the family's nightmare.
Nora was depressed all the time because she could not bear the pain of losing her daughter.
And David can't get rid of his inner self-blame, nor can he face the pain of his wife's loss, so he hides in the photography world to numb himself, but thus ignores his wife's emotional and physical needs, causing his wife to cheat many times, and finally leading to the breakdown of the marriage between the two.
Because of the loss of his daughter's regrets, David's requirements for his son Paul are higher, he is eager to cultivate his son into a good talent, in the face of Paul's favorite music David resolutely opposed, David never thought that music can support the family, let people have no worries, so their father-son relationship was extremely tense.
Caroline, the nurse who had always had a crush on David, did not send the girl Phoebe to a nursing home, but personally adopted the girl.
Caroline regards Phoebe as her own, not only gives Phoebe meticulous care in life, but also learns more ways to take care of Phoebe by participating in the Down Disease Association, so that Phoebe slowly catches up with ordinary children mentally, Phoebe not only learns to weave and dance, Ka also enters public schools to study, and Phoebe, who suffers from Down's pediatrics, grows up healthy and happy under Caroline's loving education.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > how long can a secret be hidden? </h1>
Until David's death, he did not have the courage to confess to Nora about his daughter Phoebe, unexpectedly a sudden illness took David's life, and it was not long before Nora and Caroline met again, thus knowing the truth that her daughter Phoebe was still alive.
This "white" lie did not make the David family live a happy and happy life, but instead made David pay the price of guilt and pain in his twenties, the family was separated, and the father and son were out of harmony.
And Phoebe, who should have been the most tragic fate of the Tang family, became a happy and happy girl because of caroline's meticulous care and careful teaching and companionship.
Fortunately, Nora finally meets her daughter, whom she has been worried about for many years, and the natural intimacy of Paul and Phoebe allows the two to quickly establish a brother and sister relationship, and the story also has a happy ending.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "Everything I do is for your own good." </h1>
Do we often hear people around us say this to us?
It seems that we often say this to others.
When we hear people say this to us, I always think it's ridiculous;
When we say this to others, we feel that we are very right.
This sentence is the same for David, David knew at the moment he saw his daughter Phoebe that she was a typical baby with Down's disease, so he remembered his sister's heart attack caused by Down syndrome, unfortunately died at the age of twelve, and the sister's matter made David's mother depressed for most of her life, which is the harm that David has not been cured in his heart.
David made the decision to abandon his daughter, ostensibly to protect his wife from harm, for fear that his mother's tragedy would be repeated from Nora.
In fact, a deeper reflection is David's fear of his own heart, recalling his childhood, without the attention and care of his parents. The family's energy and financial resources revolve around his sister's weak body, in order to pay for his sister's medical expenses, David began to follow his father to catch snakes from a very young age, but catching snakes is not a happy thing for a child, and the fear of giving up has always plagued David, until he became an adult, and he was often awakened by the dream of the snake.
If the hardships of life did not give David a rich material life, and the mother's love and attention were also snubbed by David because of his sister's illness and stunting, whether materially or spiritually, David's childhood did not have the slightest happiness, he has been surrounded by an insecurity, trying to do the best to replace his mother's attention, even until his sister died, the mother said sadly, "David, you go to school, learn something that can save the world." ”
"I'm going to be a doctor."
In fact, David's real thoughts in his heart were, "Why can't I pursue my own life, why should I bear the pain of my sister's death?" ”
Thinking of his sister, David always couldn't tell whether it was love or hate, maybe love and hate were intertwined.
He wanted to take good care of his sister as his mother had requested, but he was obviously taking good care of his sister, but his sister would still be tripped by stones, her palm would be scratched, and her sister would catch a cold all year round, and she would always have difficulty breathing and breathlessness.
He always wanted to protect his sister, but the memories that her sister brought him were always full of sadness, and this sadness made David feel like he had fallen into the abyss again the moment he saw his daughter Phoebe.
Sending his daughter away is David's knee-jerk reaction to self-preservation, which is unforgivable to us bystanders, but it is a helpless choice for David.
Behind all the good of others is actually an excuse to cover up the pain in the heart, to find a high-sounding reason for your selfish behavior to cover up your true purpose.
If David had been braver at the time, let Nora know the truth of the matter, and the couple had come together to face the existence of Phoebe, in fact, David's occupation and income were completely different from the family situation he was in as a child, and he was fully capable of giving Phoebe worry-free living security and medical conditions without having to let the whole family get into trouble.
As Adler said, "Man's views and opinions of objective things are not equated with the facts themselves, but are based on the subjective view of things by the person." ”
It is precisely because of David's special childhood experience that David's view of Tang's children has deviated, and he believes that the way to stay away from harm is to escape, because he cannot bear the pain of his sister's death, so he chooses to flee in front of his daughter.
If David's mother at that time could take care of her son's psychology when she was overly sad, could give her son more comfort and guidance, and did not require her son to choose medicine for the death of her daughter, then there would be no barrier in David's heart that could not be crossed, there would be no David's wrong decision to Phoebe, and there would be no David family torturing each other for more than 20 years.
Read a book a week # Xiaoxiao 2020 12 "Non-existent Daughters"