Cover news reporter Zhang Jie
Ai Wei, Bi Feiyu, Li Er, and Dong Xi belong to the representative figures of the "new generation of writers" - a group of writers who entered the literary world in the early 90s, who changed the arrogance of the avant-garde writers of the 80s and cast a keen eye on the daily life of Xi Yan. Literary critic Li Jingze once commented on Ai Wei, "As a novelist, Ai Wei has great insight. "He was always highly sensitive to the subtle corners of the depths of human nature. With his meticulous portrayal of the psychology of the characters, Ai Wei is known as the "explorer of human nature".
Ai Wei
In January 2022, writer Ai Wei's short story collection "Concert" was published by the People's Literature Publishing House. Composed of 7 short stories, Concert is Ai Wei's latest collection of works, which was published in important literary magazines such as Harvest, Huacheng, Writer, and Beijing Literature before publication. These novels are a collection of irrational, surprise-like ideas, breaking the daily ice through "accidents".
Short stories are very important in Ai Wei's writing. Ai Wei once said, "The short story is not real life itself, but the product of going beyond the conventions of reality, an accident in this normal world." If there is any use in this world, this is where the novel tries to pierce that vast and strong fortress of ideas with concrete 'individuals', so that it can return vitality and possibility to life, and freedom to mankind. ”
The seven works of "Concert" are "Concert", "Thief", "In the Horqin Steppe", "Xiao man", "Happiness Hostel", "In Moscow", "The Last Day and another day". These novels have won the first place in the short story list of the harvest literature list, the Wang Zengqi Literature Award, the "Novel Selection" Most Popular Readers Award, the "Writer" "Golden Short Story" Novel Award, etc., and were selected into the "Urban Literature" list.
The novel of the same name, "Concert", is his latest published work. Ai Wei wrote such a story: "Man's" son loves a singer's concert, bought a cheap ticket for a scalper but could not enter, so he climbed on the Ferris wheel nearby to watch, but the roulette wheel turned and fell to his death. Here, it is the scalper who harms the man's son, and the paradox is that the man himself is the one who makes fake tickets to provide to the scalper, which is called self-inflicted. Due to the loss of his beloved son, his mental condition becomes narrow and extreme, cynical, and the intention of revenge gradually accumulates, how will he retaliate, has he succeeded?
The story of "Concert" is open and warm. Regarding his own novel creation, Ai Wei emphasized, "While telling a good story, I pay more attention to the complexity of people. "The Concert" focuses on the complexity and subtlety of human nature, writing about the trauma brought by the broken life and the mutual comfort in the cold night. Critic Hu Ping gave high praise to "Concert": "Although some short stories are short, they come in real and natural, the scenes are unique, and the text always haunts the author's rich feeling, short enough to be solid, seductive, and profound, and its power has exceeded that kind of long story." Ai Wei's "Concert" belongs to such short stories. ”
"The Last Day and Another Day" topped the 2020 Literary Short Story List and is about a female murderer. A woman spent seventeen years in prison and became the number one model inmate in prison. What kind of story happened to this woman? The search for this question has always been permeated in our reading experience. The acceptance speech of the Harvest Literature List understands the novel as follows: "The novel tries to spy on this woman's enigmatic life, but finds that the final gain is limited. As a last resort, the novel sets up a play-within-a-play, a play based on this woman on the stage, and the woman as the prototype sits in the audience as cold as frost. This is the struggle between the writer and the characters in his works, in this sense, Ai Wei's novel has the temperament of a "meta-novel", so the novel has two textual aspects, in the surface text, the story of the female prisoner arouses enough curiosity of the reader in the form of a suspense drama; in the deep text, it is a story about the writer's inability to tame the characters in his work, which implies the height and limit of art. And in the end, the novel seems to be joking with everyone: you never know what you want to know, because that's life's most jerky and solid logic. ”
As a novelist who has a dazzling record on different tracks such as long-distance running, sprinting and even cross-country running (long, medium and short), Ai Wei has a unique understanding of the creation ability of fictional works. In his novels, there is both a "realistic" side and an "allegorical" level. He described himself as a believer in Kafka, and he once said: "My ideal novel is a combination of the inner depth of human nature and the broad metaphor, it is honest and introspective, it starts from the most ordinary daily life, but it has the ability to fly away from reality, it is self-sufficient, it has unexpected wisdom." It will eventually come back and stab like a knife into the heart of reality or the world. ”
(Photo courtesy of People's Literature Publishing House)