耶茨的小说开头

                
                
Richard Yates的小说，如果读者不害怕、不排斥那种惨兮兮的氛围，会越读越觉得有味。特别是鄙人在翻译时，因为需要特别耐心咂摸，对他的遣词造句之技艺高超（也是刁难译者）有了刻骨铭心的感受。这一点，以后再集中投诉一次，今天先表扬一下他的小说开头。
先说《复活节游行》的开头：“Neither of the Grimes sisters would have a happy life, and looking back it always seemed that the trouble began with their parents' divorce. ”开门见山，干净利索，一下子为整部小说定下了调子。我看到过有名家很欣赏这样的开头，后来我干脆去翻书，找了一些他的开头抄下，跟广大文学青年分享一下：
长篇小说:
1.Revolutionary Road
The final dying sound of their dress rehearsal left the Laurel Players with nothing to do but stand there, silent and helpless, blinking out over the footlights of an open auditorium.
2．Cold Spring Habor
All the sorrows of Evan Shepard's loutish adolescence were redeemed at seventeen, in 1935, when he fell in love with automobile.
3．Young Hearts Crying
By the time he was twenty-three, Michael Davenport had learned his own skepticism.
短篇:
1．A Glutton for Punishment
For a Little while when Walter Henderson was nine years old he thought falling dead was the very zenith of romance, and so did a number of his friends.
2．A Natural Girl
In the spring of her sophomore year when she was twenty, Susan Andrews told her very calmly that she didn't love him anymore.
3．A Compassionate Leave
Nothing ever seemed to go right for the 57th Division.