以下分享一段書摘： 什麼能對抗時代的躁音？只有我們內在的音樂、源自存在的音樂——其中有些被人轉化爲現實中的樂音。幾十年後，如果它們夠強大、夠真實、夠純粹到能淹沒時代的噪音，便會轉化爲歷史的低語。 (What could be put up against the noise of time? Only that music which is inside ourselves – the music of our being – which is transformed by some into real music. Which, over the decades, if it is strong and true and pure enough to drown out the noise of time, is transformed into the whisper of history.)
只有那些在文字中體會過恐懼的人才會培育箴言，因為他害怕與全部文字一齊垮塌。 Ne cultivent l’aphorisme que ceux qui ont connu la peur au milieu des mots, cette peur de crouler avec tous les mots. The aphorism is cultivated only by those who have known fear in the midst of words, that fear of collapsing with all the words.
關於人物側寫這類文章，有時候會很訝異，哲學家總是可以提出不同的觀察視角，好比是〈斯科特．菲茨傑拉德〉(FITZGERALD)這一篇，齊奧朗 (E. M. Cioran) 以「一位美國小說家的帕斯卡式體驗」來評價Scott Fitzgerald，批判的內容頗有意思，對於Fitzgerald在〈崩潰〉一系列隨筆中有關內心的探索，應該還要有更深遠的意義？
本書收錄的這些文章藉由作者的獨白重重批判了當前的網路科技、人際關係與各種社會文化現象，同時也不斷批判自己，充滿著自省的能量。 其中最為有名的一篇文章是 1996 年在《哈潑》雜誌上發表的〈偶然作夢——在影像世紀還寫小說的一個原因〉(Perchance to Dream: In the Age of Images, a Reason to Write Novels)，後來則是更名為〈自尋煩惱？〉(Why Bother?)。
It strikes me that this may be one of the differences between youth and age: when we are young, we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old, we invent different pasts for others. (我驚訝地想到，年輕和年老的一大差異也許就在：年輕的時候，我們想像自己美妙的未來；年老的時候，我們編織別人不存在的過去。) ——Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
始終對於朱利安．拔恩斯的《福婁拜的鸚鵡》念念不忘，他讓我見識到揉合或組織小說、傳記、歷史、評論各種文體的可能性，閱讀過程就像是聆聽一首融合 Funk、R&B以及搖滾樂的Jazz fusion。 而就在去年，他的新書《回憶的餘燼》(The Sense of An Ending) 讓他第四度入圍布克獎並進入決選名單，最後終於以這本書獲獎。
相較於《福婁拜的鸚鵡》的寫作規格，《回憶的餘燼》似乎只能視為中篇小說的小品，卻隱含著強大的閱讀後壓力症候群 (Post Reading Stress Disorder)，從以下幾則書評可知： 精簡和精準得耀目……《回憶的餘燼》頁數無幾，卻帶給讀者讀好幾倍長的小說才會得到的滿足感。－－《洛杉磯時報》 “[A] jewel of conciseness and precision…. The Sense of an Ending packs into so few pages so much that the reader finishes it with a sense of satisfaction more often derived from novels several times its length.” —The Los Angeles Times
精采和不張揚地檢視了回憶和它的運作，以及回憶是如何讓我們把印象區隔化和整齊地收納起來……聰明而讓人不自在……拔恩斯提醒了讀者，我們一直賴之為磐石的印象有多麼弱不禁風。－－《明尼亞波里星壇報》 “A brilliant, understated examination of memory and how it works, how it compartmentalizes and fixes impressions to tidily store away. . . . Clever, provocative. . . . Barnes reminds his readers how fragile is the tissue of impressions we conveniently rely upon as bedrock.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune
簡潔，漂亮。它問的是那個讓人發顫的基本問題：我是我自以為的那個人嗎？……正如拔恩斯以優雅和讓人憂戚的筆觸顯示，我們全都是不可靠的敘事者，挽救之道不在乞靈於精確的回憶而在願意質疑它們。－－《波士頓環球報》 "Brief, beautiful. . . . That fundamentally chilling question—Am I the person I think I am?—turns out to be a surprisingly suspenseful one. . . . As Barnes so elegantly and poignantly reveals, we are all unreliable narrators, redeemed not by the accuracy of our memories but by our willingness to question them." —The Boston Globe.
相當引人入迷……以慢火熬燉、布局考究但充滿懸疑，這部密湊的小說讓每一句巧妙雕琢的句子都具有作用。－－英國《獨立報》 “Quietly mesmerizing. . . . A slow burn, measured but suspenseful, this compact novel makes every slyly crafted sentence count.” —The Independent (London)
History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation. (歷史必然產生在記憶的不完美和文件的不充分之交接處。) 故事從高中時代的歷史課堂上師生之間機智的問答開始，敘事者東尼回憶起心目中的摯友艾卓安、回憶起與初戀女友薇若妮卡分手的過去、回憶起艾卓安與薇若妮卡請求他同意兩人交往的來信以及回憶起他寫了張明信片雲淡風清的回應和那一封埋下日後糾葛的正式回信，然而後續卻傳來了艾卓安割腕自殺的消息。 40年後，薇若妮卡的母親死後遺留給東尼一筆五百英磅象徵補償的「血錢」(Blood money)以及一本艾卓安生前的日記，卻發現日記被薇若妮卡侵占... 東尼決定追討日記，殊不知同時他也追回了他所刻意遺忘的回憶以及令他羞愧難堪的過往。
薇若妮卡重複說的一句話，足以摧毀已經過了大半輩子的東尼，讓他掉落充滿悔恨及歉意的無盡深淵： You just don’t get it, do you? But then you never did. (你還是沒弄懂，對不對？但你這個人本來就沒弄懂過什麼。) You just don’t get it, do you? You never did, and you never will. (你還是不懂，對吧？你從來就沒弄懂，也永遠不會懂！) You still don’t get it. You never did, and you never will. So stop even trying. (你還是不懂。你從來就沒弄懂，也永遠不會懂。所以，連試都不必試了。)
這部小說有許多留白供讀者想像之處(畢竟它只是中短篇小說)，同時他也不斷運用了模糊的語句描述回憶的不確定性： If I can’t be sure of the actual events any more, I can at least be true to the impressions those facts left. That’s the best I can manage. (即便我不敢保證自己的記述符合實況，但起碼可以肯定它們是事實所留給我的印象。這是我能力可及的最大程度。) Even if you have assiduously kept records – in words, sound, pictures – you may find that you have attended to the wrong kind of record-keeping. (即便你一直孜孜矻矻地用文字、聲音或影像紀錄，到頭來仍可能發現自己用錯了紀錄的載體。)
Sometimes I think the purpose of life is to reconcile us to its eventual loss by wearing us down, by proving, however long it takes, that life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. (有時我會覺得，人生的目的是要透過磨損自己，來讓我們逐漸適應最終的滅亡，要像我們證明，就算活得再久，人生都不會像它曾被吹噓的那樣美好。)
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