Book review | this father "unique, really difficult to match"

There are too many literary writings about my father. We know Turgenev's Father and Son, Balzac's The Tall Old Man, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice with five daughters, Mario Puzo's The Godfather, etc. In fact, the father figure in Game of Thrones is also rich and chic and unforgettable. Although Ye Zhaoyan's "The Road to Father" is not a long-form production, it is still quite remarkable because of its unique content, unique narrative, and emotional diversity.

Ye Zhaoyan's new work "The Road to the Father", although it follows the calm and elegant narration of his novel's consistent style, the characters in his pen are often elegant and elegant, wanfang Swen high standards of different customs, quite the clear flow of the Yushu Linfeng, and the narrative is not even without the meaning of essayistic scattered culture, but the "father" Zhang Xiyi told by "The Road to the Father" is a bit special, not in line with the usual imagination of ordinary people. Looking at the name of Zhang Zuo's father "Zhang Xiyi", it seems that intentionally or unintentionally conveys qian Zhongshu's "Siege of the City" or Wu Jingzi's "Rulin" atmosphere in "Rulin's Outer History", and for such a generation of zhang Xiyi's age, or as a reader and intellectual, the author is really too familiar with and understands.

The author's familiar insight is not only anecdotes that cannot be seen in words heard from the elders, but also the mysterious old things he touches in the vast sea of words, and we can appreciate the style and insight of such different others from the author's swaying prose essays, and of course, deep feelings and observations. But after all, non-fiction writing has its limitations and inconveniences, and it is probably out of this consideration that he wants to talk about the generation of "Zhang Zuo's father "Zhang Xiyi" in a fictitious way, which is a bit dissected and ironic.

The author has a bit of an understatement of Zhang Xiyi's father, but only mentions Zhang Xiyi's grandfather "Zhang Jitian", Zhang Jitian is Zhang Zuo's grandfather Wei Ren's teacher, a person with real learning, is the three Dingjia of the science field. Ye Zhaoyan's Zhang Xiyi had two formal marriages, and Zhang Xiyi gave birth to Zhang Zuo with Wei Ren's younger daughter Wei Mingwei. Because of the times, there are also personality factors, Wei Mingwei married "Master Lu" after divorcing Zhang Xiyi, while Zhang Xiyi formed another family and married an actor with a daughter, Aunt Wu.

Zhang Zuo lived with his grandparents in such a gap. What puzzled Zhang Zuo was why Zhang Xiyi was particularly popular in his later years and became a "master of traditional Chinese studies", "master of calligraphy" and "academic titan". Such a character shaping, such a and discreet, is a bit of a different meaning. He does not tell the story of father-son conflict, serious confrontation to the final reconciliation of each other, shaking hands and talking happily. Although Zhang Xiyi has lived for nearly a hundred years, Zhang Zuo, who has become a grandfather, looks forward to his father, and he is still a bit confused and confused.

"The Road to Father" mainly focuses on writing the father-son relationship between Zhang Xiyi and Zhang Zuo, such a father-son relationship is either sparse or light, and what impresses Zhang Zuo is that he once went to the countryside to visit his father who worked to reform and cut grass and raise cattle there, and there was also Zhang Xiyi's frequent correspondence with his former father-in-law to ask for advice. In his heart, Wei Ren still regarded Zhang Xiyi as his son-in-law, and he was a little at odds with his second son-in-law, Master Lu, who was commanding, had different views, and was difficult to get along with. Zhang Zuo's more spiritual nourishment came from Wei Ren and his grandmother. Grandma let him dry clothes, grandpa taught him to practice calligraphy, bit by bit, moisturizing silent, in a sense, Grandpa Wei Ren is Zhang Zuo's true spiritual father. Under such an atmosphere, there is a big climate of the times, and there is also a microclimate of the family, and Zhang Zuo gradually grew up.

Time flies, Zhang Zuo also became a father, but his relationship with his son is not much inked by the author. Zhang Zuo, who has been a father or even a grandfather, and then looks at his father Zhang Xiyi, not without feelings: "The road to his father is too long, Zhang Zuo found that he has never really approached Zhang Xiyi, and sometimes the closer he goes, the farther he feels." Zhang Zuo even felt self-deprecatingly, "Zhang Zuo now has only one identity left, that is, the son of the master of traditional Chinese studies Zhang Xiyi" "The more books related to his father are compiled, the more he feels that he does not understand Zhang Xiyi."

García Márquez said that the reason men know he's old is because he's starting to look like his father. Ye Zhaoyan's "The Road to Father" dedicates a unique and infamous father figure in the Chinese literary gallery, and this "Zhang Xiyi" is really a person worth pondering and considering. (Wang Zhenyu)