我与李彦相识于几年前的南京先锋书店,她给我既敏锐、大度又有自知之明的印象,总认为我不会喜欢她的小说。在后来邮件的一来二往中,我渐渐明白了她的担忧来自何处。原来我小说对国内人性惯有的批判态度,与她小说企图为浸染了“红色文化”的海外大陆人重塑尊严,似乎有颇多相悖之处。不过当我读完李彦的近作《海底》,我倒为这种相悖感到了释然。 I met Li Xian a few years ago, Nanjing Pioneer Bookstore, she gave me both acute, generous and self-knowledge of the impression, always think I will not like her novels. Later in the mail, I gradually understood where her worries came from. It seems that there are quite a few contradictions in my novel’s usual critical attitude towards human nature and her attempt to reshape the dignity of overseas Chinese who have infiltrated the “red culture” by her novels. However, when I read Li Yan’s recent book, The Seabed, I was relieved of this incompatibility.