《闲话栏之争》是反映当前美国社会生活的长篇小说。它以一名闲话栏作家在美困纽约等大都市的调查活动为线索,刻画了社会各阶层中形形色色的人物,如政客、出版商、记者、演员、警察和黑手党分子等,为读者提供了一幅美国当今社会的生动画画。这部小说给人的第一个印象就是人物的形象比较丰满和鲜明。小说主人公安东尼·伯特是六十年代初期的大学生,由于受到当时理想主义思潮的影响,在校期间就立下了自主命运、改造社会的雄心壮志。但大学毕业后,他先是当上了一名自由调查记者,后来又应聘成为闲话栏作家。一晃十几年,他非但没有主宰自己的命运,改造社会,反而迭遭劫难,历尽坎坷。 “Gossip bar dispute” is a novel that reflects the current American social life. It uses a gossip columnist as a clue in a survey of metropolitan New York and other cities in the United States to depict the various characters in all walks of life such as politicians, publishers, journalists, actors, police officers and mafia elements and provide them to readers A vivid picture of America’s present-day society. The first impression given by this novel is that the figure is full and distinct. The protagonist Anthony Bert is a college student in the early 1960s. Due to the influence of the ideological trend of the time, he set himself the ambition of self-destiny and social transformation. But after graduating from college, he first became a freelance investigative reporter, and later recruited as gossip columnist. After a dozen years, he not only failed to dominate his own destiny and transform society, but instead suffered a catastrophe and went through rough ups and downs.