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本期推荐节选自爱丽丝·门罗（Alice Munro）封笔前的最后一部短篇故事集《Dear Life： Stories》的开篇第一则短篇故事《To Reach Japan》。大家应该听说过爱丽丝·门罗那如雷贯耳的大名吧？如果没有，那就真的OUT了！2013年斩获诺贝尔文学奖的就是这位加拿大女作家，她被誉为“加拿大的契诃夫”。1968年，门罗发表的第一部短篇小说（《快乐影子之舞》）就获得了加拿大总督文学奖，随后其发表的所有作品都陆续获奖，更是被译为13种文字传遍全球，受到读者与媒体的高度评价，门罗因此荣获“当代短篇小说大师”的称号。
《To Reach Japan》是二十几页的一则短篇小说，讲述了母亲格里塔带着女儿凯蒂在去往多伦多的路途中所发生的故事，年轻母亲暂时脱离了丈夫彼得的牵制，在火车上邂逅一名对其极为欣赏的男子，在这段艳遇并未有何实质发展之时，女儿凯蒂不见了……这一切到底为何会发生？彼得又为何会令格里塔感觉被牵制？本期黄金书屋选段为大家一一揭晓。
其实在读完整则短篇之后，小编一直在想门罗为何会选用这个标题，整个故事的情节与日本毫无关联，从加拿大到日本又遥远至极，更甚的是几年前的日本又遭遇了海啸及核辐射的重创，那是一个灾后有待重建的地方。或许，门罗的深意便在于此，只要是还有人类生存的地方，那个地方便会重生，重生希望。
重生希望，不管在何时何地，也不管何人，应该都会吧！格里塔是如此，我们亦如是。
hen they went to see a movie， he never wanted to talk about it aferwards. He would say that it was good， or pretty good， or okay. He didn’t see the point in going further. He watched television， he read a book in somewhat the same way. He had patience with such things. The people who put them together were probably doing the best they could. Greta used to argue， rashly asking whether he would say the same things about a bridge. The people who did it did their best， but their best was not good enough so it fell down.
Instead of arguing， he just laughed. I
t was not the same thing， he said.
No？
No.
Greta should have realized that this attitude—hands off， tolerant—was a blessing for her， because she was a poet， and there were things in her poems that were in no way cheerful or easy to explain.
当他们一起去看电影的时候，结束之后他从来都不想再谈论它。他会说这部电影好或者相当好，又或是还不错。他看不到继续谈论的意义。他看电视、看书也大致如此。他对于诸如此类的事情总是很有耐心。他认为把这些东西弄在一起制作出来的人可能已经尽力了。格里塔常常跟他争论，贸贸然地问他如果是一座桥的话，他是否还会那么说。造桥的人已经尽力了，但是他们的“尽力”还不大够，于是桥塌了。
他没有和她争论，他只是笑了。
这并不一样，他说。
不一样？
不一样。格里塔早该料到他这种态度——毫不接招、包容的态度——这对于她来说是一种福气，因为她是个诗人，在她的诗作中有些东西实在是无法愉快地或是不费力地解释。
（Peter’s mother and the people he worked with—those who knew about it—still said poetess. She had trained him not to. Otherwise， no training necessary. The relatives she had left behind in her life， and the people she knew now in her role as a housewife and mother， did not have to be trained because they knew nothing about this peculiarity.）
It would become hard to explain， later on in her life， just what was okay in that time and what was not. You might say： “Well， feminism was not.” But then you would have to explain that feminism was not even a word people used. Then you would get all tied up saying that having any serious idea （1）let alone ambition）， or maybe even reading a real book， could be seen as suspect， having something to do with your child’s getting 2）pneumonia， and a political remark at an office party might have cost your husband his promotion. It would not have mattered which political party either. It was a woman’s shooting off her mouth that did it.
《To Reach Japan》是二十几页的一则短篇小说，讲述了母亲格里塔带着女儿凯蒂在去往多伦多的路途中所发生的故事，年轻母亲暂时脱离了丈夫彼得的牵制，在火车上邂逅一名对其极为欣赏的男子，在这段艳遇并未有何实质发展之时，女儿凯蒂不见了……这一切到底为何会发生？彼得又为何会令格里塔感觉被牵制？本期黄金书屋选段为大家一一揭晓。
其实在读完整则短篇之后，小编一直在想门罗为何会选用这个标题，整个故事的情节与日本毫无关联，从加拿大到日本又遥远至极，更甚的是几年前的日本又遭遇了海啸及核辐射的重创，那是一个灾后有待重建的地方。或许，门罗的深意便在于此，只要是还有人类生存的地方，那个地方便会重生，重生希望。
重生希望，不管在何时何地，也不管何人，应该都会吧！格里塔是如此，我们亦如是。
hen they went to see a movie， he never wanted to talk about it aferwards. He would say that it was good， or pretty good， or okay. He didn’t see the point in going further. He watched television， he read a book in somewhat the same way. He had patience with such things. The people who put them together were probably doing the best they could. Greta used to argue， rashly asking whether he would say the same things about a bridge. The people who did it did their best， but their best was not good enough so it fell down.
Instead of arguing， he just laughed. I
t was not the same thing， he said.
No？
No.
Greta should have realized that this attitude—hands off， tolerant—was a blessing for her， because she was a poet， and there were things in her poems that were in no way cheerful or easy to explain.
当他们一起去看电影的时候，结束之后他从来都不想再谈论它。他会说这部电影好或者相当好，又或是还不错。他看不到继续谈论的意义。他看电视、看书也大致如此。他对于诸如此类的事情总是很有耐心。他认为把这些东西弄在一起制作出来的人可能已经尽力了。格里塔常常跟他争论，贸贸然地问他如果是一座桥的话，他是否还会那么说。造桥的人已经尽力了，但是他们的“尽力”还不大够，于是桥塌了。
他没有和她争论，他只是笑了。
这并不一样，他说。
不一样？
不一样。格里塔早该料到他这种态度——毫不接招、包容的态度——这对于她来说是一种福气，因为她是个诗人，在她的诗作中有些东西实在是无法愉快地或是不费力地解释。
（Peter’s mother and the people he worked with—those who knew about it—still said poetess. She had trained him not to. Otherwise， no training necessary. The relatives she had left behind in her life， and the people she knew now in her role as a housewife and mother， did not have to be trained because they knew nothing about this peculiarity.）
It would become hard to explain， later on in her life， just what was okay in that time and what was not. You might say： “Well， feminism was not.” But then you would have to explain that feminism was not even a word people used. Then you would get all tied up saying that having any serious idea （1）let alone ambition）， or maybe even reading a real book， could be seen as suspect， having something to do with your child’s getting 2）pneumonia， and a political remark at an office party might have cost your husband his promotion. It would not have mattered which political party either. It was a woman’s shooting off her mouth that did it.