这部书讲述的虽然只是一个家庭在几十年间兴衰升沉的历史,可如同佛家所说的,一粒微尘,可见大千。它也曲折地映现出一部中国的社会史,既包括了不同阶层的家庭及其子女的生活样态,也有从城市到乡村底层贫民挣扎谋生的艰辛实录,展现了纷繁多样的时代画面。比起那些用宏大叙事写就的正史来,这也是社会记忆中一个不可缺少的章节。 Although this book is a story of a family whose history of ups and downs in decades has risen and fallen, as the Buddhist one said, a tiny dust can be seen. It twists and turns also shows a Chinese social history, which includes not only the life style of families and their children of different social strata, but also the hard-fought records of struggling to make a living from the city to the poor people at the bottom of the village, showing a wide variety of images of the times. This is also an indispensable chapter in social memory over those official histories written in grand narratives.