WAITING FOR JONATHAN KOSHY
Book ID/图书代码： 12580016B91959
English Summary/英文概要： The novel, before publication and in manuscript form, was a finalist for the Horatio Nelson Fiction Prize and received glowing reviews from writers Madison Smartt Bell and Robert Olen Butler, which are attached.
In a plush bungalow in Pali Hill (the Beverley Hills of Mumbai), four friends await the arrival of Jonathan, a dreamer, a thinker, an ideator, who has been unceremoniously exiled from his home state, Kerala. While they await the arrival of their friend, to whom they must offer asylum and comfort, the four friends recollect in flashback the tumultuous life of Jonathan. In chapter after chapter that draws on an episodic format, we learn how Jonathan has inevitably made a difference to the lives of his friends, extricating them from problematic situations. He has broken up a gambling den, taken on eve-teasing louts, settled scores with a defaulting conman, charmed a recovery agent and would-be hit man, dispersed a rioting mob intent on murder, and rescued sex workers and their children from a life of doom.
Ironically, Jonathan has a solution for every crisis that strikes others, but not for his own dysfunctional family life. On one level, these interlinked flashbacks work to build Jonathan’s character; on another, they hold a mirror to the potpourri that is India. When Jonathan finally arrives, larger than life, we learn that it is life that has redeemed him. Not only has he found his roots as a family man, but has gained validation for an idea that will serve the larger interests of society.
Drawing on the terse intensity of a play, the sparkling wit of a stand-up comedy, and the insights of a thought-provoking novel, WAITING FOR JONATHAN KOSHY reflects the triumph of a spirit that refuses to let up on humor and quick thinking in the face of intense personal adversity. It is a book about friendship, perseverance, family obligations, and duty. Most importantly, about life’s late but redeeming powers.
The following is from the author as to why he wrote the book: “The greatest characters in literary fiction are not superheroes. They are people who have lost, and, through their losses, have vindicated others. Take Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby or Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mocking Bird or Charlie Citrine in Humboldt’s Gift or Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye or Ignatius Reilly in A Confederacy of Dunces, or even Hamlet. These are men who have lost to life’s machinations, and in losing, have left us – readers – better equipped to deal with uncertainties. This is what I wanted to do with WAITING FOR JONATHAN KOSHY. To travel with a character who was deeply flawed, deeply complex, and yet concerned about his family, friends, and country. A character who was boyish and vulnerable, audacious and outrageous. A character as multidimensional as life itself.”
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 这部小说未经出版已经入围了Horatio Nelson小说奖的决赛，并获得了包括Madison Smartt Bell以及Robert Olen Butler等小说家的一致好评。
在Pali山（相当于孟买的比弗利山庄）的一座平房中，四个朋友正在等待着约翰逊的到来。约翰逊是一个梦想家，一个思想家，一个建议者，毫不客气地被从家乡喀拉拉邦流放来此。四个朋友等待着向约翰逊提供庇护和安慰，一边等，他们一边说起约翰逊动荡的生活。本书一章又一章，看来很松散，但读者也能从中了解到约翰逊如何不可避免地改变了他的朋友的生活，解决了他们的各种问题。他破坏了一个赌窝，解决了一个骗子，迷倒了一个代理和可能的打手，解散了打算要实行谋杀的骚乱暴徒，解救了可能陷入悲剧的妓女和她们的孩子们。
讽刺的是，约翰逊看来能够解决其他人的任何问题，但对于自己的家庭生活危机却无能为力。这些相互关联的倒叙能够让读者了解到约翰逊的性格。当约翰逊最终到达的时候，我们才知道最终是什么救赎了他的生活。他不仅成为了家庭支柱，也有了如何有助于社会的想法。
本书借鉴了戏剧的张力，相声的机智和小说发人深省的见解，体现了精神的胜利，体现了面对个人逆境的幽默和思维敏捷的胜利。这是一本关于友谊、执着、家庭责任、义务的书。最重要的是有关生活的救赎。(LYR)
Awards/获奖情况：“Murzban Shroff’s fiction is steeped in the most ancient of Indian folkways, and at the same time engaged with the various shocks of twenty-first century modernization. These stories treat their subjects with Chekhovian simplicity, and also partake of Chekhov’s eerie transparency: that sense that he has given the reader everything without seeming to do anything at all. Third Eye Rising is the best work to date by a writer whose gifts have always been remarkable.” — Madison Smartt Bell, author of Barking Man, All Souls’ Rising, and Anything Goes.
“The stories of Third Eye Rising feel like tales from another time, with all the characters of Shakespeare, the suspense of 1001 nights, a Panchatantra returning to life in our time. A boy fears his father, the Ramayana plays on an Inspector’s television, marriages are tested, a village harbors secrets, animals domestic and wild pass through imbued with meaning, wisdom lurks in the most unlikely places. Murzban Shroff has invented a mythology for our time, simple stories that open like blooms and surprise us by singing, voices timeless and urgent and moving.”— Bill Roorbach, author of Life Among Giants, The Remedy for Love, and The Girl of the Lake.
"A splendid collection, beautifully crafted, full of dreams, fake marriages and endless longing. Shroff is a captivating storyteller."— Junot Diaz, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
“Such thoughtful and elegantly-built stories here, never skirting the complex ways we interact, talk to one another, live together, pull apart. Shroff demonstrates deep insight about our relationships and the forces that test their strength and survival.” — Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.
About the Author/作者介绍： Murzban F. Shroff是一个住在孟买的作家，也是John Gilgun小说奖的获得者。他曾六度获得Pushcart奖提名，这是全美短篇小说的最高奖。他的小说已经出现在英国和美国超过五十本文学期刊上。在美国，他的作品出现在包括《葛底斯堡评论》、《Triquarterly》等期刊杂志上。在英国，他的故事也发表在了包括《Aesthetica》等杂志上。他的非小说类作品已经发表在《India Abroad》以及《The American Scholar》上。
Murzban F. Shroff is a Mumbai-based writer and recipient of the John Gilgun Fiction Award and he has garnered six Pushcart Prize nominations, the highest award for the short story in the U.S. His fiction has appeared in over fifty literary journals in the U.S. and UK. In the U.S. he has published his stories in The Gettysburg Review, Triquarterly, The Minnesota Review, The South Carolina Review, Southwest Review, World Literature Today, The Saturday Evening Post and Chicago Tribune. In the UK, his stories have appeared in Aesthetica, Cadenza, Short Fiction, Stand, and Structo. His non-fiction has appeared in India Abroad and The American Scholar.
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