THIS SIDE OF JORDAN: A NOVEL

Book ID/图书代码： 10820009B33077

English Summary/英文概要： A seductive novel of southern lyricism. Monte Schulz’s prose novel opens in the spring of 1929, as the 19-year-old consumptive farm boy Alvin Pendergast attends an ill-fated dance marathon he’s too sickly to participate in. After a year of his life has been stolen by a sanitarium, Alvin knows he’s relapsing, and dreads not only the drudgery of his family’s homestead, but a return to the hospital. In this state of mind, an invitation for a late-night slice of pie is too seductive to pass up and before he knows it, Alvin crosses the Mississippi River and finds himself working for a slick con artist named Chester Burke.

Alvin is no match for Chester, who’s not merely a con man, but a gangster from Chicago, following the bootleg liquor trade through the small towns of America’s middle border. With Alvin in tow, Chester’s insouciant disregard for life serves him well as he embarks upon a series of bank robberies and senseless murders. All summer long, Chester assumes the role of a dark angel on Judgment day, cleansing the scrolls of those whose sad fortune had drawn them across his path. Too ill to flee, too morally weak to object, Alvin resigns himself to what seems like certain doom somewhere down the road. Fortunately, Alvin finds another companion on his journey, a lonely, eccentric, and grandiloquent dwarf named Rascal, whose own infirmity binds his and the farm boy’s destiny together. Drawn deeper and deeper into Chester’s murderous frolic, they come across a curious assortment of characters, from small town businessmen and religious kooks to wayward girls and dance contestants, spiritualists and sideshow freaks. Caught between Chester’s villainy and Alvin’s own physical deterioration, the young farm boy must make a decision: stick with Chester, who would surely kill him at the slightest hint of betrayal, or muster the courage to stake his life on faith in Rascal’s clever plan to save them both. Tired of being afraid, Alvin finally grasps the need not only to outwit the gangster but to find another road to travel. What he discovers about the meaning of home offers a solution to escape and freedom.

This Side of Jordan is a thoroughly American novel told in the voice of a lost generation hurtling toward the Great Depression, and evokes a long ago America of crowded Main Streets and tourist camps, miles of cornfields, rural church¬es, and musty parlors. It ends on the fairgrounds of a traveling wagon circus that beckons gangster, farm boy, and dwarf toward a startling resolution, and a hard-fought absolution for the two young, frightened collaborators. The narrative of this novel has the momentum of a freight train, but told in the seductive, rhythmic tradition of Southern lyricism reminiscent of Flannery O’Connor and Truman Capote, and filled with vivid, outsized literary characters. If Jim Thompson and Carson McCullers went on a collaborative bender by kidnapping Holden Caulfield, Perry Smith, and Ignatius J. Reilly, they’d have come up with something like This Side of Jordan. .

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 一部讲述南方抒情故事的小说。A seductive novel of southern lyricism. Monte Schulz’的散文小说开始于1929年的春天，当时一位19岁得了肺结核病的农场男孩Alvin Pendergast想参加一场倒霉的舞蹈马拉松，他因为太虚弱而无力参加。Alvin在疗养院度过一年后，他知道他的疾病要复发，并担心承担不了家庭农场里的苦工活，必须重新回到医院。在这种状态下，接受到一份午夜的馅饼邀请是非常有诱惑力的，在这之前，Alvin穿过密西西比河已开始为一个名叫Chester Burke的狡猾的伪艺术家工作。

Alvin是无法和Chester相提并论的，因为Chester不仅是个骗子，而且还是芝加哥的一名歹徒，在美国边界的各个小镇上从事贩酒的行当。有Alvin当跟班，对玩世不恭的Chester而言，不管是银行抢劫还是无意义的谋杀都非常有帮助。在整个夏天，Chester 在世界末日扮演着黑色天使的角色，清除那些给他人生道路带来不幸的人。因为生病无法逃脱，而且精神上太脆弱又无法反抗，Alvin只能服从于看起来可能是的厄运。幸运的是，Alvin找到了另一个伙伴，一个孤独、古怪且大言不惭的矮人Rascal，他自己的疾病将他和农场男孩的命运捆绑在一起。他们在Chester的谋杀闹剧中越陷越深，还遇到了各种奇怪的人物，从小镇商人到宗教怪人再到任性的女孩以及舞蹈竞赛者、巫师以及杂耍怪人。陷在Chester的恶性以及Alvin自己每况愈下的身体中，年轻的农场男孩必须做出决定：坚持和Chester待在一起，只要流露出任何的背叛意图就会被杀，或者鼓起勇气赌上一把，相信Rascal的计划可以拯救他们两个。克服恐惧，Alvin最终战胜了歹徒并寻找到了前进的道路。他所发现的家的意义让他得以逃脱并获得自由。

《约旦的这边》是一部很纯粹的美国小说，以一群急速涌向大萧条的失落的一代人的声音讲述，呼唤很多年前那拥挤的大街、游客营地、数以英里计的玉米田、乡村教堂和发霉的客厅。故事在马车马戏团的露天游乐场中结束，这里召唤着歹徒、农场男孩以及矮人朝着一个决定驶去，以及两个年轻的合作者努力争取到的赦免。小说的叙述犹如行使的货运列车，但是以南方抒情诗似的节奏叙述，让人联想起弗兰纳里•奥康纳、杜鲁门•卡波特，故事中充斥着生动且鲜明的文学人物。如果Jim Thompson 和 Carson McCullers绑架了Holden Caulfield，Perry Smith以及 Ignatius J. Reilly，他们会变出和《约旦的这边》类似的书。(兼职翻译-PZ)

Awards/获奖情况：

About the Author/作者介绍： Monte Schulz获得加利福尼亚大学圣巴巴拉分校的硕士学位。他在1990年出版了第一部小说，《沿河而下》，并用了12年的时间创作了《爵士岁月》，其中《约旦的这边》是三部曲中的一部。他写这部小说是为了他死去的父亲，漫画家Charles M. Schulz。

Monte Schulz received his M.A. in American Studies from UCSB. He published his first novel, Down By the River, in 1990, and spent the next twelve years writing a novel of the Jazz Age, of which This Side of Jordan is only one of three parts. He wrote it for his father, the late cartoonist, Charles M. Schulz.

Format:电子手稿

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

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