蝸牛路

《麥田捕手》(又名：麥田守望者)(The Catcher in The Rye)作者沙林傑(JD Salinger)逝世。看到這則新聞，令我立刻從書架上找這本書重溫一遍，這是唯一一本我讀完中文譯本再買英文原著的小說。

故事主人翁是一名16歲的反叛少年Holden，逃學、吸烟、喝酒又滿嘴粗話，他討厭成人的偽善，就讀名校但是對學校中的一切都看不順眼，除了英文所有科目都不及格。小說以Holden的角度用他粗魯的語言道出他的感受，年青人讀來份外親切，因此該小說亦風靡了一代美國人；不過，當年曾經被一些衛道之士列為禁書，畢竟那是1951年。

荷里活電影中，間中就會碰上一齣講某連環殺手的家被警察搜查，發現一本《麥田捕手》。可惜亦慶幸我沒有本錢當上殺手，更高興讀過這本傑作，這是那一段歲月的紀念。

節錄：

(當主角向妹妹訴說學校的事情)"Even the couple of nice teachers on the faculty, they were phonies, too," I said. "There was this one old guy, Mr. Spencer. His wife was always giving you hot chocolate and all that stuff, and they were really pretty nice. But you should've seen him when the headmaster, old Thurmer, came in the history class and sat down in the back of the room. He was always coming in and sitting down in the back of the room for about a half an hour. He was supposed to be incognito or something. After a while, he'd be sitting back there and then he'd start interrupting what old Spencer was saying to crack a lot of corny jokes. Old Spencer'd practically kill himself chuckling and smiling and all, like as if Thurmer was a goddam prince or something."

(當妹妹問主角希望將來幹什麼)"I couldn't be a scientist. I'm no good in science."
"Well, a lawyer--like Daddy and all."
"Lawyers are all right, I guess--but it doesn't appeal to me," I said. "I mean they're all right if they go around saving innocent guys' lives all the time, and like that, but you don't do that kind of stuff if you're a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot. And besides. Even if you did go around saving guys' lives and all, how would you know if you did it because you really wanted to save guys' lives, or because you did it because what you really wanted to do was be a terrific lawyer, with everybody slapping you on the
back and congratulating you in court when the goddam trial was over, the reporters and everybody, the way it is in the dirty movies? How would you know you weren't being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn't."

(主角終於想到真正喜歡幹的事情)"I thought it was 'If a body catch a body,'" I said. "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around--nobody big, I mean--except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy."