基本信息出版社：PublicAffairs
页码：272 页
出版日期：2002年10月
ISBN：1586481509
条形码：9781586481506
版本：第1版
装帧：精装
开本：16开 Pages Per Sheet
外文书名：克隆人的秘密
内容简介 Book Description
A haunting debut novel from the acclaimed author of Shtetl, Lost in Translation, and Exit into History.
Iris Surrey seems to have a perfectly normal childhood. She lives with her mother in a rambling wooden house, in a small college town not far from Chicago. But something isn't quite right in her perfect, bell-jar world. There may be something wrong with her mother. or with her. or with her mother and her. Small disturbances lead Iris to suspect a deeper peculiarity in the very fabric of her life. Something not quite...natural. or authentic. But what does that mean? You are what you think you are, aren't you? Who is to judge the nature of your nature, your character, your reality, except you, the subject yourself? Unless you aren't real enough to know in the first place.
In this gripping debut novel, writer Eva Hoffman uses the near future to reflect on the fast-moving present and to explore various kinds of secrets: intimate secrets and family secrets, the kinds of secrets that can be decoded from clues, and the kind that only lead to more tantalizing questions about the nature of consciousness and self-knowledge. This is a philosophical fable about an uncannily powerful mother-daughter bond and a young woman's quest for identity. The Secret explores ancient conundrums of selfhood and the profound challenges posed by contemporary science to our most cherished notions of individuality.
From Publishers Weekly
Can a clone contain a new human soul or just a photocopy? Hoffman brilliantly meditates on this mystery in her auspicious fiction debut as she examines the bond between Iris and Elizabeth Surrey, which gives new meaning to the well-worn term "my mother myself." Iris's search for identity begins when the teen discovers her birth in 2005 was achieved via cloning. Iris's single mom, Elizabeth, fled Manhattan to the Midwest to rear Iris after becoming estranged from her parents and sister. They live a quiet, symbiotic life until Iris turns 12 and her mother falls in love with Steven, a professor, who becomes disturbed by the unnatural closeness of the two and leaves. It's not long before Iris, in a tailspin of heart-wrenching confusion, flees home to see if she is more than just an extension of someone who is "not quite a mother and more than one: home, sibling, the larger part of myself, as much me as my limbs or bloodstream." Unraveling the secret of self takes her on a quest not easily ended. The relentless first-person viewpoint showcases the emotional and spiritual ramifications of being a cloned child: "I was her, I was her, I was her... Then who was I, who was she, what had she done? Did she steal my soul, my very self, or did she give me her own, by an unspeakable act of black magic?" Some SF readers may find the philosophical musings old hat, but wiser ones won't.
From Booklist
Iris lives comfortably in a small Midwest town circa 2020 with her beautiful, loving mother, but as she enters adolescence, she wonders why her mother refuses to talk about her father at all. And that's not all that's distressing: there's also the eerie resemblance between mother and daughter and their almost paranormal connection, which they call the "Weirdness." The reader figures out that Iris is a clone long before first-time novelist Hoffman's troubled narrator does, but Hoffman, author of Shtetl (1997), is right to proceed slowly because her purpose in this elegant, smart, and unsettling tale is to imagine as acutely as possible what life would be like for a simulacrum, a "hand-made creature," a monster. These are terms Iris lashes herself with once she discovers the truth and leaves home to find her estranged parents/grandparents and to see if other "non-selfers" exist. Hoffman succeeds brilliantly in creating a provocative, cautionary coming-of-age story set in a technologically ruled near-future when "human design" threatens to undermine every cherished idea about what it means to be a human being.
Donna Seaman
From Library Journal
The time is 2022, the place is Chicago, and Iris Surrey has an unusually close relationship with her chilly mother, Elizabeth. At 17, Iris is wearying of the odd stares she triggers in others, especially when her look-alike mother is with her. Iris wants to learn the identity of her father, which, alas, is not possible; the reader will figure out before Iris does that she is the product of genetic engineering. When Iris uncovers the truth, she goes on an emotional rampage, intent on tracking down any blood relatives in the hope that they will make her feel more authentic. The results are painful, for Iris's kin are unable to embrace what they see as an uncanny freak of science. It is only through a relationship with a sympathetic young man that Iris finds respite. Those who shrug off today's headlines regarding imminent human cloning would be wise to read this thoughtful, philosophical treatment of the devastating effects a wholly fatherless state can trigger. An uneasy look at the potential fallout from biological tampering, this first novel by nonfiction author Hoffman (Shtetl) is ripe for lively book discussion. One minor quibble: British spellings abound, which can be disconcerting, given the setting. Still, very much recommended.
Beth E. Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI
About Author
Eva Hoffman was born in Cracow, Poland, and emigrated to the United States at the age of thirteen. She is the author of three highly acclaimed works of nonfiction, Lost in Translation, Exit into History, and Shtetl. She splits her time between London and Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is a visiting professor at MIT.
Book Dimension:
length: (cm)22.1 width:(cm)15.1
媒体推荐 This is Hoffman's first novel and it tackles some difficult issues with the same lively intelligence that characterises her non-fiction works, Lost in Translation and Shtetl. Set in America, mostly in the not-too-distant future, it centres around the growing realisation of young Iris of a mystery surrounding her birth, a secret the knowledge of which will change her life forever. It will explain why she and her mother are abandoned by the adoring and adorable Steven; why people look at them oddly in the street; why her mother Elizabeth is estranged from the rest of her family... Through the course of the novel Iris makes a lonely and painful journey to understand her origins and what motivates her, and while her particular situation is extraordinary, she is forced to confront some universal issues including the desire for love, the meaning of family, the role of science in our lives and the very nature of identity itself. It may not take very long for the reader to guess the secret at the core of this novel, but the pleasure is all in Hoffman's sensitive handling of it, the convincing characterisations, the provocative issues raised. This is an unusual, moving and startling debut from a writer to watch. (Kirkus UK)
Set in 2022, this impressive first novel by nonfiction author Hoffman (Shtetl, 1997, etc.) sketches a creepily plausible near-future in which her protagonist experiences a very 21st-century identity crisis. The title is deliberately misleading. The real, "all-too-human secret" will not be fully understood until the story's fnal pages. Hoffman expertly inserts enough clues for readers to guess the putative secret regarding narrator Iris Surrey's birth shortly before she does it on page 60: Iris isn't just Elizabeth Surrey's daughter, but her mother's clone. Finally understanding the reason for "The Weirdness," the preternatural closeness that always set them apart in the midwestern college town where her mother raised her, Iris flees to Elizabeth's native New York City, whose actual streets are subtly different from the Virtuals she viewed in school: "there were elements of surprise in the actual." The grandparents she's never met have moved from the Park Avenue address she found on old letters, so she takes up with Piotr, who can help her break into a classified e-mail address to locate them. Meanwhile, she watches organic artists reshaping actual animals using computer implants; visits a virtual club, where people use memory-chips to give themselves invented identities for a few hours; attends a debate on "Whither Human Design?"; and tries Piotr's Affect Simulator, which allows users to acquire specific emotions at particular intensities. Hoffman gradually and subtly makes the point that although Iris may feel especially unreal due to her origins (her birth in 2005 was one of the first human clonings), she lives in a world where "reality" is virtual as often as physical. Yet the cautiously optimistic ending suggests that authentic identity and experiences are still attainable. As can happen in philosophically inclined science fiction, the issues are more fully explored than the characters; but when those issues include the nature of reality and the location of the human soul, it's not such a drawback. (Kirkus Reviews)
专业书评 Can a clone contain a new human soul or just a photocopy? Hoffman brilliantly meditates on this mystery in her auspicious fiction debut as she examines the bond between Iris and Elizabeth Surrey, which gives new meaning to the well-worn term "my mother myself." Iris's search for identity begins when the teen discovers her birth in 2005 was achieved via cloning. Iris's single mom, Elizabeth, fled Manhattan to the Midwest to rear Iris after becoming estranged from her parents and sister. They live a quiet, symbiotic life until Iris turns 12 and her mother falls in love with Steven, a professor, who becomes disturbed by the unnatural closeness of the two and leaves. It's not long before Iris, in a tailspin of heart-wrenching confusion, flees home to see if she is more than just an extension of someone who is "not quite a mother and more than one: home, sibling, the larger part of myself, as much me as my limbs or bloodstream." Unraveling the secret of self takes her on a quest not easily ended. The relentless first-person viewpoint showcases the emotional and spiritual ramifications of being a cloned child: "I was her, I was her, I was her... Then who was I, who was she, what had she done? Did she steal my soul, my very self, or did she give me her own, by an unspeakable act of black magic?" Some SF readers may find the philosophical musings old hat, but wiser ones won't.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.