《了不起的盖茨比·Chapter IX》第5节
“Hello!” I interrupted breathlessly. “Look here—this isn’t Mr. Gatsby. Mr. Gatsby’s dead.” There was a long silence on the other end of the wire, followed by an exclamation … then a quick squawk as the connection was broken. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I think it was on the third day that a telegram signed Henry C. Gatz arrived from a town in Minnesota. It said only that the sender was leaving immediately and to postpone the funeral until he came. It was Gatsby’s father, a solemn old man, very helpless and dismayed, bundled up in a long cheap ulster against the warm September day. His eyes leaked continuously with excitement, and when I took the bag and umbrella from his hands he began to pull so incessantly at his sparse grey beard that I had difficulty in getting off his coat. He was on the point of collapse, so I took him into the music-room and made him sit down while I sent for something to eat. But he wouldn’t eat, and the glass of milk spilled from his trembling hand. “I saw it in the Chicago newspaper,” he said. “It was all in the Chicago newspaper. I started right away.” “I didn’t know how to reach you.”
注释摘要
这一节的开头，是整部小说里最残忍的电话之一。尼克气喘吁吁地打断对方——那个名叫斯莱格、声音又细又远、以为自己在跟盖茨比通话的男人——他不得不把这个消息像一块石头一样砸过去：这不是盖茨比先生，盖茨比先生死了。菲茨杰拉德在这里用了一个精巧的叙事切分：电话那头是斯莱格急促地通报“Young Parke”因为假债券被捕的犯罪细节，这一头却是尼克在宣告死亡。这两件事…