By Eileen Chang -- Trương Ái Linh
Suprisingly, Love in a fallen city has happy ending. I am not fond of short stories and novellas because their contents are often heavy and the endings are often shocking. Shocking means in a good way because it is the heaviness and the shocking ending that make short story a good short story.
Short stories of Eileen Chang are not exceptions. Hence I didn't put much hope in Love in a fallen city. Only until the last word, I can release my breath.
The story was told in the viewpoint of Liusu, the female protagonist, hence she and I highly doubt the real person of Liujian, the male protagonist. Liusu was a calculating person hence she considered so was Liujian and it turned out to be true. How can you know what one is going on in one's head?
Even when Liujian told Liusu that he loved her, I still kept myself in guard. Even when he kissed her passionately, I still smirked "so what?" When he left her to go on oversea, I sighed "see?"
Hence the happy ending really surprised me. I highly doubt that the story would not have ended well if Eileen Chang had been her normal self. The story resembles her life hence she might purposely make it happy ending. Her life was not that happy.
I guess I have become more cynical. Happy ending has become unrealistic to me. Sad ending is a torture to me. Nothing can suit me. Sigh.
No comments:
Post a Comment