還未翻開本書,便已能感受到它註定是本獨特的作品,掠取讀者的微笑與眼淚。畢竟,能讓與他人有親密障礙,因而持續數十年獨身的神經科學大師Oliver Sacks(代表作品為《錯把太太當帽子的人》、《睡人》、《火星上的人類學家》與出版於癌逝前,首次坦白個人性向的自傳《勇往直前》),願意卸下心防,在生命垂暮之年踏入伴侶關係,如此的前情題要,本身已是無可救藥的浪漫。
《Insomniac City》(暫譯:失眠的城市),即是薩克思的伴侶,作家及攝影師Bill Hayes,於2017年情人節所出版的回憶錄。記述兩人的相識相處,更獻給已逝的情人:Oliver Sacks。
2009年,遭逢伴侶病逝打擊的Bill Hayes,渴望為生活打開新頁而搬至紐約。同樣不眠的紐約,成為長年失眠者的Hayes慰藉所在,他帶著相機四處遊晃,捕捉這個城市與住民的種種表情。
就在他認為自己再也不會邁入一段關係之時,卻發現自己再次戀愛了,對象是住在同一棟大樓的鄰居,神經科學專家Oliver Sacks。兩人分享彼此的知識,而書中也記述了,終生以研究他者所體驗的世界是如何為志趣,卻未曾有過穩定親密關係的Sacks,如何學習與另一個生命共處的過程。此外,當兩人相遇時Sacks已年逾七十,因此,這段相處也必然承載著面對另一半老去與病痛的歷程,作者卻以時而搞笑時而溫柔的筆觸,將Sacks生命的最後,也最私密的這段歲月首次呈現於讀者面前。
有書評表示讀過本書的心聲是:「真希望這兩個人有多一點時間!」,Hayes受訪時表示:「我們已把握了一同擁有的所有時光,過的很值得。」結合影像與文字多種媒材,本書不僅是Bill Hayes的傷痕書寫,更是致兩人所識所愛的城市紐約,以及Oliver Sacks的一本厚厚情書。(文/博客來編譯)
Amazon's Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2017 List
A moving celebration of what Bill Hayes calls "the evanescent, the eavesdropped, the unexpected" of life in New York City, and an intimate glimpse of his relationship with the late Oliver Sacks.
"A beautifully written once-in-a-lifetime book, about love, about life, soul, and the wonderful loving genius Oliver Sacks, and New York, and laughter and all of creation."--Anne Lamott
Bill Hayes came to New York City in 2009 with a one-way ticket and only the vaguest idea of how he would get by. But, at forty-eight years old, having spent decades in San Francisco, he craved change. Grieving over the death of his partner, he quickly discovered the profound consolations of the city's incessant rhythms, the sight of the Empire State Building against the night sky, and New Yorkers themselves, kindred souls that Hayes, a lifelong insomniac, encountered on late-night strolls with his camera.
And he unexpectedly fell in love again, with his friend and neighbor, the writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks, whose exuberance--"I don't so much fear death as I do wasting life," he tells Hayes early on--is captured in funny and touching vignettes throughout. What emerges is a portrait of Sacks at his most personal and endearing, from falling in love for the first time at age seventy-five to facing illness and death (Sacks died of cancer in August 2015).Insomniac City is both a meditation on grief and a celebration of life. Filled with Hayes's distinctive street photos of everyday New Yorkers, the book is a love song to the city and to all who have felt the particular magic and solace it offers.