内容简介

《烛光盛宴》这本书以白泊珍（即文中的老太太）、菊子和文中的“我”三个女人为主轴，菊子是“我”的大姑。故事一开始，病中的菊子交代“我”将一盒照片转交给白泊珍，“我”办好这件事之后，白泊珍却又找到了“我”，希望“我”可以为她记录一段故事。因此，“我”似乎进入了两个老太太之间的故事，同样地，“我”作为故事的记录者，在这本小说中承担一个叙述兼连接的作用，将所有的人联系起来。 

第五章详述了书中的“我”的工作，由于之前怀孕不愿东奔西走地跑新闻，或是在孕期没日没夜地赶稿，便进入新闻界，在一家出版公司做编辑，偶尔匿名帮人代写自传之类的赚些外快。在一次临时和老板去参加晚会而无法自己去接孩子时，“我”打电话希望前夫可以帮忙去幼儿园接孩子，并在八点半把孩子送到晚会地点，因而，“我”已经离婚半年的事实浮出水面。

第七章则讲述了离婚半年的前夫因躲雨顺便来拿衣服为由来到“我”的家里，并要求一起去吃饭，期间二人断断续续聊天，严格来讲是前夫问一句，“我”冷漠地答一句。不久前夫便开口借一大笔钱，想要投资，虽然这笔钱多到足够“我”生活一年，恰好会把“我”的存款领光，但是“我”还是决定借给他。因为“我”觉得既然“我”会去喂流浪狗，也就没有理由不去喂食孩子的父亲。

《烛光盛宴》一书中的第五、七章节《我的名字不会印在书页上，我隐形》《我安静，聆听那个淋雨而来的目的》，主要讲述的是小说中的“我”，也就是故事的叙述者作为一名单亲妈妈的工作与生活。 

INTRODUCTION

This book, Candle Feast, tells us about stories of three ladies, Bozhen Bai, Juzi and I, who have tight connections with each other. I, working as an editor in a publishing company, am a story teller in the novel. One day, my aunt Juzi asked me to send a picture to an old lady, whose name was Bozhen Bai. After I did so, Bozhen Bai found me again and wondered if I could record a story for her, just like writing an autobiography. Therefore, it seems that I get involved into a story between two old ladies, Bozhen Bai and my aunt Juzi. At the same time, as the recorder of this story, I narrated the story and connected all the protagonists. 

Chapter five expatiates the situation of my job. I was unwilling to run for news to and fro or rush into writing papers day and night during pregnancy. Therefore I found a job as an editor in a publishing company, where I could write autobiography for others as a “ghost writer” to make some money. When my boss asked me to attend a publishing party temporarily once, I had to call my ex-husband to pick up our daughter at kindergarten and send her to the party at 8:30p.m, as a result, the fact of my divorce emerged. 

Chapter seven narrates that my ex-husband who had a divorce with me for half a year, came to my home for hiding the rain outside and taking away some clothes. He asked me to have lunch together, during when we chatted from time to time; strictly speaking, the chat was one question from my ex-husband and one indifferent answer from me. After a while, my ex-husband started to ask me to borrow a large amount of money for investment. Such a huge amount of money which could cost all my deposit, was much enough for me to live for one year. Surprisingly, I decided to loan him because I had no reason for not feeding my child’s father, if I would feed stray dogs.

The two chapters mainly narrate the normal life of story teller in this novel, namely, “I” in this novel. Actually the two chapters show us a big picture about how a single mother tries hard to balance her work and raising her daughter.