Now, I've read it to the end. Read it carefully. Some passages are read twice. Some sentences may be crossed out. I read this American book so carefully, translated into Chinese with only 80,000 words, because of two influences - the media publicity and the recommendation of people who have read this book.

In general, I am a person who is not easily influenced by media propaganda. I know that behind this kind of propaganda is often a careful and purely commercial marketing plan. Before its publication, it was serialized in a newspaper. I read a few chapters, but I was not attracted by the story or the special charm of the text, so I didn't read any more.

Relatively speaking, I am more susceptible to verbal recommendations from people who have read a particular book. The reason is as simple as that - if a person is interested in reading, reading a book, and then recommending it to a friend, there must be something worth recommending. In the publishing industry, I have not heard of the use of "chain direct sales". So when a person recommends a book to a friend, in addition to hoping to share the pleasure of reading, it has nothing to do with his own financial interests. What's more, instead of encouraging you to buy it, I take the initiative to lend you the books I bought, hoping that you will read them for free. Compared with the propaganda of the media, of course, it is selfless.

So I had three copies in my hand. All of them were published by foreign literature publishers. One of my friends told me, "My wife is crying while watching!" and I said, "Really?" – and I couldn't help but be a little surprised. And asked, "What about you?" he shrugged, "I'm not a woman, not as easily moved as she is." —then adds, "She urged me to send you this book quickly." It's not that I'm passionate about you. Another friend who brought the book said, "Take a serious look at the sexuality of American women!" The friend who sent the third book was much older than me, in his fifties. He said, "Alas, children understand their parents as well as the children in this book!" Seeing that I was writing, I left a sentence at the end - "Reading this book, it is even more depressing!"

I know he's getting a divorce. After the divorce, I want to remarry a woman who is seventeen or eighteen years younger than me. And his sons and daughters threatened him: "Old thing, if you dare to subvert our good family, you must be crippled!"

His situation is like fantasizing about Coptis chinensis turning into sugar cane, but he suffers at both ends.

That night, a certain female host of a CCTV program said affectionately: "I gave my life to my family, and I gave the rest of my body to Robert Jinkai - the heroine of "The Dream of the Covered Bridge" This sentence will make us feel a lot ......of emotion for a long time."

So the subtitle of that sentence appeared on the TV screen.

In the background is pool water. Two ducks swim together. I could see very clearly that it was indeed two ducks, not two swans, nor a pair of mandarin ducks. But it seems to be a wild duck, not a domestic duck. Because they will completely potential the body downstream of the waves of clear water. Domestic ducks generally don't have this ability......

That show clip is well done. It's romantic. It's tender. It's very meaningful and meaningful. Although the heroes and heroines are symbolized by two wild ducks, not two swans, or a pair of mandarin ducks. I think it's two mallards that seem better and more right. If it is two swans, it is too noble. The extramarital affair between a homeless man and a peasant woman is a symbol of nobility, but it looks hypocritical, isn't it? What about a pair of mandarin ducks, the symbol is too Chinese and too sweet......

It was that night that I began to peruse "The Dream of the Covered Bridge......

An old story, a bestseller

Love is a theme in literature and art that cannot be old, but it is eternally old and never dies. It's really an "old immortal thing". I think this is probably due to the fact that readers are always aging very quickly from generation to generation, and they are always dying from generation to generation, right? Just like clothing, which is outdated for this generation, may be fashionable and fashionable for the next generation. This generation has quietly withdrawn from the clothing consumer group, and the next generation has grown up again. Children's clothing was discarded and assembled into a new group of adult clothing consumers. Therefore, in addition to the catering industry, the clothing industry is the most enduring industry. This is true in every country. If a costume designer wishfully sells clothes from the 18th and 17th centuries or even older to his contemporaries without modifying the style, most contemporaries will not buy it. Wine is the best of the "cross-century", and clothing is often the best-selling when it just comes to market. "Famous brand" and old, in fact, buying and wearing it is no longer a favorite in my heart, just some kind of pride that can show people. For the contemporary, the charm of clothing is that there is contemporaneity in tradition. If not, it will make the current generation stay away. For contemporaries, the charm of fiction may be the opposite, and it is precisely the need for tradition in contemporaneity. No contemporary person will stay away. Most contemporary people are not willing to stubbornly live in traditional concepts, in fact, they do not want to live in the "avant-garde" concepts of various times very radically, and are often accustomed to living in the "transition zone" between tradition and "avant-garde". Therefore, the word "contemporary" must be a vague, ambiguous, and undefined word for contemporary people.

"The Troubles of Young Werther" cannot be considered a good love story. Romeo and Juliet is especially a classic. Compared with "The Dream of the Covered Bridge", it is at least not inferior. There are also China's "Dream of Red Mansions", "The Legend of the White Snake", "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai". But most of the present generation absolutely do not intend to cry over them anymore. Although love is a theme of "old age", novels, plays, poems, and songs about love, like its readers, viewers, and listeners, grow old, old, and die in batches. Those who are not dead are only symbolically "living" in the history of literature, in the history of theater, and in old record stores. Contemporary people should not only read stories about love, but also read the creations of contemporary people, especially those who reflect contemporary people. In this regard, whether one admits it it or not, the literary masters of the previous century can never compete with the novelists of the later generation. If the latter's level is not too low, even if they will never become masters.

This is the premise of "The Dream of the Covered Bridge" to sell well in the United States, right? It is also the premise of the best-selling in China, not to mention, "The Dream of the Covered Bridge" tells a love story of a sufficient level, a love story of a pair of contemporary American men and women, a love story that caters to the contemporary concept of contemporary people and takes into account the psychology of contemporary people's reluctance to rely on the traditional family concept.

The relationship between old stories and bestsellers is actually an awkwardness between contemporary people and the notions of love, sexuality, and family – neither new nor old. The new is too energy-consuming, and the old is too aggrieved.

Robert James Waller grasped this mental balance of contemporary Americans with great caution and confidence. This is the second premise for "Dream of the Covered Bridge" to sell well in the United States. I think his ability to analyze and judge psychosocial is clearly higher than his talent for writing novels. And his analysis and judgment were first fulfilled in the United States. Secondly, it has also been fulfilled in China.