Pigeon (Selected Works of Joseph Kesselring)

Author: [German] Jürgen Thorwald, translated by Cai Hongjun et al.
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-04-01
Features: The name Jürgen Thorwald is very familiar to Chinese readers. The book Perfume brought him fame and recognition worldwide, and to date, it has been translated into over twenty languages, including English, French, Italian, Japanese, and Chinese. This book collects one of Thorwald's middle-length stories, three short stories, and one essay. Among them, The Pigeon is the author's powerful work published in 1978. It tells the following story: Jonathan is a doorman at a bank in Paris. After enduring the terror of Nazi rule, the hardships of war, and his wife's elopement, he becomes extremely timid. As he is settling into his ordinary life, an unexpected pigeon disrupts his inner peace, causing him to feel inexplicable tension, confusion, and fear. Pigeons are symbols of peace and safety, but in the author's portrayal, they become the source of panic. The metaphor is quite clear, reflecting the anxiety of modern Western society about the loss of security and the fear of human survival. The novel employs traditional techniques, skillful craftsmanship, and outstanding psychological to depict the protagonist's bewildered and trance-like state, making it an excellent psychological novel. The other three short stories are also rare masterpieces. With sharp and incisive writing, the author, through his unique and insightful portrayal of the personalities and psychology of different characters, presents a series of vivid portraits of society.