The Alexandria Quartet: Balthazar

Balthazar

《亚历山大四重奏》第二部，月亮的另一面。

"Where must one look for justifications? Only I think to the facts themselves; for they might enable me to see now a little further into the central truth of this enigma called 'love'. I see the image of it receding and curling away from me in an infinite series like the waves of the sea; or, colder than a dead moon, rising up over the dreams and illusions I fabricated from it -- but like the real moon, always keeping one side of the truth hidden from me, the nether side of a beautiful dead star."

男主人公（我们终于从出场人物之一的口中听到了他的名字 -- Darley）的“爱情”被Balthazar（我喜欢这个名字的发音）另一个版本的故事推翻。有趣的是，或许是时间起到了一部分平复作用，或许是Darley已经学会了接受现实，Justine刚刚消失时的怨怼，在这一部中已不明显。当然，也可能是因为Justine在这一部中仿佛退到了幕后，她的dark beauty在Pursewarden（被“保护”起来的真正情人）的毒舌面前显得苍白而任性，Scobie和Toto两起死亡的突然和暴力成分进一步将故事的重心从Justine身上移开。与上一部相比，这一部里的亚历山大，仿佛摄像机被装在了更为灵活、活动范围更大的摇臂顶端，于是我们得以看到更多角落里发生的故事，甚至深入到更多人的卧室衣橱内。至于爱情，也从四角，变成了牵扯不清的一团乱麻。

"My 'love' for her, Melissa's 'love' for me, Nessim's 'love' for her, her 'love' for Pursewarden -- there should be a whole vocabulary of adjectives with which to qualify the noun -- for no two contained the same properties; yet all contained the one indefinable quality, one common unknown in treachery."

还有Nessim兔唇的弟弟对Clea的狂乱表白（那个带着汗湿毛发触感的吻让Clea在过了很久之后还不停地蹭着手背）。