영어로 읽는 고전 _ 리지웰 칼럼의 젊은이의 행운
리지웰 컬럼의 『젊은이의 행운』은 20세기 초에 쓰인 소설이다. 이야기는 아북극 황야에서 시작되며, 나이 든 남자와 젊은 남자가 억압적인 여름 더위와 환경의 도전에 맞서 생존을 위해 분투한다. 그들이 북쪽의 금에 얽힌 비밀을 밝히려 애쓰는 동안, 그들의 생각은 치열한 야망과 가족 관계의 역학, 특히 아버지와 아들 사이의 분노와 야망에 대한 감정의 갈등을 드러낸다. 소설의 서두는 마티 르 그로와 그의 아들 세이트를 소개하는데, 그들은 자신들의 손아귀에서 빠져나가 경쟁자인 선교사의 손에 들어갔다고 믿는 금을 찾는 탐색에 몰두해 있다. 부를 차지하려는 그들의 결의와 그들이 직면한 장애물 사이의 긴장은 캐나다 북부의 혹독하면서도 아름다운 풍경을 배경으로 펼쳐진다. 그들이 다음 행보를 고민하는 가운데, 잔혹함으로 알려진 부족인 유랄리안에 대한 불길한 언급은 곧 그들의 삶에 닥칠 더 깊은 갈등을 예고하며, 서사에 긴박감과 위험의 층위를 더한다.
Classics Read in English _ The Luck of the Kid by Ridgwell Cullum
Ridgwell Cullum's The Luck of the Kid opens in the unforgiving wilderness of the sub-Arctic, where summer offers no mercy?only a different kind of cruelty. Here, beneath a sun that refuses to set, two men wage their private war against the land and each other.
Marty Le Gros and his son Sate are bound by blood but divided by bitterness. Together they hunt for gold?fortune that they believe was stolen from them by a missionary who crossed their path. The father burns with resentment; the son simmers with ambitions of his own. Their partnership is less a bond than a shared obsession, held together by greed and the thin hope that the north will finally yield its treasure.
The Canadian wilderness stretches around them, beautiful and brutal in equal measure. Every mile promises danger, every decision carries weight. And lurking at the edges of their journey is a threat darker than the land itself: the Euralians, a tribe whose reputation for savagery precedes them like a shadow.
Cullum sets his stage with masterful economy?a fractured family, a stolen fortune, and enemies closing in from all sides. The quest for gold becomes a crucible, and what emerges from it will be shaped by luck, cunning, and the treacherous bonds between father and son.
Among the contents
The sub. Arctic summer was at its height. The swelter of heat was of almost tropical intensity. No wisp of cloud marred the perfect purity of the steely blue sky, and no breath of wind relieved the intemperate scorch of the blazing sun.
The two men on the river bank gave no heed to the oppressive heat. For the moment they seemed concerned with nothing but their ease, and the swarming flies, and the voracious attacks of the mosquitoes from which the smoke of their camp fire did its best to protect them. Down below them, a few yards away, their walrus. hide kyak lay moored to the bank of the river, whose sluggish, oily. moving waters flowed gently northward towards the far. off fields of eternal ice. It was noon, and a rough midday meal had been prepared and disposed of. Now they were smoking away a leisurely hour before resuming their journey.
The younger of the two flung away the end of a cigarette with a movement that was almost violent in its impatience.
