私立探偵フィリップ・マーロウ

最近、レイモンド・チャンドラーの作品を読んでいる。最初に『ロング・グッドバイ』を読み、その次に『大いなる眠り』を読んだ。いま『リトル・シスター』の3分2あたりを読んでいる。すべて村上春樹氏の翻訳である。アメリカの都市の風景や建物の中の様子、人々の行動、表情についての描写が非常に綿密に行われていることが印象的な文章である。

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The Swimmer

He tried the garage doors, to see what cars were in, but the doors were locked and rust came off the handles. Going toward the house, he saw that the force of the thunderstorm had knocked one of the rain gutters loose. It hung down over the front door like an umbrella rib, but it could be fixed in the morning. The house was locked, and he thought that the stupid cook or the stupid maid must have locked the place up, until he remembered that it had been some time since they had employed a maid or a cook. He shouted, pounded on the door, tried to force it with his shoulder, and then, looking in at the windows, saw that the place was empty. ♦
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1964/07/18/the-swimmer

The Swimmer, short story by John Cheever, published in The New Yorker (July 18, 1964) and collected in The Brigadier and the Golf Widow (1964). A masterful blend of fantasy and reality, it chronicles a middle-aged man’s gradual acceptance of the truth that he has avoided facing—that his life is in ruins.
Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica