Emily St. John Mandel writes science fiction, with the accent firmly on(重心明确落在……上) fiction. Imagination, not technical verisimilitude(逼真，貌似真实), is her strength; she wisely disregards the scientific in favor of the human. Her indifference to plausibility(合理性，可信性) is a measure of her confidence as a storyteller, and helps snare readers(俘获读者) like me, who have a mild allergic reaction to(对……有点过敏/反感) postapocalyptic settings and outer-space odyssey(漫长冒险旅程)s. Her previous novel featured time travel, interplanetary travel, and a cosmic glitch(小故障，差错); now, in her challenging new novel, Exit Party, we have accidental teleportation(瞬间传送，远距传物) between parallel universes. The underlying theme, though, is irresistible: how shockingly little humanity understands about the sudden swerve(突然转向，急转)s and reversals that shape a life—or end it. The new book also offers a prescient(有先见之明的) invitation to consider the human toll that a world of chaos or repression can exact.
艾米莉·圣约翰·曼德尔写的是科幻小说，但重心明确落在“小说”上。她的长处是想象力，而非技术上的逼真；她明智地搁置科学，转而关注人。她对合理性的漠然，恰恰衡量出她作为讲故事者的自信，也帮助她俘获了像我这样对末日背景和外太空漫游有点过敏的读者。她上一部小说涉及时间旅行、星际旅行和一次宇宙故障；如今，在这部颇具挑战性的新作《退出派对》中，我们又看到了平行宇宙之间的意外传送。不过，其深层主题令人无法抗拒：人类对塑造一生——或终结一生——的突然转折与逆转，了解得少得惊人。这本新书还以先见之明邀请我们思考：一个混乱或压迫的世界，会让人付出怎样的人力代价。
Exit Party’s stunning first sentence leaps ahead to 2031 and peek(窥视，偷看)s into a woman’s soul: “In the first spring after the collapse of the United States, the blossoming of the jacaranda(蓝花楹) trees felt to Ari like grace.” Newly released after 18 years in prison, 48-year-old Ari Waker is just getting used to a Los Angeles that has seen vicious internecine(内讧的，两败俱伤的) violence. Although international peacekeeping troops have been withdrawn and the city’s curfew has been lifted, nothing like normalcy prevails.(尽管国际维和部队已经撤离，城市的宵禁也已解除，但一切远未恢复正常。) Ari walks with her roommate from their apartment in Echo Park (note the locale) to a party in Silver Lake. There, the incomprehensible happens: Two people from a parallel world materialize(突然出现，显形) at the party, and another person (the host) is teleported in the opposite direction—all by accident.
《退出派对》开篇第一句就令人惊艳，它一跃跳到2031年，窥见一个女人的灵魂：“在美国崩溃后的第一个春天，蓝花楹的绽放让阿里觉得像是恩典。”48岁的阿里·韦克刚服完18年刑期出狱，正在适应一个经历过残酷内战的洛杉矶。尽管国际维和部队已经撤离，城市的宵禁也已解除，但一切远未恢复正常。阿里和室友从回声公园（注意这个地点）的公寓出发，步行去银湖参加一个派对。在那里，不可思议的事情发生了：两个来自平行世界的人出现在派对上，另一个人（派对主人）则被传送到了相反的方向——这一切纯属意外。
The inexplicable appearances and disappearances are as disorienting for the reader as they are for Ari, who wonders whether she has a brain tumor or is having a stroke.(这些无法解释的出现和消失，让读者和阿里一样晕头转向，她怀疑自己是不是长了脑瘤，或是中风了。) For the three teleported individuals, the experience is a disaster: instant, complete, and irreversible(不可逆的) dislocation(错位，脱节). In the alternate universe, we soon learn, the “United State” has become a fortress, “closed like a fist(像拳头一样攥紧),” where the national doctrine(信条，主义) is “Harmony at any cost.” There we encounter, among other characters, Ibari, an enforcer(执法者，执行者) of the brutally repressive social order.
这些无法解释的出现和消失，让读者和阿里一样晕头转向，她怀疑自己是不是长了脑瘤，或是中风了。对三个被传送的人来说，这段经历是一场灾难：瞬间、彻底、不可逆的错位。我们很快得知，在另一个宇宙里，“合众国”已经变成一座堡垒，“像拳头一样攥紧”，国家信条是“不惜一切代价求和谐”。在那里，我们遇到了伊巴里——一个残酷镇压性社会秩序的执法者。