兄弟姐妹：小说中的手足关系

On the fiction of siblings By Christine Smallwood T o live in society involves put- ting up with people who we did not choose to know and may in fact prefer not to exist. Even those we basically like and get along with are sure, from time to time, to inspire in us the wish that they would (painlessly, briefly) disappear. But it is an obdu- rate and inconvenient fact that people don’t turn on and off like appliances; they don’t come into or out of being according to our will. To be in a rela- tionship with others— whether pla- tonic, romantic, or political— requires enduring them without going crazy. …