What’s a typhoon day? For Chinese author Lu Yinyin, it’s an unforeseen disruption, a plan that comes to naught, a wound that you conceal, and a blow you can’t avoid. Typhoon Days, a collection of stories by Lu, presents nine women in their twenties and thirties living ordinary, if turbulent, lives. Some of these, like miniature biographies, span several years, while others tell the events of just a few days. Each short sketch brings the characters so vividly to life that you almost sense them standing there before you.
Lu doesn’t seem to control her characters from on high, all-knowing and all-powerful. Instead, she faithfully records their embarrassments, their pain, and their helplessness, piercing their fantasies and throwing open a window to let in the bracing air.
台风天是什么？是受阻不便，是隐秘处的某种断裂，是握紧的拳头又暗自松开，是对“一切照常”或是“无疾而终”的接受。陆茵茵所撰写的这部《台风天》，用九个短篇呈现了二三十岁的普通都市女性的面貌，有的跨越多年类似于小传，有的只是几天之内发生的事，不算长，读罢却好像能看见这个人站在你面前。
陆茵茵写这些人物的时候，不是全知全能地去操控角色的立场。诚实地书写尴尬，书写苦涩，描绘无助，戳破一些幻想的气泡，推开那扇阻挡冷空气进入的窗。
The stories all begin very quickly, plunging readers into the characters’ inner worlds. Small moments unfurl into profound narratives around life’s multifaceted nature. It reads like a friend’s blog, free of pretension or artifice. Readers are given complete transparency.
There’s nothing extraordinary in Typhoon Days, in that the writing is grounded in reality. The stories are of a humbler sort: the lonely single life of an overweight girl taking care of her father; a young woman with doubts about her married lover; a former couple whose hiking plans are interrupted by a typhoon; a working girl who’s too busy to examine her feelings. A brief description suffices because Lu’s stories don’t involve any earth-shattering events. Yet experiences like these make up everyday life for her young protagonists, who focus most of their waking mental energy on making sense of it all. How to deal with these events, how to accept them or extend or put a stop to them are the questions they face; ultimately, they’re struggling against their own obsessions and imagination.
小说的开头都进入得很快，像是从内向外，从一个人的本质生活逐渐向外延伸让读者看到更多的生活面貌，有种读朋友博客的感觉，丝毫不做作、不突兀。很快，读者就能大致判断出这是一个什么故事。
如果以故事的奇崛和绚丽去判断，《台风天》是没什么突出的，讲的无非是“一个照顾生病父亲的丑胖女孩的孤独单身生活”、“小三女孩怀疑自己‘爱情’的某个玄幻时刻”、“昔日恋人相约爬山却遭遇台风天气最后不欢而散”、“都市女孩工作太忙而无暇审视自己内心”之类的故事。这样总结是很无聊的，因为这些不是什么惊天动地的大事。但对于这个年龄阶段的主人公来说，这些事情是构成生活的一砖一瓦，清醒的时候绝大部分的精神力都集中在对这些事情的思考上。怎么去面对，怎么去接受，怎么去延续或者断绝，说到底都是自己与自己的执念、想象的对抗。
The way these protagonists mutter to themselves will strike a chord with those who tend to get stuck in her head.
About marriage:
It was the first time she’d ever seen someone that age still unmarried. Everyone around her was married, no one lived alone. The man sat back down for a while, then got up and left. She watched him walk out the door, a shiny grease stain on each elbow. She felt as though a line of defense had been broken: there really were people who never found a spouse.
About a complicated relationship:
As he drove, she chattered on about this and that. Sitting next to him, she remembered the time he picked her up from the airport and she said that she wanted some dark chocolate. He reached into his backpack, took out five pieces—different brands, different flavors—and handed them to her from the left, in that angle, in that posture.
About work:
She’d met the boss of the other company once at a meeting. His body, she noticed, existed in different states of time simultaneously: his hands were in the past, recording the suggestion raised a moment ago; his mouth was in the present; his eyes had already reached the future. She could sense that division, and tell that he was there but not here.
这些主人公的喃喃自语，对那些“想太多少女”和“想太多女青年”来说很容易产生共鸣。
对于婚姻：“这是她第一次见到这个年纪还没结婚的人，她周围的人都结了婚，没有落单的。二叔又坐了一会儿，起身走了，她看着他出门，手肘上磨光了两块油垢。她觉得某种防线被打破了，原来真有人一辈子结不了婚。”
对于禁忌的感情：“他开车，她絮絮地说着什么。没来由地，坐在他身边时很容易想到，有一次她从机场回来，说想吃黑巧克力，他从背包里拿出五块，不同牌子不同味道，就是在这个角度这个姿势，从左边递过来给她。”
对于忙碌的工作：“她见过合作公司的老板就是，有一次一起开会，她发现他的身体同时处在几个不同的状态，手是过去时，还在记录前一分钟说过的议题。嘴是现在时。眼睛已经到将来时了。她能感应到那种分裂，告诉你，他在，又不在这里。”
The most moving sections of the book come from the characters’ internal monologues, as they observe their own behavior with cruel, self-mocking clarity. That self-awareness is what lets them keep their footing even when they’re pulled into the whirlwind.
Lu’s stories usually don’t end with a climactic revelation but instead stop in the middle. Many things are like that: there’s a moment of understanding, of insight, of letting go. The effects linger, but even people weighed down by their thoughts and feelings still have to go on living.
To pick up a copy of Typhoon Day in Chinese, please click here.
书里打动人的片段，大都是主人公视角的“自言自语”，是站在一旁审视自己行为的那种冷酷自嘲的清醒。因为清醒地认识自己，所以即使暂时在漩涡里沉浮，也终究会上岸自愈。有些事情就是没办法的。
故事的结尾，往往没有一个明确的指向，而是停留在进行时。就像很多事情，明白了，想通了，放下了，它的作用力还在继续影响，人还要继续背负着成吨的念头和情绪继续生活。
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