Read "The Narrow Gate"

Reading "Strait is the Gate"#

I finished reading "Strait is the Gate" in two days. The book is thin, around a hundred pages, and the story is not complicated.

Overall Impression#

I have always been aware and tried to avoid a behavior where I give a very simple evaluation of a person or thing, and then view their development with that evaluation or bias.

However, this time when I read this book, I still did that: when I reached a quarter of the book, I couldn't understand Alissa and thought she brought it upon herself.

So, with this bias, my reading experience of this book was not good. What kept me going was mainly the feeling of the book cover and a few impressive scenes in the book, such as:

The secret code between the male and female protagonists

"Listen, Alissa," I suddenly said loudly, "I have a twelve-day vacation. If you're not happy, I won't stay a day longer. Let's agree on a secret code, if you see it, it means I must leave Fingermarsh the next day. And the next day, I'll leave without complaint or blame. Do you agree?"
I said this without any preparation, but it came out very naturally. She thought for a moment and replied, "If I don't wear your beloved amethyst cross on my neck when I go downstairs for dinner... then you'll understand, right?"
"That will be my last night here."
"Can you really leave like that?" she continued, "Without tears, without sighs..."
"And without saying goodbye. I will part with you as casually as the day before. At first, you will wonder if I really understand. But the next morning, when you want to find me, you will discover that I am no longer here."
"The next day, I won't look for you."

I like this feeling.
The diary of the female protagonist

Why deceive myself? It was through rational deduction that I felt relieved for Juliette's happiness. I had longed for her happiness so much that I was willing to sacrifice my own happiness for it. But now that I see her easily obtaining it, and how different this happiness is from what we imagined, I feel uncomfortable. It's too complicated! Yes... I realize that a terrible selfishness has returned to me. What makes me angry is that besides sacrificing my own happiness, she can also find a path to happiness elsewhere. In other words, she can be happy without me making sacrifices.

I find this passage very interesting and real.

Another aspect of this book that interests me is the description of religion, or rather, Christianity. A significant portion of this book is about Christianity. Even the title of the book is derived from it. I am not a believer, but I have a certain reverence for faith and am quite interested in different religions. I even want to have the opportunity to read the main scriptures of various religions.

Analyzing the Female Protagonist#

My initial viewpoint was that the female protagonist's situation was entirely her own doing. I don't think this is what the author intended to convey. So I tried to analyze it to better understand the book.

I'll leave it for my future self, as I think I will reread this book.

The names of the two main female characters in the book gave me a different experience while reading it.

Juliette, translated as "朱莉叶特" in the version I read, but I kept mistakenly remembering it as Julia.
Alissa, translated as "阿莉莎". This made me think of Alyosha, Alyosha from "The Sun Also Rises".
Because of these two mistakes, while reading this book, Lennon and Zhou Yun's portrayal of the crazy mother kept appearing in my mind.

PS#

When I was writing this impression, I was just finished reading the book and was struggling with a question: if I didn't have a clear impression after finishing the book, should I still write my thoughts? Now that I'm almost done writing, I'm no longer struggling. Because I realized that when I started writing or typing, my initially vague impressions became more specific. It made me feel very relieved.
The original title of the book is "La Porte étroite".
The English translation is "Strait is the Gate".
The Chinese translation is "窄门".
The Smiths - A Tale of a Wonderful Woman (Bootleg) This reminded me of the female protagonist, at least in the first half of the book. After doing a reverse image search, I discovered that the woman is named Virginia Woolf, a writer.