有好演员,好导演,但没有好剧本,成不了好作品。《备胎》一书,由哈里提供资料,墨林格(J. R. Moehringer)代笔而成。墨林格作品不多,成果不少。他在1998 年和2000年分别得过两次普利策文学特稿写作奖。写过一本自传,被拍成电影,由乔治·克鲁尼执导,本·阿弗莱克主演。得奖作品之一也被拍成电影,由塞缪尔·杰克逊主演。写过一本小说,代笔三部自传:耐克球鞋创办人菲尔·奈特,网球运动员安德烈·阿加西,王子哈里。从《备胎》一书,可以看出墨林格对写作对象和目的有深度了解,主线分明,文笔流畅,对情绪的渲染恰到好处,引人入胜。在书的开头,有一段对英伦四月天的描写在衬托哈里的心情:“四月,冬日已去,春时未至,但柔和的气息已在空中。灰色的天空下,郁金香已绽放。淡白色的光线中,花园对侧的湖水蓝波荡漾。”短短几句话,引出了哈里近四十年矛盾重重的人生。
Invictus by William Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.