Scott Abbott starts Immortal for Quite Some Time by insisting that it is not a memoir, but it certainly reads like one. Most of the book consists of a series of snippets from his life, snapshots laid end to end. Many are no more than a paragraph, often two or three to a page. Th ese unconnected memories eventually coalesce into an overall image of an unhappy man: unhappy with his Mormon religion, unhappy with his Mormon family, and often unhappy with his partially Mormon self. Th e selfrefl ection is built around trying to understand the life of his gay brother, John, and his death from AIDS. But for the longest time the task feels almost abstract. Th e author admits that his wife and others have accused him of “emotional distance,” and I think the reader feels it frequently. Th e account is more often interesting than moving. Th ere are exceptions, of course, such as the long but equally sparse list of items found in John’s apartment after his death:

中文翻译：

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斯科特·阿博特（Scott Abbott）在相当长的一段时间内不朽

斯科特·阿博特（Scott Abbott）坚持认为这不是回忆录，但它确实读起来像一本回忆录，从而开始了《不朽的相当一段时间》。这本书的大部分内容都是他生活中的一系列片段，首尾相连的快照。许多只是一个段落，通常是两到三页。这些互不关联的记忆最终融合成一个不快乐的人的整体形象：对他的摩门教不满意，对他的摩门教家庭不满意，并且经常对他部分摩门教的自我不满意。自我反省是围绕着试图了解他的同性恋兄弟约翰的生活以及他死于艾滋病而建立的。但在最长的时间里，这项任务感觉几乎是抽象的。作者承认他的妻子和其他人指责他“情感疏远”，我认为读者经常感受到。帐户通常比移动更有趣。