This is a passage in "The Man Looking for Time", and it is also the first place in this book that touched me. In fact, since I opened this book, I have been shocked by the repeated sentences in the book about not having enough time -

Where did the time go?

There is never enough time.

When did time start running so fast?

Something is eating our time.

The above sentences all speak to my heart, because I often feel the same way. In ordinary days, no matter how we try to arrange our time reasonably, there is always not enough time. Therefore, sometimes we can’t help but wonder, is there something wrong?

Yes, no matter how busy you are, you should have time to enjoy life!

However, in real life, many people are exhausted and enslaved by time. Some people say that wasting time is equivalent to wasting life, so we regard our busyness day and night as something that should be taken for granted and even glorious. Although we have also complained about no rest and little entertainment, since most people are like this, it has to be like this.

In "The Man Who Finds Time", the young Gigi is a different person from us. In order to "buy some time" to make a birthday gift for his mother, under the leadership of Anne, he came to the underground palace and entered the place of eternal youth. Accompanied by a brilliant violinist and an injured dog, the mystery of the time leak is discovered and time is restored. Thus saving people from both worlds.

Jiji, who comes from a musical family, is the first protagonist of the story. The story takes place in a rural town in Ireland, Kenwala. In order for the children to take their mother's surname, Gigi's parents are the only unmarried people in the town who live together.

Liddy's is a traditional Irish gathering place. On the second Saturday of every month, people attend Kelly dances and group dance classes at Liddy's. Some would come from thirty miles or more. Liddy’s family has a spirit of hospitality that has been passed down from generation to generation. They volunteered to provide venues for everyone, accompanied the dancers and provided beer and drinks for free. More importantly, for several generations, the Liddy family has had a deep love for music and dance, and has made outstanding achievements and contributions in this. For today's Gigi's mother Helen, music and the name Liddy are part of her life.

However, behind the glory, it is not difficult for Gigi to feel the attitude of some people who stay away from the Liddy family and their music. At first, he thought it was because his parents lived together without getting married, until someone told him a family secret about the Riddy family that everyone knew but he didn’t know—Ji Ji’s great-grandfather, who was also the grandfather of his mother Helen. He once killed a priest because of a flute. Only then did Jiji feel that everything was not as simple as he thought.

In the story, Gigi, led by Annie, comes to the underground palace, travels through the membrane of time, and reaches the place of eternal youth. Here, he meets some people who are in a completely different state of life compared to his own world.

These are two different worlds presented in the book. In fact, as the plot develops, it is not difficult to find that one of them is the world of mortals and the other is the world of gods.

In the mortal world, people study and work. Whether it is wealth or power, they all rely on labor and wisdom. No matter in the past or now, no matter whether there will be birth, old age, illness or death, everyone is as busy as ever for their livelihood. Time makes them grow up and age, but time is an extremely precious thing for them.

In the world of gods, their time stands still, and the sun always stays in the sky and shines on the earth. The land is also lush and green, and the air is fresh. Because there is no time to catch up, everyone is lazy, does not eat, does not sleep, has no need for money, and has no desire, and no matter what is gained or lost. The few people who do not only play music and dance every day are just wandering around in the sun. Most importantly, they almost never age.

Such a setting enables this book to successfully use symbolic mythology to arouse readers' interest in reading and create a unique reading experience. It intersperses the phenomenon of people's "difficulty to control and control time" in real life with images full of imagination and magic, allowing readers to think smoothly.

What does time mean to us? How should we deal with the wise saying "time is life" that has been deified for a long time?

In "A Village of One Man", the writer Liu Liangcheng once mentioned a villager named Feng Si. This man had nothing to do all day long. He was a man who had spent his whole life dealing with people with his bare hands. In the text, the author did not make any positive or negative comments about it, but simply said: People who live their lives are busy going about their day - it is dark. Lazy people take their time, the days pass by them - it's dark.

In fact, everyone has their own life to live when they come to this world. Whether they are busy or lazy, it is their own way of treating life and resisting the years. It does not matter whether it is right or wrong. Feng Si, who had walked around the world and accomplished nothing, was not blamed. As a being, he completed his life.

And other people in the village who lived a busy life did not receive praise, and they only performed their duties as farmers.

I am not saying this to denigrate hard-working people, nor am I against progress and promoting laziness, but I hope that everyone can give themselves more time to relax and think while "living life". As human beings, we should neither "live" blindly, nor should we always let "day pass" us.

The original English name of "The Man Looking for Time" is: The New Policeman, which means the new policeman. While reading, I always thought that the theme of the work should be the New Police. Why did the translator translate the title of the book as "The Man Looking for Time"? The most important thing is that there is indeed a new policeman in the book, but he does not seem to be the main character. The real protagonist is Jiji who goes from the real world to the fairy world to "buy time."

It wasn’t until the end of the story that I suddenly discovered that the new police officer Larry was actually the violinist Angus. Looking back, Larry once had all kinds of confusion about his "why he wanted to become a policeman", and finally determined that Gigi and Angus went from their own world to the other's world, looking for the time. Leak people.

The following are two clues to the story in the book -

The mortal world with Gigi and new police officer Larry as the core characters: Hearing the family secret - Gigi's disappearance - -The police searched to no avail - returned on his own.

The fairy world with Jiji and Angus as the core characters: Based on Jiji’s subtle observations in the mortal world, they searched around the fairy world for places where time might leak.

The reason for "searching" is that time is changing: in the mortal world, even though people are speeding up, they still seem to be unable to catch up with something; while in the fairy world, the sun above their heads is slowing down. Slowly sinking to the west, everyone is on the edge of danger.

Angus once said to Jiji——

So, Jiji wants to gain leisure time for his own world, while Angus wants to stop those things that are harmful to them. Useless time continued to invade, and they began a unique "search".

Here, "searching" is the author's attempt to guide us through stories to reflect on "whether modern people can arrange their time reasonably" and "how to take the initiative." Today, when human civilization is highly developed, people have become increasingly vague about the meaning of real life, are unreasonable and passive in arranging things, and have even become slaves to machines and large industries. It's very much like the future Angus worries about - enslaved by time and driven by greed.

Although we don’t think Angus’ life is good, there is no goal, no passion, and no vitality! But how good is our current situation in their eyes? Aren't they just afraid of hiding away? Therefore, "searching" here is to remind everyone to pay attention to personal existence and avoid blind thinking and spiritual emptiness.

At the end of the story, Gigi discovered the mystery of the leak. It turns out that the person who caused the turmoil in the two worlds was none other than Father Doherty, who was "killed" by Grandfather Jiji. Back then, he took the flute from Grandfather Jiji, came to the underground palace, inserted it into the membrane of time, and time passed through the hollow cavity of the flute.

Undoubtedly, Father Doherty is the negative image of the story. He has rigid ideas and serious dogmatism. In order to rule people's beliefs, he does not allow people to gather. In addition, he also harbored a deep hatred for China Ungar, who was always playing and dancing. His ultimate wish is to drive the faeries, and their vicious way of life that corrodes the minds of hard-working Irish people, from Ireland forever. He would rather die than turn their eternal youth into eternal darkness.

Finally, when the priest heard from Gigi that his wish had come true, Ireland no longer knew the existence of the fairy clan, and the time of the fairy clan was already a quarter past eleven (in fact, It was dusk there), so the priest pulled out his flute, got up and returned to the previous world. The membrane of time was restored and the time leakage stopped.

Gigi and Angus' wish finally came true, and their "search" yielded perfect results, returning Chinaonge and Ireland to their original appearance.

Through "The Man Looking for Time", we also see that whether it is the mortal world of Jiji or the China Ungar of Angus, the difference is the world, not the people. They live in different worlds, but their growth, family ties and humanity, as well as their love of music, are never different.

At the end of the story, Gigi realized that the new police officer Larry was the violinist Angus and his grandfather, and he was very happy. He wanted to tell his mother this, but Angus stopped him because she wouldn't believe it and it wouldn't be easy for her to accept it if she did. As a result, this strange grandfather and grandson living in two worlds established an intimate bond that was unknown to everyone.

Because music can flow between two worlds, when Gigi played at a kelly dance in his barn, the people of Chinaunga played with him. Only he, only Jiji, can feel the existence of that beautiful music. Others can only be infinitely surprised by Jiji's increasingly gorgeous performance.

In short, the novel connects the wishes and emotions of characters in reality with the magical phantoms of imagination, creating a poetic and imagery realm for readers. While being magical, it also endows gods with ordinary human emotions, achieving a unique and unique artistic effect. However, until the end of the story, the author did not mention Gigi’s friend Jimmy who brought Gigi into the plot. This is undoubtedly an oversight and omission in the structure of the book.