At first, it was written word by word on the stationery, and then it was taken out and corrected if nothing happened. The manuscript was circled bit by bit, and a lot of ink leaked from the inferior pen. From time to time, the manuscript paper is marked with large or small pits by the pen tip. Several children looked at the handwriting and crumpled writing paper, and they were not interested. But it is not necessarily a bad thing to let him have a sustenance and let him go.
But my father naturally regarded it as a big event and didn't care what he said. When it comes to historical events, he often calls the parties to verify the details and tries to truly restore history. He really thinks he is a celebrity.
When my father's autobiography was nearing the end, one day, he took out the paper from the room and timidly asked me if I could give him some advice if I was not sure about a few things. After all, I am a journalist who lives by eating, and he thinks I am more authoritative than him. I didn't know at that time that the survival time after cancer was not as long as I expected. I thought the time left for our father and daughter would last forever, until I was always impatient with the old man's verbosity and stubbornness.
But that day, I patiently read my father's manuscript and felt a little moved. First, because of my father's insistence, these hundreds of pages and hundreds of thousands of words, one word at a time, are all efforts. Second, because of his father's childhood experience, he lost his father at the age of three and his mother at the age of ten. He lived a hard life after several wars, famines and plagues.
Looking at my father's expectant eyes, I decided to help him fulfill this wish. Judging from the content of the manuscript, it is impossible to take the application number of the publishing house as a officially published book, and my father has no such extravagant hope, but I still hope to make it more formal and more in line with the trend of the times, rather than a cheap product printed by literary friends in my hometown at their own expense.
Because my mother's pen handwriting is neat and easy to identify, I suggest that my mother make a clear copy of the manuscript first, and then find a printer to input it as an electronic manuscript. Print and modify the electronic manuscript, and then print and modify it. The middle father was hospitalized for chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and it was finally finalized after many twists and turns. Then I found a junior majoring in advertising design, and asked him to design the cover and inner page layout, and fill in the version according to the style of the book. Finally, I found a friend who runs a printing factory and printed 400 copies of my father's autobiography at my own expense. There are no illegal publications with ISBN.
When I was in the magazine, I was in charge of the book review section of the magazine for a while. I receive dozens of sample books from major publishing houses every week. As soon as the books pass, I know which books are excellent and which books are staple food. I should say I've seen good things. However, I don't want to spend too much energy and money on my father's autobiography. After all, I bought it at my own expense. I don't want to spend a lot of money to find a good designer, use high-grade paper, find a big printing house, and I don't want to spend time helping my father improve the content within his ability. If I want, I should be able to help him do more and better. However, according to his father's knowledge, he thinks it is already very good, and the quality has greatly exceeded the self-funded publications of his hometown classmates. Therefore, I am willing to worry and save effort.
After this book (father's autobiography) was printed, during the Spring Festival, my father took our son, daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandson and other ten people back to his hometown, invited the villagers to have a meal in a humble restaurant in the town, and held a book distribution activity for Liu Laogen's big stage. Everyone gave him an autographed autobiography. When the children were staring at the steamed meat and braised fish on the table, the father spoke, and several old classmates he invited also spoke separately. The room was crowded with people, and the smell of food mixed with the children's saliva. I can imagine a speech without stereo. I didn't catch what these people outside the second table said. But looking at that scene, my father was very excited and satisfied.
This time I went back to my hometown and spent tens of thousands. In my heart, I don't think it is necessary, just to fulfill my father's wish. I watched with a wait-and-see attitude the villagers who were scrambling for free meals. I don't think their hands of transplanting rice seedlings and feeding fish and shrimp are interested in opening my father's book, but as long as my father is happy, the cost of these tens of thousands of dollars is not high.
This is the last time my father went back to his hometown and the last Spring Festival he spent with us. At 7 o'clock in the morning of New Year's Eve, he left at the age of 73. Six days later, three generations of our family, son, daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law and grandson, ten people went back to their hometown and were buried with his ashes.
After his father left, his mother put all his clothes in order, threw away the old ones and gave them to his uncle in his hometown. He didn't abandon them, but accepted them with great joy.
My father never became an official or made a fortune in his life. He is an ordinary township doctor. He did his best to raise our three brothers and sisters. Apart from this autobiography, which I don't agree with, he left no property.
From the time my father started writing his autobiography to the time I helped him publish a book, I didn't have much comment on what he did, just being filial. But after that, every time I think of my father, all I can think of is his autobiography.
Punch in today to read autobiography of my father. I was going to make fun of it. An old man in China's most common eighth-and ninth-line city has never received formal writing training or even read a world-class literary work. Apart from entertaining himself, is there any literary and artistic achievement in his autobiography? If I were you, if I were to write such a work, could I find out its meaning? If so, what should I do? If not, am I worth it?
On the Spring Festival when my father died, I wrote an article "The most beloved person in the world is gone", with tears and words. Today, there are no tears, only sadness and confusion. I can't figure out what is the value of life, what is life and what is death?