Expressions

My father, a businessman with no literary pretensions, wrote two family histories in his old age.

1. an attempt to seem more important, more intelligent, or of a higher class than you really are 自命不凡；虚荣；炫耀

the humbleness and lack of pretension of Jordan’s cafe

乔丹的咖啡馆的朴实和低调

[+ to ]

Lilith resented Adam’s pretensions to superiority.

利莉思十分厌恶亚当自命不凡的架势。

2. a claim to be or do something 自命；声称；标榜

pretension(s) to be sth

The group don’t have any pretensions to be pop stars.

这个组合从未标榜自己是流行乐坛的明星。

[+ to ]

a large village with pretensions to the status of a small town

以小镇自诩的大村庄

pretensions在这里应该可以译作意欲和抱负。

...and one of its satisfactions is to come to terms with your life narrative.

处理，处置；(学会)对待(与 with 连用)

...or Cousin Y, who “never amounted to much.”

取得(任何、很小、很大)成就；办得成事，办成好事；发展成，成长为[常用于否定句]:

She'll never amount to anything.

她不会有什么成就。

How bitterly his lassitude must have dawned on the young Frida...

lassitude

tiredness and lack of energy or interest 困乏；厌倦 【正式】

【SYN】weariness

dawn on

If a fact or idea dawns on you, you realize it. 使开始明白

It gradually dawned on me that I still had talent and ought to run again.

我渐渐明白我还有能力，应该再参加一次。

But she had the German penchant for telling people off, and...

数落、责备，还有告状的意思。

Summary

家族回忆录的写作中，要重视作者的视角出发，关注本身的感受。同样要对事实进行记载，尽量保持完整性，以供后人查阅。一次不要想覆盖太多条族谱，通常父母一边的家族已经足够写一篇回忆录了。写作方式可以是每天写一点回忆中的趣事，积累下来再进行整体审视，进行编辑和拼装。如果涉及到别人的隐私，最好提前告知他人。不用担心你身边发生的事情不够重要，重要的是这一系列的事如何让你成为今天的你。

除了在这本书中提到的写作原则，作者还要提高对语言、文字和韵律的审美，并将趣味和个性融入到作品中。最后，要根据自己的观点、方式和原则进行写作，在完工之前要反复修改前、精心雕琢，但是一旦完成，要学会捍卫自己的文字和观点。