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A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

Author: Xiaolu Guo
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

13 reviews
Sales Rank: 6353

Media: Paperback
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.9

ISBN: 0099501473
EAN: 9780099501473
ASIN: 0099501473

Publication Date: January 3, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

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Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...

2 out of 5 stars

Could have been good. July 9, 2008
This book apperaed to cover a few literary interests of mine. Mainly Chinese literature. I find the insights into China, past and present, interesting for some reason (but do I need one?). I also enjoy a good story that is able to move me emotionally. This can include a romance story. This book failed to please my appetite in both instances.

I found the structure clever enough to give this review two stars, however.

The potential for this book was big. The diary format is not my favourtie, it has to be said but it is not bad. Overall though, I found the book rushed and lacking a lot of depth. This made any potential for emotion to build non existant. For example, I could not build up any mental picture for what the man looks like other than he is 40 something and he looks old when he is tired. I had no idea what Z looks like or any detail at all. The was not enough detail about the house looks like. Even a general colour of the place would have been nice. I also found the final letter confusing. Was that only half of it? In any case it lacked any form of a "tearful goodbye" or an "I must never see you again" letter.

The only time when the detail shows is during the fairly graphic sex seen descriptions. It is far too frank for my likeing. I found it all an attempted to express passion but it comes off as immature. The metaphors to describe her sex organs are a prime example of this. Her "cave". Honestly, I would have felt really silly writing this.

I did find the insight into China interesting, but not nearly enough information was present and all it was was a comparison with the west, mainly with food, which did not interest me enough.

Overall, the book lacked too much detail and it also lost the pace towards the end. (I think that is a general opinion about this book based on the other Amazon reviews). A missed opportunity.

For a novel that gives an insight into ancient China I'd recommened any of the four classics of Chinese literature and "Empress Orchid" and "The Last Empress" by Anchee Min. For an insight into modern China I'd recommend the Inspector Chen mysteries by Qiu Xiaolong. For an emotional love story I'd recommend "A Dream of Red Mansions" also known as "The story of the Stone" (which is one of the four Chinese Classics)

4 out of 5 stars

A lovely book May 28, 2008
This is a essentially a love story that stems from a misunderstanding brought about by the heroine's naive grasp of English. You are brought on a wonderful cockeyed journey as she begins to grasp the eccentricities of the language and those of it's native speakers.

3 out of 5 stars

Some romances never last, especially these with cultural differences May 21, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

The protagonist in this book is called shortly Z, because she has an unmentionable name such as Zhuang Xiao Quiao. Probably the author Xiaolu Guo knows pretty well what she has written about, because also her name is not easy to spell. Z is 23 when she came over from Beijing in China to London in the UK. She can't speak any English and she has never been to the West before. Therefor the book starts in pretty dreadful English and every chapter has a specific heading such as in a dictionary. There are very funny scenes in the book for example when Z arrives in London: "Sign in front of queue say: ALIEN and NON ALIEN. I am alien, like Hollywood films Alien, I live in another planet, with funny looking and strange language." I found it funny because I nearly had the same thoughts about that word alien when I was pretty young and flying over to England for the first time.

Learning English, Z discovers more and more strange things in the English language, for example the gender definition (Everyone must do his best), which she comments (in her bad English): Always talking about mans, no womans. And Z has problems living in London: The weather is bad, she can't understand much and there is no-one in this country she knows. It doesn't take long and she falls in love with a very complicated guy, who is in his 40ies, who's job it is to deliver goods with a white van, he is trying to be a bit of an artist by making wax sculptures, who is living in Hackney (Greater London) and who used to be homosexuell before this relationship. At the beginning it starts as every relationship in a very happy way: They are both intoxicated by love and make love everywhere and at any time. But slowly the struggle starts. Whereas Z wants to make plans for a future together, he wants to be on his own, depending on no-one. So it comes to a point, while Z leaves London for a few weeks for an Interail tour on Europe. What I really found a shame was, that Z never made any contact with interesting women on her journey. It seemed that her life was completely determined by men. I found it a pitty because the protagonist didn't enjoy the Interail journey at all. After coming back to England the struggle starts again...

Nevertheless the book is very sad in the end, but also many things in Europe have been observed with the eyes of a foreigner and therefor it is a very wise and often funny book and it is worth reading it.

4 out of 5 stars

Very readable, original format May 20, 2008
Interesting and original format for a book. Story touching, compelling yet sometimes frustrating. Insights into British culture from a Chinese perspective both funny and interesting. This is a very readable, upfront book - I didn't feel the author was trying to do anything underhand with the story - it's honest in it's beauty and bleakness. 2 very different people coming together in what, at times, seems like a hopeless exercise. But then I'm sure lots of people have been there, or at least have an idea of what the author is getting at.

1 out of 5 stars

I thought I was going to love it and then..... May 17, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

I really enjoyed the first 100 or so pages of this novel but by the end I hated it. Lots of racial and gender stereotypes and lots of stereotypes about gay men. The plot lost its way when the heroine went on her tour of Europe. Here she hooks up with one man after another, eventually leading to a very depressing and grubby one night stand on a Portuguese beach. I didn't care much about the characters, I wanted the relationship to end, I wanted the book to end. I only finished this book because it was for my book group and no one else in my group liked it either. Apparantely her other books are better but I didn't have the stomach to try another one.