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A review by jaymoran
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo
4.0
The loneliness comes to me in certain hours everyday, like a visitor. Like a friend you never expected, a friend you never really want be with, but he always visit you and love you somehow. When the sun leaves the sky, when the enormous darkness swallow the last red strip in the horizon, from that moment, I can see the shape of the loneliness in front of me, then surround my body, my night, my dream.
4.5
This is the third book by Xiaolu Guo that I've read now - the first being Village of Stone, which was translated from the Chinese, and her memoir Once Upon a Time in the East, and it was that book that encouraged me to pick up this one up as she describes what it was like writing it when she was still learning English herself, which is beyond impressive.
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers follows Zhuang as she travels to London in order to learn English and, while there, she falls in love with an older man who she comes to live with. Their relationship is complex and she's not always sure of where she stands with him, and, in a bid to make her more independent, he sends her away for five weeks to travel around Europe.
Throughout the book, we see how Zhuang's English improves and develops, and this is done so well. It feels genuine - I never felt that Guo was rushing Zhuang's fluency just to make it easier on herself to write or her readers to read, and it doesn't become entirely perfect come the end of the novel, which I loved. It is through Zhuang's lack of vocabulary that Guo writes some of the most beautiful sentences I've ever read - Zhuang can't overcomplicate the ways in which she feels or how she sees things because she can't find the words in English so she does it in a simplistic way that is honest, which is just a testament to just how good of a writer Guo is.
It's a wonderful novel that captures how bruising first loves can be and also how disorientating it is to go from one country where you have all the words and social understanding to one where you can't freely communicate to those around you and they have preconceptions of what your identity/culture is. There were a few moments that dragged a little bit for me, particularly when Zhuang is travelling around Europe, but other than that, I loved this book very much.
I am not intellectual either. In the West, in this country, I am barbarian, illiterate peasant girl, a face of third world, and irresponsible foreigner. An alien from another planet.
4.5
This is the third book by Xiaolu Guo that I've read now - the first being Village of Stone, which was translated from the Chinese, and her memoir Once Upon a Time in the East, and it was that book that encouraged me to pick up this one up as she describes what it was like writing it when she was still learning English herself, which is beyond impressive.
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers follows Zhuang as she travels to London in order to learn English and, while there, she falls in love with an older man who she comes to live with. Their relationship is complex and she's not always sure of where she stands with him, and, in a bid to make her more independent, he sends her away for five weeks to travel around Europe.
Throughout the book, we see how Zhuang's English improves and develops, and this is done so well. It feels genuine - I never felt that Guo was rushing Zhuang's fluency just to make it easier on herself to write or her readers to read, and it doesn't become entirely perfect come the end of the novel, which I loved. It is through Zhuang's lack of vocabulary that Guo writes some of the most beautiful sentences I've ever read - Zhuang can't overcomplicate the ways in which she feels or how she sees things because she can't find the words in English so she does it in a simplistic way that is honest, which is just a testament to just how good of a writer Guo is.
It's a wonderful novel that captures how bruising first loves can be and also how disorientating it is to go from one country where you have all the words and social understanding to one where you can't freely communicate to those around you and they have preconceptions of what your identity/culture is. There were a few moments that dragged a little bit for me, particularly when Zhuang is travelling around Europe, but other than that, I loved this book very much.
I am not intellectual either. In the West, in this country, I am barbarian, illiterate peasant girl, a face of third world, and irresponsible foreigner. An alien from another planet.