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A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
£8.80£9.50 (-7%)
Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction
Twenty-three-year-old Zhuang (or Z as she calls herself – Westerners cannot pronounce her name) arrives in London to spend a year learning English. Struggling to find her way in the city, and through the puzzles of tense, verb and adverb; she falls for an older Englishman and begins to realise that the landscape of love is an even trickier terrain…
Xiaolu Guo was named as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists
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Additional information
| Publisher | First Thus edition (3 Jan. 2008), Vintage |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 368 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0099501473 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0099501473 |
| Dimensions | 12.9 x 2.2 x 19.8 cm |
by william candler
I was actually looking for a Chinese English dictionary when I came across this little poetic gem by Xiaolu Guo. It was one of those finds that happens infrequently. I had never heard of the author or the work, and now, happily I feel the better for stumbling across both. I read the whole work in a couple of days and was delighted. It is playful, serious, lyrical and delightful as well as many other things. It gives an insightful account of modern London its gloom, its attraction, and the story line, a modern, loose love started by happenchance and ended sadly as ‘the bonds of love are ill to loose’, but with a residue of warmth and longing…. I found it a great short novel. It has left me with an after effect of happiness. I am smiling as I write this. The language, needless to say, is very well done, as it starts out in “Chinglish”, ending in something like standard English: it works. I have now downloaded “I am China”, and look forward to more from Xiaolu Guo.
by Amazon Customer
Having being set this book for University i had reservations, namely about the title and the blurb of the book. After reading the first few pages i saw this novel is being set as a bildungsroman- a coming of age novel. I decided to give this book 4 stars for its originality on broadening the horizon of a foreigner coming to the UK and trying to learn the English Language. I particularly enjoyed the Mandarin translations littered throughout the book which gave the novel an authentic feel of a diary. The surprising twist of the detailed sex scenes were unexpected but somehow gave this book a charm, a must read for anyone trying to broaden their knowledge of World Literature
by stevieby
I was very moved by this book – a ‘Love Story’ for the C21. In principal it is a simple story of a Chinese girl coming to London to learn English…. but as the girl struggles to learn and make herself understood, she increasingly questions the attitudes and values of the English, and in particular her lover, a would-be artist, framer and drop-out. (Not so much culture clash as cultures zooming in opposite directions!) Along the way she begins to examine her own attitudes and values, and her inner conflict over her status as a mere ‘lover.’ As she masters the language, another frustration grows – the relationship is doomed: the understanding arrives, but the desire does not depart.
This is as much a coming-of-age/loss-of-innocence story as it is about East meeting West; told with startling honesty, wit and insight. It hits out at the nature of love, and comes closer than many of the more ‘serious’ books.
Don’t be put off by the “deliberately bad” English – it adds to the sense of disorientation, but the vocabulary is chosen with precision and intelligence so the meaning becomes clear with very little effort.
by bluebellgirl
A beautiful story about a young chinese woman who is sent to London to learn English so that she can return to China and help her parents run their shoe factory. To begin with, the grammar in the book starts off child like, much like a chinese would speak English had he just arrived in London, with only a dictionary to help him! She meets a man, he befriends her but she misunderstands him when he asks her to visit and she ends up living with him. It’s a sometimes funny, sometimes poignant look at life in England from a Chinese perspective…it’s also very true of any immigrant from a country where the first language is not English. I loved this book so much, I first read the inside cover at the library and came home and ordered two copies on amazon! One for a friend! This book is truly beautiful, so different from any book I’ve ever read. You will not be disappointed, a great book gift for someone you know really well…
by Amazon Customer
Read through this book without a break and finished it within a couple of hours. It’s so easy to read, simple language but it did not stop catching me deeply. I sort of see myself in there. I was falling in love with a English guy who is about 20 years older than me when I’ve just done my master. I also travelled around Europe on my own. The more places I’ve been to and the more people I’ve talked to, the more confidence I’ve gained from the experiences. But probably different from Z, I am more independent and I knew the attachment on him will ruin the relationship by the end of the day. It’s is the difference (culture, mindset and even my chinglish) that draw us together. And it will be the closeness that tear us apart. Later I found a job and moved out of Cambridge. Now we still care about each other and still fancy each other. I completely understand Z and how she sees her English boyfriend as nothing but the whole entire world. She made him to pay her meal, she made him to do housework…This novel not only talk about the cross culture relationship, but something in general. What keeps love going on? And what would be the best distance for a couple etc…you’ll find out more in this one.
by Drummer
I agree with the reviewers. I bought this book by accident, thinking that it was a dictionary. For some reason, I never noticed the reviews the first time. If you are British and mixing with the Chinese community, then this book is worth buying. If you teach English as a foreign language, you can come up with strategies for correcting the grammar. However, if you have a Chinese boyfriend/girlfriend you will not find an actual dictionary for lovers. In my humble opinion you should buy the Dictionary of Chinese Proverbs by John Rohsenow, and learn a few off by heart. Heaven rewards the diligent.
by G. Roussopoulos
This novel spirals inward in form, as the heroine’s English improves, and content, as her emotional understanding of the situation develops and bridges the gap between Chinese and English cultures … until it explodes.
An entertaining, funny book about the English too, but full also of unusual insights into the differences. The Chinese language has no verbs – what does that say about the country’s history, its future? Much to ponder.