Lovers Also Need Thesauruses

[commonpeople1]

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Z, a young woman from a small village in China, is offered a trip to England by her parents so she can learn English and improve her prospects in life. She arrives in London during a typical grim winter in the mid-noughties, oblivious as to how to behave and comprehend this Western capital. Her hostel is dire and the students in her English course label her a pariah because of her inability to behave in a "Western" way.

Z spends most of her time trying to decode this new world with a Chinese-English dictionary - and the novel itself is also divided this way, with each chapter starting with a word and its dictionary definition (relevant to the chapter in question) that sheds light onto Z's uncovering of this world. Often, Z's misunderstandings are meant to be humorous, but because Z is such a nutter - and a slightly unsympathetic one - the humour is a misfire.

One evening, she strikes conversation with a much older man in a cinema and very soon she's his lover. He's a van driver and part-time artist based in Hackney. They fall madly in love, things get kinky, summer arrives, she travels across Europe under his suggestion (to improve her understanding of the West)... then things get complicated.

The novel is based on Xiaolu Guo's own experience of moving to London in 2002 and keeping a journal. There are some pleasures to be found in its description of Hackney, and an interesting twist relating to the older lover. The cover is deceptively chick lit - this novel is anything but.

View all my reviews

Comments

[changeling72.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting.

[arafel1.livejournal.com]

I see we both like George R.R. Martin’s books.
I do not usually post reviews on the books I read, especially if they are bad. Maybe I should, I was tempted to do so on the last one I read (The Curse of Europa) mainly because all those 5 stars on Goodreads were totally misleading.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I particularly like writing bad reviews (see mine for American Gods as an example) as they really polarise my feelings - sharpen what I have to say. It's harder when they are 3 stars like this one.

[arafel1.livejournal.com]

Laughing! I do appreciate people being honest with their reviews, particularly if those reviews are helpful. But to evaluate a one star book, for instance, would mean showing my irritation with that work. I don’t like to be nasty, even when it is fair. I would be thinking about the author and how my words would impact him (or her). I rather keep silence and simply rate with the star.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

That's fair enough!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I have a review coming up for A Storm of Swords, which I loved and thought was deeply Shakespearean!

[arafel1.livejournal.com]

Then you will love the next two ones. The pace is different and I have read many reviews not appreciating that. For me they are equally fantastic.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'm really looking forward to them! I'm just in awe at how he can control so many narratives in such an enveloping way.