A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers.EXCELLENT Love and language When her newly prosperous parents send Zhuang Xiao Qiao ("Z" to those who can't pronounce her name) from China to London, they intend for her to learn English. Although her language skills do improve, she ends up majoring in love and sex. One month into her sojourn, she takes a casual comment ("Be my guest") literally and moves in with a stranger. They sleep together, and her relationship with the unnamed Englishman illuminates the rocky terrain of cultural difference. Z augments her lessons with pornography and, at her lover's urging, with a solo tour of Europe. By the time her one-year student visa expires, she has acquired fluency both in English and in the complexity of human relationships. Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. 304 pages. $23.95. ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m : 0385520298 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Entertainment Weekly CLASSIC "In steadily improving (and comically blunt) English, Z records a year of her sexual discovery and cultural confusion, along with new words like pub, migraine, and bisexual. ... Guo's novel, her first in English, is smartly absorbing." HANAH TUCKER Guardian (U.K) EXCELLENT "A lot of [the novel] is subtle and gently troubling: [Z's] perfectly guiltless guilt·less adj. Free of guilt; innocent. guilt  less·ly adv.guilt reading of his private diaries while he is away, her incapacity The absence of legal ability, competence, or qualifications. An individual incapacitated by infancy, for example, does not have the legal ability to enter into certain types of agreements, such as marriage or contracts. or refusal to understand what is important about privacy; his incapacity or refusal to commit himself to their relationship, from which he increasingly pulls away, cherishing his unshared selfhood self·hood n. 1. The state of having a distinct identity; individuality. 2. The fully developed self; an achieved personality. 3. , his precious privacy. Or the problem of manners." URSULA K. LE GUIN Ursula Kroeber Le Guin [ˌɜɹsələ ˌkɹobɜɹ ləˈgwɪn] (born October 21, 1929) is an American author. Oregonian EXCELLENT "By turns hilarious and poignant, it is the fictive fic·tive adj. 1. Of, relating to, or able to engage in imaginative invention. 2. Of, relating to, or being fiction; fictional. 3. Not genuine; sham. journal of a 23-year-old Chinese peasant girl. ... Z is an appealing protagonist: curious about her new world, tough as her peasant background (abused by a mother who wanted a son), ferociously dedicated to improving her English, but also tender as she discovers love and sex with the man she addresses in the journal only as 'you.'" MAYA MUIR SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE The San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young.[2] The paper grew along with San Francisco to become the largest circulation newspaper on the West Coast of the EXCELLENT "While Dictionary initially seems a fast, breezy read, don't be so easily entertained as to miss the many nuances. Just like the single-word entry markers, beyond the most obvious definitions are deeper, more satisfying meanings." TERY HONG USA Today USA Today National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. EXCELLENT "What makes this novel winsome win·some adj. Charming, often in a childlike or naive way. [Middle English winsum, from Old English wynsum : from wynn, joy; see wen-1 is hearing the authentic voice of a young woman--bewildered, self-deprecating, funny, wise--as she navigates the world on her own." JACQUELINE BLAIS Chicago Sun Times EXCELLENT "Guo is a sensitive writer, and perhaps my surprise, even my bewilderment be·wil·der·ment n. 1. The condition of being confused or disoriented. 2. A situation of perplexity or confusion; a tangle: a bewilderment of lies and half-truths. Noun 1. , at her narrative technique has more to do with the novelty of the idea than any real weakness thereof. ... [The novel] takes us into a new territory, all the more exciting for its virginity Virginity See also Chastity, Purity. Agnes, St. patron saint of virgins. [Christian Hagiog.: Brewer Dictionary, 16] Atala Indian maiden learns too late she can be released from her vow to remain a virgin. [Fr. Lit. ." Vikram Johri Financial Times (UK) GOOD "This is an entertaining novel that will have fans. But Xiaolu Guo should trust herself--and her reader--to rely on the writing to carry her story, and should put more of her own voice back into her work." ROSIE BLAU CRITICAL SUMMARY A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers remains light as it explores love across a cultural divide. The novel--Xiaolu Guo's first in English--was short-listed for Britain's 2007 Orange Prize and has charmed critics on this side of the pond as well. Inspired, in part, by Guo's own experience relocating from China to London, the novel is a moving and mostly humorous narrative of cultural dislocation. Some critics had difficulty adjusting to Z's initially halting English, but most agreed the obstacle was worth overcoming. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers is a compelling read that will offer many native-English speakers a new perspective on themselves and their language. By Xiaolu Guo |
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