A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers: A Novel [Hardcover]

Xiaolu Guo (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0385520298 | ISBN-13: 978-0385520294 | Publication Date: September 4, 2007 | Edition: First Edition, First Printing

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers heralds the American debut of a remarkably gifted young writer.

Twenty-three-year-old Zhuang, the daughter of shoe factory owners in rural China, has come to London to study English. She calls herself Z because English people can’t pronounce her name, but she’s no better at their language. Set loose to find her way through a confusion of cultural gaffes and grammatical mishaps, she winds up lodging with a Chinese family and thinks she might as well not have left home. But then she meets an English man who changes everything. From the moment he smiles at her, she enters a new world of sex, freedom, and self-discovery. But she also realizes that, in the West, “love” does not always mean the same as in China, and that you can learn all the words in the English language and still not understand your lover.

Drawing on her diaries from when she first arrived in the UK, Xiaolu Guo winningly writes the story in steadily improving English grammar and vocabulary. Freshly humorous, sexy, and poignant, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers is an utterly original novel about language, identity, and the cultural divide.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A young woman from rural China learns how to comprehend love and heartbreak in English in this quirky, touching novel. Zhuang, or Z to tongue-tied foreigners, arrives in London at age 23 after being dispatched by her parents to get an education. Her immersion and painful education are laid bare to readers, who witness Z's vocabulary, grammar and understanding blossom throughout her diarylike account, sped along by an intense romance with a man met at the cinema. Her consuming love begins promisingly, but her failure to interpret her lover's lifestyle as a hippie drifter (who's 20 years her senior) alerts readers to potential trouble in paradise, even while such a notion remains beyond Z's not-yet-jaded imagination. The novel overflows with gentle jokes about culture shock and language barriers including Z's inability to understand why Brits bother talking about the weather when it's obvious—but there are deeper observations beneath the humor. Z's comically earnest exploration of a sex shop illuminates the pathos of Western seediness, and her encounters with men reveal both the exploitative and meaningful sides of romance. Z's unique, evolving voice fits perfectly for a heroine whose naïveté is matched by a willingness to relay the truth. (Sept.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers remains light as it explores love across a cultural divide. The novelâ€"Xiaolu Guo’s first in Englishâ€"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.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese; First Edition, First Printing edition (September 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385520298
• ISBN-13: 978-0385520294
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #705,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Novel, an Adventure....and a Cultural Education, April 25, 2007

By 

John Lonergan (Melbourne, Victoria Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (Paperback)

It's surprising - to me anyway - that I am the first customer to review this book. I bought it because I am interested in cross-cultural understanding, and hoped I would gain some insights. Having read it - and gained more insights than I could have dreamed of - I assumed everyone in the world must have read it by now, and many would have hastened to review it here.
Xiaolu Guo (call her "Z," most people in the book do) is a young woman who arrives in London from China to complete a course in English.
Her story, each chapter of which is based on an English word, is just fascinating. At a fairly early stage she begins a relationship with an Englishman, and their mutual struggle to find a deep bond, (well, to find love I suppose), is painful, endearing, frustrating and at times hilarious.
Xiaolu's commentary on English customs, cuisine and quirks is genuinely profound. As a Westerner, I found it hugely helpful in my battle to understand the differences between the West and China; I recommend it highly to people planning a visit to China, or planning serious dealings with Chinese.
Of course I wonder how much of it is autobiographical, and my guess is "most" - in which case Xiaolu is a powerful, brilliant and very funny woman. But even if it is predominantly fiction, it is a great read.
Some may be put off by the writing style - "deliberately bad English" - but I think this is one of the strengths of the book. It certainly enhances its authenticity.
In this review I have focused on the educational value of the book, and perhaps even its value as a travel narrative (her trip through Europe is a novella in its own right).
But for those who would like to read a great, funny, and at times very erotic novel - you won't be disappointed either.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The loneliness comes to me in certain hours everyday", May 9, 2008

By 

Linda Bulger (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers: A Novel (Hardcover)

Zhuang, a young girl from a manufacturing town on the South China Sea, is sent to England to learn the language so she can further the interests of her family's business. She records her progress in the notebook that is this novel - words, impressions, incomprehensions, loneliness. Each chapter starts with a dictionary definition. The book begins in severely broken English - "Is unbelievabal, I arriving in London, `Heathlow Airport'..." -- with observations of the city and the people around her, and progresses to more abstract themes as the writer's English improves.

Zhuang gives up her name because English people cannot pronounce it, calling herself Z, and boards with a Chinese family. In her second month of diaspora she meets a man in a cinema and moves in with him. Twenty years her senior, a bisexual drifter and artist, subject to depression and averse to commitment, he seems an unlikely object of her love and passion.

As Z becomes more proficient in her new language the book offers insight into her cultural point of view. Finding her lover selfish, Z observes that the Chinese are not encouraged to use the word "self" since it is the antithesis of collectivism and the self is the enemy of the communist party. On a holiday to Wales the profound silence saps her: "It doesn't matter if one speaks Chinese or English here; it doesn't matter if one is mute or deaf. Language is not important anymore. Only the simple physical existence matters in the nature."

I found the beginning of the book hard to read because the neophyte English doesn't allow enough depth of expression. As the language develops, Z's alienation is beautifully displayed though she defines herself somewhat narrowly in terms of her love for the English artist (who is never named for us). As evocative as this book is, it feels a bit limited by the author's self-imposed "language barrier."

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers is, I believe, Xiaolu Guo's first novel in English, written while she was acquiring the language. She is a film-maker and has two published novels in Chinese. I wish I could read them and discover all that she has to say when allowing herself a full range of expression. I'm sure she will write more books in English, and I look forward to reading them.

Linda Bulger, 2008

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly Poignant, September 18, 2007

By 

JSK "JK" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers: A Novel (Hardcover)

For anyone that has ever felt displaced, the moment can feel absolutely overwhelming, never-ending and almost tragic. It could be moving to a different neighborhood, the first day on the job or starting a new semester at school. Everyone has been there. Xiaolu Guo narrates a story of severe displacement, of a young girl from China, Z, moving to London to learn English. Z not only has to learn a different language and culture, she has to grow into adulthood in a country foreign to her. The author's voice is paradoxically both, heart-breaking and comical. I read this book in one sitting and a 15-minute train ride and it had me laughing one minute, crying the next.