Monday, July 27, 2009

A Concise Chinese English Dictionary For Lovers - Xiaolu Guo



This Novel is about a young woman named Z who moves from a village in China to England to attend an English language school. She doesn't know anyone in London and spends her days writing in her journal about learning English and living in such a strange and new country. Then she meets a man, an older bisexual man whom she moves in with and falls in love with. She only has a year long student visa in England - so there definitely is potential for some heartbreak!

This book was at times hard to read because of the broken and choppy English (obviously it got better as the story went along and her English improved). This could be due to being an English teacher for so long and reading students essays exactly like this till I thought my head was going to explode. But the way Z expressed her feelings is beautiful. It makes your skin tingle and makes you smile. Her love for this man (who is lost himself) is so big that it takes up her whole life. He is her first love (though at an older age) and I can relate with those feelings in your chest that make you feel ill because you are either so happy or so scared of how much you love the other person. I have never read a book like this before. It was lovely. Most of the Asian literature I read is historical fiction. It was nice to sit down and read a novel set in present day that is easy to get through and makes you feel something.

Rating - 4

2 comments:

reading said...

it's really right way to learn or capture the ability to speak english
. .
english language course london

reading said...

The knowledge of Enlish is beneficial to the non-natives to communicate well and this is really an interesting story to read and take experienced tips for life....Expatriate