A Chinese girl is listening to a reading of a poem by her artist English lover in Hackney, “This Anon very good writer, I think I prefer to Shakespeare, much easier”, says Z, from a small industrial town in China. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers is written in intentionally broken English by the busy Mainland Chinese novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo. If you are interested in a witty and whimsical take on cultural differences, this Orange Prize short-listed novel is a must-read, despite the difficulties of reading broken English.
The “dictionary” is not a dictionary. It is chaptered by new words Z learns during her journey of self-discovery through eclectic London and Europe, and her relationship with her sexually disoriented lover, whose name is never revealed.
Xiaolu Guo explained to BBC’s Book Club the reason that she chose to use naïve language is because “When you are aboard, you have this kind of child-like personality, no matter who you are.” This book is not about a cliché romance. It is about the mixed feeling of losing an old identity while living in a foreign place. It is about the sadness, beauty and pleasure and drifting.
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers is published by Vintage in 2007.
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