Entry #4: "A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers"

"Shamelessly honest, sharp, poetic, and feminine. That's the starting point for my work."

-- Xiaolu Guo, essayist, author, poet, & filmaker

"Nothing in this book is true, except for the love between her

and him." --from A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

Guo, Xiaolu. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers. New York: Doubleday, 2007.

Genre: Contemporary International Fictional/Muticultural Romance

Author's Website: http://www.guoxiaolu.com/

Subjects & Themes: language & meaning; life & meaning; linguistics; dictionaries; diaries; inward journies & outward travels; exploration; cultural immersion; passion, propriety, & perseverence; individuality vs. selfishness; Ethnocentricism; art, exploration, & creativing; isolation, adaptation, & self-discovery; sense of family, the demands of love, heartbreak & longing; sex adn sexuality; abortion; aging; and, learning to let go.

Reading Reaction: Incredibly satisfied with having found an intellectually stimulating & reverently rendered read that urged me to "slow down, digest slowly". Sadly reminded of lost love, but to have, too, survived intact. Awed by perseverence of ESL speakers, especially those

whose native tongue so vastly differs from our own. Reaffirmed: A personal passion language-- despite its intricacy and inherently tenuous nature.

Read-a-Likes ("It's better to have loved & lost than never to have loved at all...")

1. Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (2000).
2. Cloud Mountain by Aimee E. Liu (1997).
3. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende (1999).
4. Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (1999).
5. Loving Che by Ana Menbendez (2003).
6. Unburnable by Marie-Elena John (2006).

Related Reads (art, assimilation, &/or Chinese voice)

1. Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu (2006).
2. The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan (2001).
3. The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland (2004).
4. Hunger: A Novella and Stories by Samantha Lan Chang (1998).
5. The Last Communist Virgin: Stories by Wang Ping (2007).
6. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (2005).

Suggested Background Music: Bach's Air on a G String (repeat, most definitely repeat).