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| Xiaolu Guo |
Xiaolu Guo
The tiny sitting room of Xiaolu Guo’s flat on a run-down estate off Hackney Road also functions as an office and editing suite. It’s where the 34-year-old novelist and filmmaker wrote ‘A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers’, her first novel in English – a language she started learning a mere three years ago. Based partly on the diaries Guo kept in the months after she moved to London in 2002, ‘…Dictionary’ seduces the reader with its sharp comedy of cultural misunderstanding, only to mutate midway into something more brutal: an unflinching meditation on rootedness, commitment, privacy and the necessary selfishness of the artist. The ‘bad’ pidgin English of the early chapters gradually improves as its narrator, Z, becomes more confident. ‘Some of the reviews so far, they really expect that I am super-clever writer trying to manipulate bad English,’ Guo laughs. ‘And I’m like, “God no, my English is so much worse than in the book!” ’
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This self-deprecation masks a formidable intellect. Guo was brought up by her grandparents in a fishing village in southern China. Her introduction to Western literature came after the Chinese government opted to publish works by JD Salinger, Sylvia Plath and Charles Bukowski on the grounds that they were anti-capitalist: ‘I remember reading Plath and thinking: Shit, in the West people are free to commit suicide!’ Despite the acclaim she’s receiving, Guo is anxious about the future. ‘If the subject of my next book is not language, what will I do? I can only play this game once. My English must get better or my life as an English novelist is over. I’ll have to become a Chinese novelist all over again…’
John O’Connell
‘A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers’ is published by Chatto & Windus at £12.99.
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9 comments
Yeah, it's definitely a recommended read. I certainly don't agree with everything this KJ Rolling person has to write, but you can't deny there is much wisdom and common sense in the book, if you can read without prejudice.
So tell me, Spambuster, name the sections that you disliked most of all. Failure to do so only confirms my suspicion that you are an aggrieved little person who has an axe to grind with the said author of this book of the decade.
the books is shyte, i want my money back. dont buy it, it is seriously rubbish
I don't know who this KJ Rolling geezer is, but he (or she) produces many gems about the Tower Of London and loyalist band parades. I liked the item about the monarchy, while the mock commercials are quite amusing.
What's Kerry's problem? Is he/she riddled with angst at having a bi-sexual name? It's a belter of a book.
Yeah, the KJ Rolling book is definitely not dull. It is quite amusing and provocative which probably explains why Kerry was not so impressed - the poor dear.
I have just read 'How To Commit Suicide In Ten Easy Steps' and it is certainly not a dull read. Okay so the title is a bit risque, but there are so many thought-provoking bit-sized items to keep any reader amused or antagonised.
I read it , its a load of cr@p
I submitted more than two weeks ago a book for a possible review to John O'Connell, but have not had the courtesy of a reply. Could someone return my book, entitled 'How To Commit Suicide In Ten Easy Steps' by KJ Rolling, unless you need more time, which is fine.
Disappointed
KJ Rolling