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There are currently 32 member reviews
for The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai
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Carolyn G. (South Pasadena, CA)
Good first novel
I wasn’t sure that I was going to like this novel when I first started reading. By the time I got to the third chapter, I was hooked. The central character is Li Jing, a bilingual Chinese business man. An accident leaves him with a type of autism which lets him only able to speak English. Most of the story is told through the experiences of Meiling, Li Jing’s wife and Dr. Rosalyn Neal an American neurologist hired to help Li Jing recover his linguistic skills. While the plot revolves around a traditional love triangle, Ruiyan Zu brings some insightful and sensitive descriptions to several emotional scenes. I wished that there had been more description of Shanghai as I enjoy reading about different places. This is a good first novel and I would like to read more by this author.
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Natalya M. (Medical Lake, WA)
Beautiful novel about language and relationships
A man goes has a brain injury and forgets his dominant language. He can only speak in English, the language he learned and used as a child. He can no longer communicate with his family and they enlist the help of a famous US neurologist, who specializes in bilingual amnesia.
The book is about the difficulties of language and how communication is the most important part of relationships. I feel the characters were very real and I could easily sympathize with them. The novel is beautifully written but I feel the ending could have been better.
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Lori L. (La Porte, IN)
The Power of Language
This beautifully written book explores the power of language and how we define ourselves through our speech. The characters in the book move together and come apart based on their ability to communicate. Words, with their ability to comfort and console as well as to destroy and alienate, take center stage. It was interesting to consider how much of an individual's personality is determined by their ability to express themselves to others, as well as how much that expression can deviate from the person's inner, private life.
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Carrie (Albany, NY)
voyage in a novel
The setting truly captured me in this novel. I was carried away to Shanghai and riveted with the descriptions of the place. It's a lovely first novel sure to appeal to fans of multicultural fiction.
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Andrea L. (Cottonwood Heights, UT)
Beautifully written
Received for review from Bookbrowse First Impressions Program.
This is a beautifully written novel exploring the intricacies and dependency humans have on language and how their limitations can project into daily choices. The characters are well developed and layered with subtlety, and the story proceeds at a comfortable pace. Xu's style is lyrical and full of imagery and symbolism.
Unable to return to life as he knew it, Li Jing, turns to the most welcoming option available to him after a freak accident robs him of his ability to speak Chinese. Rediscovering his life through the English language he knew as a child alienates him from his wife and child, and cripples his ability to function in his city and his formerly successful life.
Unable to express himself with the nuance and subtlety that is integral to the Chinese language, Li Jing is attracted to the unsubtle but comprehensible American doctor who has been brought over to treat his Aphasia. She is the antithesis of his wife Meiling, fire to ice. And as he is drawn to her nurturing warmth, he becomes more and more alien to his former life.
Li Jing must make a choice: to live in utter isolation while his frighteningly competent wife charges ahead; or escape to a situation where he can communicate his needs in English and leave his family, language, and culture.
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Virginia W. (Cloverdale, CA)
Loss of a common language
Captivating novel about how the loss of a common language in a marriage affects the relationship. Li Jing, injured in an explosion, loses his ability to speak Chinese and withdraws from his wife. He reverts to his first language, English, which Meiling, his wife, does not understand. Meiling does not want to show how her husband's injury has affected her. Both restrain their emotions and remain inscrutable to one another. Dr. Neal, an American neurologist, establishes an emotional connect with Li Jing and helps him express himself in English. Tensions increase between these three characters and suspense ensues regarding how these tensions will be resolved. The book interested me throughout. I think coping with such a serious injury would be difficult in any culture.
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Deborah D. (Old Forge, NY)
Good but lacking
This book begins with an interesting concept. I enjoyed the contrast between languages and characters. Although I enjoyed most of the book I found the ending abrupt and more tragic than the original accident.
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