Saturday, August 11, 2012

THE LOST AND FORGOTTEN LANGUAGES OF SHANGHAI (RUIYAN XU)



Story Description: 

St. Martin’s Press|October 11, 2011|Trade Paperback|978-0-312-61415-7 

Li Jing, a happily married businessman, is dining at a grand hotel in Shanghai when a gas explosion rips through the building.  A shard of glass pierces Jing’s forehead, obliterating his ability to speak Chinese.  He can form only faltering phrases in the English he spoke as a child in Virginia, leaving him unable to communicate with his wife, Meiling or their young son.  Desperate, the family turns to an American neurologist, Rosalyn Neal, who finds herself as lost as Jing – whom she calls James – in this bewitching city, where the two form a bond that Meiling does not need a translator to understand. 

With gorgeous prose and a dazzling sense of place, The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai introduces a brilliant storyteller, who shows us the power of language in both our public and our private relationships. 

My Review: 

This was an interesting read however I found it to be a bit too long.  The author could have shortened this story and still got her point across.  I felt she went into too much detail and almost kept repeating the same things over and over only in different ways.  I am glad I read the book, it just seemed a bit too long and I was thinking when is the end coming, let’s cut the on and on and get this finished up. 




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