Lost in Translation by Nicole Mones
May. 30th, 2008 08:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snugglekitty(This is the first of the many books I picked up during my library spree. Despite the name and setting, it is not related to the movie starring Bill Murrary.)
This book compelled me. The front cover shows the naked back of a woman. The back cover describes the book as erotic and haunting. Alice Mannegan hides from her past and her family connections in China. She works as an interpreter, and has illicit liasions with Chinese men who never learn her real name. Then an American archeologist seeks her services. He speaks no Chinese, but he is on the trail of a missing artifact that could change the historical record.
"A few hours later, at the shift change down in the hotel lobby, Second Night Clerk Huang told First Morning Clerk Shen that the foreigner Mo Ai-li had left on her bicycle just before midnight.
'Ah, then I'll watch for her return.'
'Around dawn.'
'Yes, around dawn.' First Morning Clerk Shen smiled to himself. That was the time Mo Ai-li always came back. Her face would be soft and her yin would be satisfied -- for a while. Aiya, the outside people! So strange and secretive about their coupling. So entertaining to watch." p 83
Mones' writing reminded me of AS Byatt's writing in Possession. There is a similar feel, although the quotes from Teilhard de Chardin and Lucile Swift are not woven in as skillfully as were the quotes from the writers in Posession - possibly because they are real and not just made up for the occaision. This novel is steeped in a sense of place - the China of now, the China of fifty years past, and the China of the Cultural Revolution. I read it in less than 12 hours. It would be a great book to read while on the plane to another country. Four stars.
This book compelled me. The front cover shows the naked back of a woman. The back cover describes the book as erotic and haunting. Alice Mannegan hides from her past and her family connections in China. She works as an interpreter, and has illicit liasions with Chinese men who never learn her real name. Then an American archeologist seeks her services. He speaks no Chinese, but he is on the trail of a missing artifact that could change the historical record.
"A few hours later, at the shift change down in the hotel lobby, Second Night Clerk Huang told First Morning Clerk Shen that the foreigner Mo Ai-li had left on her bicycle just before midnight.
'Ah, then I'll watch for her return.'
'Around dawn.'
'Yes, around dawn.' First Morning Clerk Shen smiled to himself. That was the time Mo Ai-li always came back. Her face would be soft and her yin would be satisfied -- for a while. Aiya, the outside people! So strange and secretive about their coupling. So entertaining to watch." p 83
Mones' writing reminded me of AS Byatt's writing in Possession. There is a similar feel, although the quotes from Teilhard de Chardin and Lucile Swift are not woven in as skillfully as were the quotes from the writers in Posession - possibly because they are real and not just made up for the occaision. This novel is steeped in a sense of place - the China of now, the China of fifty years past, and the China of the Cultural Revolution. I read it in less than 12 hours. It would be a great book to read while on the plane to another country. Four stars.