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A review by thebobsphere
A Lover's Discourse by Xiaolu Guo
5.0
Xiaolu Guo’s A Lovers Discourse is named after a Roland Barthes book of the same name. Whether this is a tribute or homage, I do not know as I have not read the Barthes book. I have read many Xiaolu Guo books though and A Lover’s Discourse shares a good number of hallmarks found in her novels.
The main protagonist is a Chinese national, who managed to win a scholarship to the UK in order to pursue her Masters. In the process she meets a half German/ English man and they start going out with each other.
The focal point in this book is language and it’s varieties. I’ll start with the most obvious one.
Like Xiaolu Guo’s first novel, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers , the main protagonist struggles with the English language, the expressions, the meanings of certain words and when to put them into context. I noticed that the place names cause a lot of confusion. Additionally her boyfriend knows how to speak German and English so the couple have, what I call, ‘Language Clashes’ , that his there are some specific words in Chinese, which cannot be translated in English. The main protagonist’s partner does agree that certain German words cannot be translated. Yet when the narrator expresses frustration, the partner shrugs it off, causing mild anger. Incidentally, to create more breakdowns, the setting of the book is a Britain gearing for Brexit, something which also is a cause of confusion for the narrator.
Art is a language, which is treated. The narrator’s dissertation is an ethnography about a group of Chinese families which replicate major artworks perfectly. Although we say that the arts are a form of expression, does that still happen when artists copy famous works or does it been language can be easily cheapened? The partner is an architect and in his case he enthuses over certain structures which do not interest the narrator – is the language of art only accessible to those who can relate to it?
Then there is music. The narrator recalls an episode in her life involving a discman, which does shape her future. Again, to ask another question; can art have a profund effect on the audience, in a subconscious way?
A Lover’s Discourse formed part of the 2020 Goldsmiths Prize Shortlist and I was surprised, after all this is an accessible novel which can be read in a couple of hours. Looking back this is quite a rich book. One could see it as a brainer version of Xiaolu Guo’s debut but it’s also proof at how she manages to create a flowing novel and still pack an intellectual punch.
The main protagonist is a Chinese national, who managed to win a scholarship to the UK in order to pursue her Masters. In the process she meets a half German/ English man and they start going out with each other.
The focal point in this book is language and it’s varieties. I’ll start with the most obvious one.
Like Xiaolu Guo’s first novel, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers , the main protagonist struggles with the English language, the expressions, the meanings of certain words and when to put them into context. I noticed that the place names cause a lot of confusion. Additionally her boyfriend knows how to speak German and English so the couple have, what I call, ‘Language Clashes’ , that his there are some specific words in Chinese, which cannot be translated in English. The main protagonist’s partner does agree that certain German words cannot be translated. Yet when the narrator expresses frustration, the partner shrugs it off, causing mild anger. Incidentally, to create more breakdowns, the setting of the book is a Britain gearing for Brexit, something which also is a cause of confusion for the narrator.
Art is a language, which is treated. The narrator’s dissertation is an ethnography about a group of Chinese families which replicate major artworks perfectly. Although we say that the arts are a form of expression, does that still happen when artists copy famous works or does it been language can be easily cheapened? The partner is an architect and in his case he enthuses over certain structures which do not interest the narrator – is the language of art only accessible to those who can relate to it?
Then there is music. The narrator recalls an episode in her life involving a discman, which does shape her future. Again, to ask another question; can art have a profund effect on the audience, in a subconscious way?
A Lover’s Discourse formed part of the 2020 Goldsmiths Prize Shortlist and I was surprised, after all this is an accessible novel which can be read in a couple of hours. Looking back this is quite a rich book. One could see it as a brainer version of Xiaolu Guo’s debut but it’s also proof at how she manages to create a flowing novel and still pack an intellectual punch.