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Book Jacket

The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai:
A Novel
by Ruiyan Xu

Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication date: 10/11/2011.
Novels, 352 pp.

Number of reader reviews: 32
Readers' Consensus: 4.0
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First Impressions: Page 5 of 5
Rated 3 of 5 of 5 by Dianne S. (Green Valley, AZ)

The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai
I was drawn to this book by it's subject matter and location. In those aspects I was not disappointed. I was though disappointed in how slow the book started out and how when you thought it was finally going to take off it didn't.

The characters and their relationships were beautifully developed, but I never felt they grew.

The descriptions of Shanghai were enlightening and did make me want to read more.

Overall I think The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai is a good first book and I would read more by this author.

Rated 3 of 5 of 5 by Karen H. (Auburn, MA)

Good writer, plot lacking
I can tell that Ruiyan Xu has a knack for words. Her prose creates a pleasurable read. While I can appreciate the message she is trying to create with the storyline (isolation created by language barriers, inter-personal relationships, communicating without the right words, etc.), the plot was predictable and often cheesey. It didn't read as believable when Li Jing loses his fluency in Chinese. It read as a bad sitcom. I look forward to more of Ruiyan Xu's books, but I hope that she doesn't try so hard the next time. I hope she lets the story develop and doesn't try so hard to shape it in a way that doesn't read smoothly.

Rated 2 of 5 of 5 by avid (Springfield, IL)

amateur
I felt like I was reading a college English assignment, in which the student has been instructed in the mechanics of writing, but just hasn't mastered the nuances of making a story interesting to the reader.

Nothing about this book captivated me; the characters were shallow and inconsistent, and the underlying theme regarding the loss of language was unbelievable. If such a syndrome exists in which a person can be injured in such a way as to maintain the ability to understand but not speak his primary language, while regaining fluency in a language he hasn't used in 20 years, that fact needs to be illuminated in the book because it's just too incomprehensible to buy into otherwise.

If you can get past the effects of the injury, you still need to tolerate characters who behave in improbable ways and a meandering plot that doesn't satisfy, along with an amateur writing style.

I would not recommend this book.

Rated 2 of 5 of 5 by Susan B. (Rutledge, MO)

some goodness, ultimately disappointing
Other than some well-turned phrases and compelling images, I found this novel disappointing. The characters seemed unsympathetic, their actions and words weren't believable, and I didn't feel the deep sense of another culture and locale that can redeem similar otherwise faulty books for me. Throughout I kept hoping that something would click, that it would start to feel more coherent, satisfying or meaningful, but it never did. Because I did enjoy some of the language I would give this author's second novel a try, but I would be hard-pressed to recommend this one.

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