Lost in Translation: A Novel

This story is based on one of the most intriguing mysteries of modern archeology, the disappearance of Peking Man. This fossil discovery of the 1920s was one of the keystones of the regional hypothesis of human evolution. However, additional work on this fossil is impossible because it disappeared in 1941 in the Japanese invasion of China, possibly sunk in a ship in transit to America. The plot of the book is based on the theory of an American archeologist that the fossil remains were actually rescued by the French Catholic philosopher/mystic/ archeologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and spirited away to northwest China, an area where Teilhard had worked. The theory is based on a conversation of the archeologist with his grandfather, who had worked with Teilhard. Thus, this is ostensibly a Quest story, the grail being the fossil. To assist him with his quest, the archeologist hires a young American woman as a translator, the daughter of a racist Texas Congressman. Since we know that Peking Man has not been discovered, this story obviously has to be a shaggy dog tale. So why is it worth reading? The quest simply serves as a backdrop to examine an age-old issue, the differences between the Asian and Western ways of thinking. The key is the translator, a woman enthralled with Chinese culture and looking for love to replace the Chinese man her father rejected. The author appears to have a good grasp of Chinese culture and provides a compelling narrative with interesting characters. But if you want to skip to the end of the mystery and learn what the author provides as a solution to what happened to Peking Man, try Wikipedia.

Excellent fiction writer. An American who studied Chinese at college, t hen went to live there. Her first 3 books are about Chinese food and chefs who share their expertise, with interesting storylines, always with female protagonist. Her 4th book not listed here is about an American blackjazz musician who winds up in Shanghai in the 30's when Communists take over, yet manages to keep working, living on a grand scale (compared to the USA) and finds love. This author is worth watching. I want to go to Portland Oregon and ring her doorbell and ask her to hurry up with whatever she is now writing because she is so good.Any questions, write me at [email protected]

A most inspiring piece of literature. Four persons, from two different countries, set out to search for a historic mystery, united by the writings of Taillehard and the bones of Peking Man. Yet each of them has their own personal search, their own reasons, their own internal struggle to deal with. They encounter great hurdles and difficulties, but in the process, they change and grow. The main themes, touching on the meaning of life and love, have a universal appeal. The Chinese setting, however, anchors the story into a deep and vast reality. The cultural, historical, and linguistic details - drawn from the author's own experiences in China - deliciously enrich the novel. I suspect they are somewhat more difficult for the average reader to grasp, but if you are learning Chinese or have been to China, those details are a treat. I myself have enjoyed this novel while in China.The dislocation the central character, Alice, feels, as an expatriate living in China, never fully accepted - even after 14 years and fluent mastery of the language and culture, touches many of us. Immigrants like myself, who came to the US for college and then stayed, or more generally, people who do not fit in the present society. This writing should appeal to all who have experienced what it means to be "foreign".Given the themes, the depth, and the quality of the writing, I would not call it "fiction" of your normal "airplane reading" variety, but timeless literature on par with 20th century classics.Note about the Kindle Edition: This novel frequently transitions from the point of view of one character to the other, several times within the same chapter, sometimes within the same page. In the print edition, these transitions are indicated by a blank line. The blank lines are all omitted from the Kindle edition, which makes it harder to follow the story, often forcing me to backtrack and try to infer what is going on from the context. It is not unreadable, but I wish Kindle editors are more faithful to the print books. Just to warn you.

My book club recently read Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones and I liked it so much I decided to read more by this author. I picked up Lost in Translation and am thrilled to say that I found this book just as well written and intriguing as I could have hoped.This book tells the story of Alice Mannegan who is running away from her bigoted father who is a congressman, infamous for his "Alice Speech". He held up his young daughter before the television cameras and uttered "My little girl sit next to a colored by in school? Never!".Alice now lives on mainland China and is hired as an interpreter for a paleontologist who is on his way to Inner Mongolia to try to find the remains of Peking Man. He believes that the bones were hidden there by a French priest at the end of World War ll. The director of the Chinese Paleontological Institute approves the venture if only to dispel any proof that the Chinese may be descended from Africans.The novel is fascinating in its historical background of both racism and the myth of Chinese machismo as it related to Western immigration. The book can sometimes be disturbing but it is always entertaining.

Alice Mannegan has come to China seeking a new identity. Her mother died at her birth, and her father is a racist American politician who used her as a pawn in one of his loathsome segregation speeches when she was small, something from which she's never quite recovered. She became captivated by China as a student, became fluent in Mandarin and has lived in the country, largely in Beijing, for several years, working for a pittance as an interpreter (she does get an allowance from her father as well). By night, she roams the bars of China seeking the perfect Chinese man - but with no real success. Until, that is, a job working for an American archaeologist who is determined to find the skeleton of 'Peking Man' discovered by the Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard du Chardin, puts her in contact with a Chinese academic called Lin Shiyang, who accompanies them into the Mongolian wilderness on their expedition. Lin Shiyang has other reasons for being there along with his work - he's hoping to find out what happened to his wife, sent years before for 're-education' in a labour camp near where Alice and the archaeologist Adam are heading. But he soon realizes that, great though his need is to find out what happened to his wife, he's also very attracted to Alice, or 'Mo Ai Li' as she calls herself in China. Alice, meanwhile, begins to suspect that this is the man that she's needed for so long - the man who will allow her to truly participate in Chinese culture, and shrug off her American past. But can she ever do this? And will the father who has already ruined one relationship with a Chinese academic for her strike down this one too?I'm inclined to give this book four stars simply because of the abundance of good material on China, the superb descriptions of the landscape, the food and the hectic pace of life in Beijing, and the fascinating bits of historical information (such as the story of Lin Shiyang's wife, banished to a labour camp for being a woman of integrity). Alice's strenuous attempts to 'become Chinese' - even to following ancient traditions such as ancestor-worship - were poignant and easy to sympathize with, and the historical story of Teilhard du Chardin and his platonic affair with an American artist called Lucille Swan very engrossing - and it was interesting how Mones drew parallels between that story and Alice's own. Lin Shiyang was also a very well-created hero, attractive without being idealized. I finished the book with a much greater interest in China and its culture and history, and wanting to know more about Teilhard du Chardin and Lucille Swan - proof of a good book, I guess.But - there was one big problem for me, and that was the character of Alice, who seemed unbelievably naive in certain regards, and with improbably little self-knowledge. Her relationship with her father Horace was not particularly well realized, I felt - Alice seemed to veer between a rather sentimental 'Daddy's the only person I have' devotion and an equally simplistic repulsion which to me didn't quite make sense. If she was still so horrified by her father's right-wing politics and racism, then why did she continue to take a generous allowance from him? And why did she let him ruin her first engagement, to a man who seemed kind, her intellectual equal and genuinely devoted to her? There was an implication that it was to do with needing to keep her allowance which sounded rather sordid. Perhaps the problem was that Horace Mannegan was a poorly created character in comparison to the Chinese ones - he appeared to be a repellent blend of ruthlessness and sentimentality from which one would have felt most young women would have recoiled, Mones never explained anything about how he'd picked up and maintained such unpleasant racist views, and his illness (I think Mones possibly picked the wrong kind of cancer for this, as did Lionel Shriver with the snooker player in 'The Post-Birthday World') too convenient. I also felt that Alice had a rather sentimental view of China in the end - she never seemed to really address in her own mind either the problems of the Communist regime either under Mao or later, and I found it unbelievable that she didn't realize that her attempts to seemingly sleep with half of China were just another sort of colonialization. In the end, I wanted to shake her for not coming to terms with her past and for refusing to admit that she couldn't be Daddy's devoted little girl and remake herself as a Chinese woman. The ending only offered a limited hope, too, that she might be able to grow up. In the end, I found myself far more interested in the stories of Lin Shiyang and his wife and of Lucille and Teilhard du Chardin than in Alice's post-adolescent angst. And the other American male character, Adam, remained curiously unformed as a character.Not an altogether satisfactory read then, and with a heroine who, despite some likeable episodes, can be decidedly irritating. Still, I was glad to read it, and at best it was superb - certainly an impressive debut, and one that's made me want to read more about China.

The novel is not what I expected... it goes way too deep and too long on China’s history, which makes it a bit boring... if I wanted to learn China history, I would just look for a history book, not a novel.

There is so much history in China that fascinates Westerners. The country has been hidden from us for many years and works of fiction such as this brings alive the old China.

le roman "Lost in translation" répondait, pour moi à tous les critères pour un "good read"; l'histoire en elle-même était originale, les personnages sympathiques, intéressants, les dilemmes pertinents et surtout le fond historique passionnant. L'idée d'être une "étrangère" dans une culture si différente est connue à nous tous, étrangers, moi-même anglo-saxone en France, et le débat sur ce sujet est poursuivi avec perspicacité tout au long du roman. Quant au côté historique, je suis allée rechercher une biographie de Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, dont l'histoire fournit un leit-motif fascinant du roman. La culture chinoise en elle même, l'arrière fond du roman, est également un élément intriguant de ce roman.j'ai recommandé ce roman pour mon groupe de lecture, et j'espère que toutes prendront autant de plaisir que moi dans ce texte qui, d'ailleurs, n'a de commun avec le film que le titre!!

When reviewers hide behind the mask labelled "A customer" we are blocked from examining their other reviews & also from determining if this is the only review they've ever written in their lives. Also, none of these reviewers are listed as having purchased the book (from Amazon). This is highly unusual and raises doubts re: one hidden person writing multiple reviews & packing the ballot box.Since there is variety in the reviews, maybe this 26 out of 26 pattern is due to an Amazon distortion and the reviewers wated to be identified. Amazon should look into this cuz it looks funny as it is.My own vote (under my real name) is 5* to this startling journey of an American woman offering 100% commitment & a willingness to pay any price to become Chinese. It's her tragic fate that she seeks this in a country that wants to destroy the traditional as quickly as possible & imprisons her in the permanent stereotype of foreigner. No amount of "going native" no matter how deep and profound, will synchronize her with the China she is romanticizing in her mind & that she mistakenly hopes will give her a refuge. Her gifted, hard earned senstivity and empathy re: Chinese feelings will be set at naught by the chasm that cannot be bridged, heedless of her endless devotions and accomplishments. Instead of being overtaken by gloom, we rub our eyes at the heroic intensity of her giving the effort everything she has.