Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: I don't know how accurately she portrayed China, the language, the people, etc. and frankly, I don't care. All I know is that couldn't put the book down. I love books with strong characters who are searching for understanding of themselves and the meaning of their lives, who struggle, are not perfect, but don't quit the journey. This struggle was embedded in a plot that was fascinating, plausible, and that had an ending that was not pat but feasible and satisfying. I can't wait to read more of this novelist's works.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: I feel sorry for all those who gave this book bad reviews. If you wanted to read a fact based book, then stick to NONfiction. If you want to escape to different and exotic cultures and people, then "Lost in Translation" is the book for you. The story is very well written, with enough of tension, action, and romance to make you want to finish the book in one sitting. I found the main character very well rounded. Early on Mones depicts her as someone running from a past into a fantasy world the main character created in her mind. Throughout the story the character has to work out for herself this misconception she has with the culture and it's people, and therefore find her true self. She also learns she cannot run from her problems.The novel was very entertaining (which is what a FICTION novel is expected to do) and deserves five stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent debut for Nicole Mones
Review: I have a confession to make. I grabbed this off the bookshelf because I thought a movie of the same title was based on this. When I saw it (the story) was based in China, I only thought Coppola might have modified the story a bit so she can film in Japan. Well, it turns out I was wrong! The book has nothing to do with the movie. This book, apparently, is Nicole Mones' first attempt at novelwriting. And I have to say she did a good job. The whole story and parallelism of Alice, Dr. Spencer and the Peking Man was well done and very original. Pacing was a bit slow though and I found myself struggling a bit to finish the book. And the ending could have been better. Mones' lines are very good though. Natural and not out-of-place and unnecessary. It's a good first attempt but there is still room for improvement. But it's still a good read, especially if you like reading about other countries and cultures.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent debut for Nicole Mones
Review: I have a confession to make. I grabbed this off the bookshelf because I thought a movie of the same title was based on this. When I saw it (the story) was based in China, I only thought Coppola might have modified the story a bit so she can film in Japan. Well, it turns out I was wrong! The book has nothing to do with the movie. This book, apparently, is Nicole Mones' first attempt at novelwriting. And I have to say she did a good job. The whole story and parallelism of Alice, Dr. Spencer and the Peking Man was well done and very original. Pacing was a bit slow though and I found myself struggling a bit to finish the book. And the ending could have been better. Mones' lines are very good though. Natural and not out-of-place and unnecessary. It's a good first attempt but there is still room for improvement. But it's still a good read, especially if you like reading about other countries and cultures.
Rating: 
Summary: great and also terrible
Review: I think my favorite thing about this book is that Ms. Mones transports you into China. She made her characters have all these twists to them. It's a slow start, especially if you're not into archaeology, but she makes it approachable and leaves out too many terms that would make it too dry. She gives enough to let Spencer have some credibility. And she made him very human. I liked Alice/Ai-li. She was an interesting character to watch as she dealt with all these different people. Her beliefs. Her desire to be Chinese. All in all, a book completely worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: In response to Ms. Xie's October 2000 review,
Review: I totally disagree, beginning with Ms. Xie's mention of J.D. Salinger's essay carrying more literary weight than Ms. Mones' novel, Lost in Translation. Typically overated and overhyped, Salinger is larger than life (why?), most especially regarding that snoozefest 'Catcher in the Rye'. Ms. Mones' work was thoroughly appealing and fascinating as it offered exotic accounts of both modern-day and ancient-day China as seen through a caucasian's eyes. I could relate to this character, especially her hopeless romantic/sensual side which Ms. Xie didn't appreciate. It seems only right that if a character falls in love with her surroundings, she would also fall in love with its people. Alice was a woman of great passion - one can understand her depth of feeling for China. And as for the comment regarding the small amount of information gathered - - I don't believe the novel was intended as a historical reference piece. I, and all of my friends who read it, felt quite sure that we picked up a bit of knowledge regarding Chinese culture, politics, and Peking Man. What a great ride!!
Rating:
Summary: Never found a more relevant book.
Review: In this book there are a few issues considered "main". The one that i found most relevant to me personally was the struggle between the main character ALICE and her desire for a man of a different culture. I find myself in this very position in my own country because of my "western" appearance and my secret desire for "eastern" men. It is not common for a white woman to date an Asian man and i felt very similar feelings to that of the main character. She was much stronger in the way she dealt with the discrimination and i admired her for that. the other issues of PEKING MAN did not seem relevant to me at all! i was just absolutely astounded and amazed i had actually found such a book! if anyone else knows of other novels with similar themes i would much appreciate hearing about it!
Rating:
Summary: Weird but educational.
Review: Let me begin by saying that I did not enjoy the heroine of this novel. She's very vain and seeks only Chinese men for her love conquests. In fact, it kind of creeped me out how much she only focused on Chinese men. The only redeeming thing about this novel was that it taught some information about the Chinese cultural practices of mourning a family member, drinking tea, eating, and speaking Chinese in a respectful manner to other Chinese people. However, I think I'm just going to stick with reading Pearl S. Buck novels, because unlike Pearl Buck, the heroine/author of this novel was way too much of a poseur. The whole time you're reading this book you get the feeling that the heroine/author is trying to convince you that she was Chinese in a previous life. Well, she didn't convince me of this and she was way too cheesy in her approach.
Rating:
Summary: Connecting within and without
Review: The key to this novel lies in its epigraph, a quotation from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French anthropologist and priest whose explorations of fossil hominids in China in the early 20th century forms the backdrop for this ambitious novel. "...it would seem that we have only got to look at ourselves in order to understand the dynamic relationships existing between the within and the without of things at a given point in the universe. In fact so to do is one of the most difficult of all things." Mones's novel is not only an anthropological, quasi-Indiana Jones search for relics (in this case, the remains of Peking Man), but it is also a novel about its main character's search to make the complicated connections de Chardin speaks about in the quotation. Alice is an American interpreter living in China in an unspecified time period close to the present. Alienated from her Congressman father because of his overt racism, Alice seeks to leave America behind and become Chinese. As she joins the search for the skeleton of Peking Man, Alice confronts her own demons. The book works at more than one level, but never fully succeeds as a thriller or as a character study. Nonetheless, the title captures quite well the difficulties of trying to move between cultures, never being sure what has been lost in translation. In fact, as wenavigate between thewithin and the without, don't we all lose something in translation, an insight the book portrays rather well. This is a novel worth reading and worth discussing with a book group.
Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC
Review: This book is a cannot put down, compelling read. It is one of the best books I've read in so many ways. The characters are fantastic, and so real. The historical aspects are presented in such a fascinating way --sculpted into the story so well. It is also a lesson in an entirely different culture. I hope Nicole Mones writes many more books -- though the research and attention to detail that went into this one must have taken years. There were so many plots and subplots in this book -- it is one I can invision myself picking up again at some point.
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