What are good friends for, if not to share books they've enjoyed! That's how I came to read The Good Earth. It was not only recommended, but loaned to me, by a friend. And...I read it cover to cover without making a single mark in the book! That's not easy for me, you know. I always want to mark off especially poignant passages, or to label examples of recognition, reversal or figures of description for future reference!
Pearl S. Buck, because of her status as missionary kid growing up in China, was well-equipped to elucidate the slice of eastern civilization which she portrays in this novel. I walked away feeling as though I had visited this vastly foreign culture. Buck's exquisite use of language, character, and place beautifully relates the life of Wang Lung, whose ascent to wealth and status parallels what we would deem his tragic moral descent; though it was not seen as such in his un-Gospeled world.
Beautiful and tragic. That about sums it up.
5 comments:
Did you know that Pearl S. Buck wrote many, many other books, both fact and fiction, juvenile and adult, and even some Christmas books and a Chinese cookbook?
I knew this wasn't her only one, but I thought there were only a couple more. I had no idea...and a Chinese cookbook? Get out.
You're a wealth of information, book-loaner-friend!
Just returning the favor, wealth of insight/knowledge-friend!
The Christmas book she wrote was one we just bought last December: "Christmas Day in the Morning" (sorry-I don't know how to underline on blog comments). It is a juvenile book. Very sweet. I ordered some novels from the library. I'll let you know if they are worthwhile.
Reading Buck's "Fourteen Stories" --excellent!!
I guess your habit of writing in books makes using the library hard for you;)
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