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House of Earth #1
The Good Earth
This tells the poignant tale of a Chinese farmer and his family in old agrarian China. The humble Wang Lung glories in the soil he works, nurturing the land as it nurtures him and his family. Nearby, the nobles of the House of Hwang consider themselves above the land and its workers; but they will soon meet their own downfall.
Hard times come upon Wang Lung and his family when flood and drought force them to seek work in the city. The working people riot, breaking into the homes of the rich and forcing them to flee. When Wang Lung shows mercy to one noble and is rewarded, he begins to rise in the world, even as the House of Hwang falls.
Hard times come upon Wang Lung and his family when flood and drought force them to seek work in the city. The working people riot, breaking into the homes of the rich and forcing them to flee. When Wang Lung shows mercy to one noble and is rewarded, he begins to rise in the world, even as the House of Hwang falls.
418 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 2, 1931
7059 people are currently reading
120951 people want to read
About the author
Pearl S. Buck
763 books2,994 followersPearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for The Good Earth, the best-selling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and which won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China" and for her "masterpieces", two memoir-biographies of her missionary parents.
Buck was born in West Virginia, but in October 1892, her parents took their 4-month-old baby to China. As the daughter of missionaries and later as a missionary herself, Buck spent most of her life before 1934 in Zhenjiang, with her parents, and in Nanjing, with her first husband. She and her parents spent their summers in a villa in Kuling, Mount Lu, Jiujiang, and it was during this annual pilgrimage that the young girl decided to become a writer. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, then returned to China. From 1914 to 1932, after marrying John Lossing Buck she served as a Presbyterian missionary, but she came to doubt the need for foreign missions. Her views became controversial during the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy, leading to her resignation. After returning to the United States in 1935, she married the publisher Richard J. Walsh and continued writing prolifically. She became an activist and prominent advocate of the rights of women and racial equality, and wrote widely on Chinese and Asian cultures, becoming particularly well known for her efforts on behalf of Asian and mixed-race adoption.
Buck was born in West Virginia, but in October 1892, her parents took their 4-month-old baby to China. As the daughter of missionaries and later as a missionary herself, Buck spent most of her life before 1934 in Zhenjiang, with her parents, and in Nanjing, with her first husband. She and her parents spent their summers in a villa in Kuling, Mount Lu, Jiujiang, and it was during this annual pilgrimage that the young girl decided to become a writer. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, then returned to China. From 1914 to 1932, after marrying John Lossing Buck she served as a Presbyterian missionary, but she came to doubt the need for foreign missions. Her views became controversial during the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy, leading to her resignation. After returning to the United States in 1935, she married the publisher Richard J. Walsh and continued writing prolifically. She became an activist and prominent advocate of the rights of women and racial equality, and wrote widely on Chinese and Asian cultures, becoming particularly well known for her efforts on behalf of Asian and mixed-race adoption.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 12,441 reviews
February 22, 2010
It's difficult for me to explain how much I hate this book, and even harder to explain why. I don't think it's just because I hated the main character so much, and in this case at least, I don't think it's because of the weirdness that arises from a Westerner writing about a colonized country.
I do know that *part* of my intense dislike for this book comes from how it is viewed by other people (usually non-Chinese). Read the reviews and you'll see one word come up over and over again: "portrait." Says one reviewer, "In addition to lovely, rich writing, the novel provided much-needed Chinese history, class and culture lessons." Am I the only person whose hackles go up when someone refers refers to a novel like a textbook? Of course there is some historical fact in The Good Earth, and in other novels, but I have a serious problem with people conflating (and equating) fiction and history. While there's some truth in the book's portrayal, it perpetuates a lot of stereotypes about the Chinese. What's more, this book has shaped a lot of people's perceptions of China and the Chinese, not necessarily for the better. I know this happens with other cultures--but often to a greater extent with The Good Earth. Do we read Anna Karenina and feel that we now know everything about Russia? Does anyone read Midnight's Children as a straight-up account of Indian history? Yet for some reason, for a lot of people The Good Earth is *it*, the one lesson in Chinese culture and history that they will read in their lives. They end up thinking, "This is how China IS," not "This is a portrayal of how one part of China was at one point in time."
Of course, most of the above complaint about this book has to do with the reactions of the people reading it, not with the book itself. But I think there's something in how the book is pitched, and in the narrative itself, that invites that. As a story of love, partnership, and sacrifice in a marriage and family--this book does well. But it's not THE portrait of China that many readers unfortunately make it out to be.
For more thoughts on this, see my post at the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/celeste...
I do know that *part* of my intense dislike for this book comes from how it is viewed by other people (usually non-Chinese). Read the reviews and you'll see one word come up over and over again: "portrait." Says one reviewer, "In addition to lovely, rich writing, the novel provided much-needed Chinese history, class and culture lessons." Am I the only person whose hackles go up when someone refers refers to a novel like a textbook? Of course there is some historical fact in The Good Earth, and in other novels, but I have a serious problem with people conflating (and equating) fiction and history. While there's some truth in the book's portrayal, it perpetuates a lot of stereotypes about the Chinese. What's more, this book has shaped a lot of people's perceptions of China and the Chinese, not necessarily for the better. I know this happens with other cultures--but often to a greater extent with The Good Earth. Do we read Anna Karenina and feel that we now know everything about Russia? Does anyone read Midnight's Children as a straight-up account of Indian history? Yet for some reason, for a lot of people The Good Earth is *it*, the one lesson in Chinese culture and history that they will read in their lives. They end up thinking, "This is how China IS," not "This is a portrayal of how one part of China was at one point in time."
Of course, most of the above complaint about this book has to do with the reactions of the people reading it, not with the book itself. But I think there's something in how the book is pitched, and in the narrative itself, that invites that. As a story of love, partnership, and sacrifice in a marriage and family--this book does well. But it's not THE portrait of China that many readers unfortunately make it out to be.
For more thoughts on this, see my post at the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/celeste...
February 7, 2020
This is almost spiritual in it's beauty and simplicity.
First published by Pearl Buck in 1931, this later won the Pulitzer Prize and had a significant affect on Buck’s winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938.
The author displayed her genius ability to observe and relate the cultural and day-to-day lives of Chinese peasants at the turn of the century. This American Christian missionary told the story of a rural Chinese man and perceptively embraced vast cultural differences, while at the same time telling a story that is universal in its relevance.
A wonderful book, should be on a short list of books that should be read in a lifetime.
First published by Pearl Buck in 1931, this later won the Pulitzer Prize and had a significant affect on Buck’s winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938.
The author displayed her genius ability to observe and relate the cultural and day-to-day lives of Chinese peasants at the turn of the century. This American Christian missionary told the story of a rural Chinese man and perceptively embraced vast cultural differences, while at the same time telling a story that is universal in its relevance.
A wonderful book, should be on a short list of books that should be read in a lifetime.
September 26, 2015
There is a gush of red, marvelous, and mysterious blood running through my veins. I am part Chinese. A race that has given me these small eyes and this yellowish complexion. A race that I have associated with frugality, hard work, mass production, internet restrictions, and Jackie Chan. China, I've only been there once as a tourist when I was a bit younger. And as much as I'd like to think that I am familiar with the Chinese culture, I have to admit that my knowledge about that is limited and my views about them a bit stereotypical. My Grandma, the real Chinese in the family, still brings Moon Cakes during the Chinese New Year and we do maintain fireworks when celebrating. We also drink herbal tea at home and have this uncanny favoritism for Chinese restaurants during family get-togethers. Aside from that, you could say that I'm really much more familiar with Filipino and Western cultures. So when I picked up this book, I didn't know what to expect. My only assurances were that it won the Pulitzer Prize and the author is a Nobel Prize winner. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck is a beautiful and sweeping story of farmer Wang Lu and his wife O-lan. The Land, the man, and their bond. This beautiful tale left me thirsty and craving for knowledge about this race that resides within me yet has not fully manifested itself. This may sound fancy but I have to say what I feel. This book made me fall in love with China, the Chinese culture, my Chinese roots.
“And roots, if they are to bear fruits, must be kept well in the soil of the land.”
The beauty of this sweeping tale can be understood by hearing its voice, its message. It whispers an earnest plea of the oldest kind, it whispers "Remember the land." The land which has provided for your father, your father's father, and countless generations before him. In this age of technology, internet, GMOs and fast foods, we forget the land. We ignore the Good Earth that has sustained the lives of everyone before us, and lives of this generation.
"If you sell the land it is the end.
And his two sons held him, one on either side, each holding his arm, and he held in his hand the warm loose earth. And they soothed him and they said over and over, the elder son and the second son,
Rest assured, our father, rest assured. The land is not to be sold.
But over the old man's head they looked at each other and smiled."
This book, written in the year 1931, exposes a problem that has continually been growing worse as each generation progresses. Each son telling his father "the land will not be sold" but inwardly smiling at this statement he knows to be untrue. Each son, each daughter, each generation, saying we will save this good earth. But for every tree he plants, he cuts down two more. For every bottle she recycles, she throws out two more. For every plot turned into a garden, there are two plots turned into garbage dumps. Each man, woman, son, daughter thinking about their self, their success apart from the land. They forget that their success lies with the land. They forget the Earth that has been good to them.
“Wang Lung sat smoking, thinking of the silver as it had lain upon the table. It had come out of the earth, this silver, out of the earth that he ploughed and turned and spent himself upon. He took his life from the earth; drop by drop by his sweat he wrung food from it and from the food, silver."
This book touches a lot of other social issues like Feminism, Slavery, Concubinage, Civil Wars, etc. I will not discuss much of these issues and will only say in passing that a different culture enabled them to see nothing wrong with things we in modern times would consider abhorrent and terrifying. Things like selling daughters, feet-binding, polygamy aren't limited to China as these practices can also be found in other Asian countries. But I marvel at how Mrs. Buck was able to make it feel natural despite all these cultural differences. She effected a normalcy on these weird practices that I didn't once think that I was unfamiliar with them. This speaks of her grace and her skill as a writer. She writes with a natural grace and an earnest plea. I am engrossed by her writing, her message, her book.
The Good Earth is a timeless, moving story that depicts the sweeping changes that have occurred not only in the lives of the Chinese people during the last century, but also of everyone who has walked a part of this good earth. She traces the whole cycle of life: its terrors, its passions, its ambitions, its rewards. Her beloved and brilliant novel is a universal tale of the destiny of mankind.
"Out of the Land we came and into it we must go."
“And roots, if they are to bear fruits, must be kept well in the soil of the land.”
The beauty of this sweeping tale can be understood by hearing its voice, its message. It whispers an earnest plea of the oldest kind, it whispers "Remember the land." The land which has provided for your father, your father's father, and countless generations before him. In this age of technology, internet, GMOs and fast foods, we forget the land. We ignore the Good Earth that has sustained the lives of everyone before us, and lives of this generation.
"If you sell the land it is the end.
And his two sons held him, one on either side, each holding his arm, and he held in his hand the warm loose earth. And they soothed him and they said over and over, the elder son and the second son,
Rest assured, our father, rest assured. The land is not to be sold.
But over the old man's head they looked at each other and smiled."
This book, written in the year 1931, exposes a problem that has continually been growing worse as each generation progresses. Each son telling his father "the land will not be sold" but inwardly smiling at this statement he knows to be untrue. Each son, each daughter, each generation, saying we will save this good earth. But for every tree he plants, he cuts down two more. For every bottle she recycles, she throws out two more. For every plot turned into a garden, there are two plots turned into garbage dumps. Each man, woman, son, daughter thinking about their self, their success apart from the land. They forget that their success lies with the land. They forget the Earth that has been good to them.
“Wang Lung sat smoking, thinking of the silver as it had lain upon the table. It had come out of the earth, this silver, out of the earth that he ploughed and turned and spent himself upon. He took his life from the earth; drop by drop by his sweat he wrung food from it and from the food, silver."
This book touches a lot of other social issues like Feminism, Slavery, Concubinage, Civil Wars, etc. I will not discuss much of these issues and will only say in passing that a different culture enabled them to see nothing wrong with things we in modern times would consider abhorrent and terrifying. Things like selling daughters, feet-binding, polygamy aren't limited to China as these practices can also be found in other Asian countries. But I marvel at how Mrs. Buck was able to make it feel natural despite all these cultural differences. She effected a normalcy on these weird practices that I didn't once think that I was unfamiliar with them. This speaks of her grace and her skill as a writer. She writes with a natural grace and an earnest plea. I am engrossed by her writing, her message, her book.
The Good Earth is a timeless, moving story that depicts the sweeping changes that have occurred not only in the lives of the Chinese people during the last century, but also of everyone who has walked a part of this good earth. She traces the whole cycle of life: its terrors, its passions, its ambitions, its rewards. Her beloved and brilliant novel is a universal tale of the destiny of mankind.
"Out of the Land we came and into it we must go."
November 6, 2022
The livelong interest in Asian culture manifests on each page of this unique novel.
Living what one writes
Some authors have the ability to absorb the mentality of cultures they live in and are fascinated by to create works that are simply impossible to copy because they stand unique in their style, language and deep, hidden messages, references and innuendos. Similar to Arthur Goldens' work Memoirs of a Geisha, Buck´s work integrates key elements of Asian mentality, history, and the authentic life of a hard-working farmer and is close to a real historic description, a great alternative to a history book.
Culture forming behaviour
If the setting would be in another culture, the whole behavior of many of the roles of the key characters might the different and the story could develop in a completely different direction. Let´s imagine an author would have lived together with a tribe or studied indigene populations for his whole life or had an interest in an advanced ancient civilization a written a novel about it. There could be more monuments of human history like this one written by historians going the Follett way.
No alternatives
It might be difficult to impossible for an author who has no lifelong interest, ten thousands of hours of thinking and reflecting about the culture and the love to finetune a book until total perfection, to create something like this. And to a certain extent this is great too, because in this way works like this will be very difficult to produce in inflationary, mainstream amounts.
Tropes show how literature is conceived and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
Living what one writes
Some authors have the ability to absorb the mentality of cultures they live in and are fascinated by to create works that are simply impossible to copy because they stand unique in their style, language and deep, hidden messages, references and innuendos. Similar to Arthur Goldens' work Memoirs of a Geisha, Buck´s work integrates key elements of Asian mentality, history, and the authentic life of a hard-working farmer and is close to a real historic description, a great alternative to a history book.
Culture forming behaviour
If the setting would be in another culture, the whole behavior of many of the roles of the key characters might the different and the story could develop in a completely different direction. Let´s imagine an author would have lived together with a tribe or studied indigene populations for his whole life or had an interest in an advanced ancient civilization a written a novel about it. There could be more monuments of human history like this one written by historians going the Follett way.
No alternatives
It might be difficult to impossible for an author who has no lifelong interest, ten thousands of hours of thinking and reflecting about the culture and the love to finetune a book until total perfection, to create something like this. And to a certain extent this is great too, because in this way works like this will be very difficult to produce in inflationary, mainstream amounts.
Tropes show how literature is conceived and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
September 20, 2010
THIS BOOK IS ABOUT THE EARTH AND IT IS GOOD.
![Profile Image for s.penkevich [mental health hiatus].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1735525095i%2F6431467._UX200_CR0%2C11%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
April 29, 2025
‘[T]urning this earth of theirs over and over to the sun, this earth which formed their home and fed their bodies and made their gods.’
Humans owe everything to the Earth. It has given us shelter, food, water, informed the creation of our societies and even today our lives are affected by the cycles of the planet. The Good Earth, the Pulitzer Prize winning book from Nobel Prize winning author Pearl S. Buck is an epic family saga that explores the power of the land and humankinds connection to it. Following Wang Lung from his youth on towards his twilight years, we see how ‘It was true that all their lives depended upon the earth.’ As the land provides—or takes away—family fortunes are made and lost as Buck explores class conflict through a fictionalized time of turmoil and revolt in an agrarian China of the early 1900s. A deeply symbolic and lovely work, The Good Earth reminds us of the frailties of life in an ever-changing world and Buck’s fusion of family (and her look at love and sacrifice) and farmland makes for a wonderful critique of society and reverence for the natural world.
Published to great acclaim in 1931, The Good Earth was adapted into a stage play in 1932 and then again as a film in 1937, Buck was then awarded the Nobel Prize in 1938 securing the story in the canon of “classic” literature. The novel feels familial with works like Knut Hamsun’s Growth of the Soil—another multi-generational story of tending the land amidst a society rapidly changing and progressing—or the Dust Bowl drama’s of John Steinbeck for the commentaries on class struggles of the poor and working class and the way his novel share Buck’s statement that ‘ the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.’ While born in West Virginia, Pearl S. Buck moved to China at four month old, growing up and working as a missionary there until 1935. There is always an interesting discourse over this novel as a look at China due to this, though I always feel a work of fiction such as this is more about the emotional and universal insights on humanity than necessarily a historical learning lesson. Juhea Kim, author of Beasts of as Little Land, discusses this rather effectively in an article for Lit Hub, discussion how historical fiction about people of color (especially those written by women of color, though Buck is white) have mistaken expectations from readers who think they should ‘ come away from a historical novel feeling as though they’ve learned something.’ She disagrees, adding ‘the focus is on how their message relates to our lives today or the timeless human experience, not whether they can be instructive about history,’ which I feel is a good idea to keep in mind when reading this book (scroll to Celeste Ng’s review of this book for more commentary on this and her dislike of the book).
‘They must all starve if the plants starve.’
As the novel follows the cycle of seasons and crops, it too follows the cycle of Wang Lung’s life. The Good Earth begins with Wang Lung as a poor farmer working the land, a land that he will later own and grow rich from renting the land to farmers now beneath him. He has children and the story occasionally follows their lives and follies, yet Wang Lung remains the patriarchal center of both the family and novel. And through it all the land is ever present, binding the lives of the rich and poor, controlling their lives like a god.
The House of Hwang is symbolic of the struggle for wealth and the struggle to hold on to it without falling into destruction or despair. ‘To those at the great house it means nothing, this handful of earth,’ he says in his youth, ‘but to me it means how much!’ Throughout the novel, his connection to the land remains a constant and an indicator into his consciousness as well. When the land yields fruitful crops, he is pleased and thanks the gods. When it does not, or is stricken with drought or flood, he is irritable and ignores the gods (such as when moving south he ignores the statues). In between we see him constantly petitioning the gods with prayer, gods that might as well be the land itself.
‘The rich are always afraid.’
I quite enjoyed the moments of the people rising up and storming the rich house, and we witness how fortunes can fail as Wang Lung begins to buy up the land from the House of Hwang. The people he had to approach to buy a wife and felt fearful of suddenly owe him and this change of fortune swings the book into a new dynamic. Despite his class, we always see Wang Lung put great effort into playing a respectable role befitting his social class. Yet with wealth comes problems and we see him struggle, even morally such as ridding himself of his Uncle by getting him addicted to opium so they lay about stoned and out of his way. Which, damn dude. But family struggles also begin to fracture his life, and while he still enjoys working the land and retaining his connection to it, his sons do not. Thus they do not respect the land, and this detachment becomes felt as a sort of spiritual detachment. ‘It is the end of a family- when they begin to sell their land,’ we are told. Much as the Hwang family dynasty came to a close as they sold to Wang Lung, we learn his own sons plan to sell his land and feel little for it without having that connection to the soil. ‘Out of the land we came and into we must go - and if you will hold your land you can live- no one can rob you of land.’ As always, it is connection to the land that gives life, and the growing absence of his land parallels his aging and impending death.
Though it is important to speak about O-Lan, Wang Lung’s wife as she is equally critical to the novel even though she is thrown off from center focus. O-lan is always making sacrifices for the family, and often is the savior of the family. She makes hard decisions and works just as hard, returning to tend the land moments after giving birth or even killing a daughter she knows they cannot feed (interestingly both scenes seem familiar to similar ones in Hamsun’s Growth of the Soil, though that one spends much more time on consequences from the death of the child). Through O-lan we also see a very patriarchal society that is crushing towards women. While she is strong and resourceful, she is most noted for being ugly and has been purchased as a bride. She later sells her daughter into slavery so they can return to their land, which is pretty horrific. Her only prized possession are the small pearls she obtains during the revolt, juxtaposing the beauty of the pearls with Wang Lung’s perception of her as ugly, and his taking them and giving them to Lotus is symbolic of his thoughtlessness for his wife as well as the disintegration of their relationship. Throughout the novel women are viewed as either property or merely sexual satisfaction, and subjected to great hardships they are expected to bear in silence to uphold the family and the legacy of the men.
‘The kind earth waited without haste until he came to it.’
Understandably a classic, The Good Earth is a moving family saga that captures the struggles of family and our connection with the land. It also represents the passage of time and change, the world always moving forward like the seasons as generations grow and wither like the crops. The language isn't the most poetic but it will still certainly sweep you along and the fact that this book feels just as relevant and lovely today is a true testament to its lasting power.
3.5/5
Humans owe everything to the Earth. It has given us shelter, food, water, informed the creation of our societies and even today our lives are affected by the cycles of the planet. The Good Earth, the Pulitzer Prize winning book from Nobel Prize winning author Pearl S. Buck is an epic family saga that explores the power of the land and humankinds connection to it. Following Wang Lung from his youth on towards his twilight years, we see how ‘It was true that all their lives depended upon the earth.’ As the land provides—or takes away—family fortunes are made and lost as Buck explores class conflict through a fictionalized time of turmoil and revolt in an agrarian China of the early 1900s. A deeply symbolic and lovely work, The Good Earth reminds us of the frailties of life in an ever-changing world and Buck’s fusion of family (and her look at love and sacrifice) and farmland makes for a wonderful critique of society and reverence for the natural world.
Published to great acclaim in 1931, The Good Earth was adapted into a stage play in 1932 and then again as a film in 1937, Buck was then awarded the Nobel Prize in 1938 securing the story in the canon of “classic” literature. The novel feels familial with works like Knut Hamsun’s Growth of the Soil—another multi-generational story of tending the land amidst a society rapidly changing and progressing—or the Dust Bowl drama’s of John Steinbeck for the commentaries on class struggles of the poor and working class and the way his novel share Buck’s statement that ‘ the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.’ While born in West Virginia, Pearl S. Buck moved to China at four month old, growing up and working as a missionary there until 1935. There is always an interesting discourse over this novel as a look at China due to this, though I always feel a work of fiction such as this is more about the emotional and universal insights on humanity than necessarily a historical learning lesson. Juhea Kim, author of Beasts of as Little Land, discusses this rather effectively in an article for Lit Hub, discussion how historical fiction about people of color (especially those written by women of color, though Buck is white) have mistaken expectations from readers who think they should ‘ come away from a historical novel feeling as though they’ve learned something.’ She disagrees, adding ‘the focus is on how their message relates to our lives today or the timeless human experience, not whether they can be instructive about history,’ which I feel is a good idea to keep in mind when reading this book (scroll to Celeste Ng’s review of this book for more commentary on this and her dislike of the book).
‘They must all starve if the plants starve.’
As the novel follows the cycle of seasons and crops, it too follows the cycle of Wang Lung’s life. The Good Earth begins with Wang Lung as a poor farmer working the land, a land that he will later own and grow rich from renting the land to farmers now beneath him. He has children and the story occasionally follows their lives and follies, yet Wang Lung remains the patriarchal center of both the family and novel. And through it all the land is ever present, binding the lives of the rich and poor, controlling their lives like a god.
‘The earth lay rich and dark, and fell apart lightly under the points of their hoes.... Some time, in some age, bodies of men and women had been buried there, houses had stood there, had fallen, and gone back into the earth. So would also their house, some time, return into the earth, their bodies also. Each had his turn at this earth. They worked on, moving together—together—producing the fruit of this earth—speechless in their movement together.’
The House of Hwang is symbolic of the struggle for wealth and the struggle to hold on to it without falling into destruction or despair. ‘To those at the great house it means nothing, this handful of earth,’ he says in his youth, ‘but to me it means how much!’ Throughout the novel, his connection to the land remains a constant and an indicator into his consciousness as well. When the land yields fruitful crops, he is pleased and thanks the gods. When it does not, or is stricken with drought or flood, he is irritable and ignores the gods (such as when moving south he ignores the statues). In between we see him constantly petitioning the gods with prayer, gods that might as well be the land itself.
‘The rich are always afraid.’
I quite enjoyed the moments of the people rising up and storming the rich house, and we witness how fortunes can fail as Wang Lung begins to buy up the land from the House of Hwang. The people he had to approach to buy a wife and felt fearful of suddenly owe him and this change of fortune swings the book into a new dynamic. Despite his class, we always see Wang Lung put great effort into playing a respectable role befitting his social class. Yet with wealth comes problems and we see him struggle, even morally such as ridding himself of his Uncle by getting him addicted to opium so they lay about stoned and out of his way. Which, damn dude. But family struggles also begin to fracture his life, and while he still enjoys working the land and retaining his connection to it, his sons do not. Thus they do not respect the land, and this detachment becomes felt as a sort of spiritual detachment. ‘It is the end of a family- when they begin to sell their land,’ we are told. Much as the Hwang family dynasty came to a close as they sold to Wang Lung, we learn his own sons plan to sell his land and feel little for it without having that connection to the soil. ‘Out of the land we came and into we must go - and if you will hold your land you can live- no one can rob you of land.’ As always, it is connection to the land that gives life, and the growing absence of his land parallels his aging and impending death.
Though it is important to speak about O-Lan, Wang Lung’s wife as she is equally critical to the novel even though she is thrown off from center focus. O-lan is always making sacrifices for the family, and often is the savior of the family. She makes hard decisions and works just as hard, returning to tend the land moments after giving birth or even killing a daughter she knows they cannot feed (interestingly both scenes seem familiar to similar ones in Hamsun’s Growth of the Soil, though that one spends much more time on consequences from the death of the child). Through O-lan we also see a very patriarchal society that is crushing towards women. While she is strong and resourceful, she is most noted for being ugly and has been purchased as a bride. She later sells her daughter into slavery so they can return to their land, which is pretty horrific. Her only prized possession are the small pearls she obtains during the revolt, juxtaposing the beauty of the pearls with Wang Lung’s perception of her as ugly, and his taking them and giving them to Lotus is symbolic of his thoughtlessness for his wife as well as the disintegration of their relationship. Throughout the novel women are viewed as either property or merely sexual satisfaction, and subjected to great hardships they are expected to bear in silence to uphold the family and the legacy of the men.
‘The kind earth waited without haste until he came to it.’
Understandably a classic, The Good Earth is a moving family saga that captures the struggles of family and our connection with the land. It also represents the passage of time and change, the world always moving forward like the seasons as generations grow and wither like the crops. The language isn't the most poetic but it will still certainly sweep you along and the fact that this book feels just as relevant and lovely today is a true testament to its lasting power.
3.5/5
December 6, 2020
“The sun beat down upon them, for it was early summer, and [O-Lan’s] face was dripping with her sweat. Wang Lung had his coat off and his back bare, but she worked with her thin garment covering her shoulders and it grew wet and clung to her like skin. Moving together in a perfect rhythm, without a word, hour after hour, he fell into a union with her which took the pain from his labor. He had no articulate thought of anything; there was only this perfect sympathy of movement, of turning over this earth of theirs over and over to the sun, this earth which formed their home and fed their bodes and made their gods. The earth lay rich and dark, and fell apart lightly under the points of their hoes. Sometimes they turned up a bit of brick, a splinter of wood. It was nothing. Some time, in some age, bodies of men and women had been buried there, houses had stood there, had fallen, and gone back into earth. So would also their house, some time, return into the earth, their bodies also. Each had his turn at this earth…”
- Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth
The Good Earth is a remarkable, entertaining, moving, and unforgettable novel. It held me – from the first page to the last – in its lyrical grasp.
With that said, let me hasten to add that I did not find it remarkable, entertaining, moving, and unforgettable for the same reasons it has been turning up in English classes since its 1931 publication date.
Pearl S. Buck’s classic tale of a Chinese peasant family has been a fixture on syllabuses for decades. It has been used – with the best of intentions, I think – as an introduction to a culture unfamiliar to many Americans, both then and now. The trouble, of course, is that basing your knowledge about a massive country with a history that stretches back over thousands of years is ludicrous, to say the least.
The Good Earth is about a specific spot in China, centered on a single family, and set at a specific (though non-specified) time. It is fiction, and not even historical fiction. The setting is so enveloping, so fully-realized, that it is seductive to say This is China! But it’s not. The Good Earth is no more representative of China than, for instance, Gone With the Wind is representative of the United States.
Thankfully, I never read this in school, meaning I was never subjected to the forced extrapolations that students are required to draw from a novel of this sort. Instead, I read it as a follow-up to Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s The Mountains Sing, a saga about a North Vietnamese family living through Vietnam’s tumultuous 20th Century. I had no real notion of what I was getting into with The Good Earth. I only knew that I wanted to travel somewhere I hadn’t been, and spend some time with people I hadn’t met.
To that end, the striking thing about The Good Earth is how universal a story it tells. This is the quintessential rags-to-riches epic. The central character, Wang Lung, may be Chinese, but he could just as easily be Ragged Dick from a Horatio Alger story. He is a striver, an ambitious farmer who loves the earth, is willing to work hard, and holds a considerable grudge against the House of Hwang, a wealthy family that slights him in a way that he never forgets.
Because this is a story about a man trying to jump into a higher income tax bracket, it follows a familiar arc from humble goodness to raging assholery to potential redemption. Call me crazy (or drunk), but the comparison that jumped into my head was Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, except that famine replaces murder (which, yes, is an important distinction).
When The Good Earth opens, we are introduced to Wang Lung, who lives with his elderly father, eking a living from the earth. It is his wedding day, which for Wang Lung, means going to the House of Hwang to pick up the wife – or “slave” – he has purchased. The woman, whose name is O-Lan, becomes the essential element in Wang Lung’s plan for upward economic mobility.
The Good Earth is written in the third-person, though we are privy to Wang Lung’s thoughts and feelings alone. It is a testament to his complexity that he is allowed to be a jackass, and often.
With the exception of Wang Lung and O-Lan, none of the other supporting characters have much psychological depth or dimension. They lack interior lives. Nonetheless, they are unforgettable, especially the villainous ones. Everyone leaves a mark in your memory.
The Good Earth is a bildungsroman that follows Wang Lung from relative youth, onward through his years. There is not a central plot. Rather, events unfold episodically, over the course of days and months and years. Some incidents are small, some are large, some are absolutely unforgettable. The most memorable set-piece in The Good Earth is a terrible famine that comes on the heels of a punishing drought. Now, most of us have read about famines in history books, whether that is the Ukrainian famine caused by Stalin’s collectivization schemes, the Bengal famine during World War II, or the Great Chinese Famine during the time of Mao. It is one thing to know the overwhelming statistics from those tragedies. It is another thing to have the process recounted in unsparing detail, as Buck does here.
I found The Good Earth to be beautifully written. Buck creates a distinct idiom for the narrative – especially with regard to the dialogue – that is mesmerizing. The verisimilitude here is not the point, as I suspect that repeated phrases such as “such an one” and “hither and dither” may not be perfect recreations of the way that actual Chinese farmers spoke. Yet I appreciated the stylization, and the fact that it was applied consistently. It created a fully-formed world, even if that world should not be accepted as historical fact.
This is a natural place to pivot to the reality that it is not the 1930s anymore.
It just so happened that I read this as a debate about cultural appropriation in literature arose in the wake of Jeanine Cummins’s American Dirt (which followed on the heels of a debate being had in the community of romance writers). Because this discussion – to the extent that trading death threats can be called a discussion – is being had, I feel compelled to state the obvious: Pearl S. Buck was not Chinese.
The daughter of American missionaries, Buck spent the bulk of her life living in China, where she learned the language, made friends, and seemed to genuinely care about the country and her people. To be sure, Buck was not a cultural tourist. Equally true is the fact that she was not Chinese.
I have nothing to add, except to say there is no law – at least in America – keeping an author from writing about whatever he/she/they wants. There is also no law – at least in America – keeping an author’s critics from voicing disapproval and leaving no-read-one-star ratings of the book. If this sounds like a weaselly position to take, well, there is no law – at least in America – against being a weasel.
Worth noting, I suppose, is that unlike James Clavell (Shogun) and Michael Blake (Dances With Wolves), among others, Buck does not tell this story through the eyes of a western intermediary. Westerners are almost completely nonexistent, showing up only on the fringes of a trip to the city, where they are cluelessly-confident bunglers. There is also none of the racial condescension that tends to show up in China-based novels written by non-Chinese authors. Wang Lung is not a stereotyped unskilled laborer, speaking pidgin English and kowtowing to foreign overlords. (I’m thinking, for instance, of The Sand Pebbles, which I otherwise enjoyed, but which employs its Chinese characters as “coolies”).
Since we are dancing around emotionally fraught topics, I should also add that the treatment of women in The Good Earth is deplorable. Low-born girls are sold as slaves or into arranged marriages, while high-born girls have their feet bound and are groomed for refined coquetry. The female role is rather sharply defined as either sexual object or domestic help.
This, it should go without saying, is not a moral worldview that Buck is promoting, but a rendition of things as she saw them. Since there is a long, problematic history of Chinese portrayals (or caricatures) in western culture, this can be troubling. There is always the inherent danger of promoting unfair or inaccurate stereotypes. At the same time, there is no denying that Buck wrote about what she witnessed, and that in a patriarchal milieu such as Wang Lung’s, the general subordination of women was commonplace. Not just in China, obviously, but all over the world.
On the plus side, O-Lan is – in my opinion – the real hero of The Good Earth. She is described as homely and slow-witted, with her chief virtue being her doggedness. At least, that is how she is seen by Wang Lung. Anyone paying the slightest attention, however, will soon learn that she is indomitable, hickory-tough, and twice as clever as Wang Lung on his best day.
Many great novels are described as timeless. They work wherever and whenever you read them. The Good Earth is certainly a classic, but it is not timeless. It is of its time, and the way we view it will continue to vary and change. There are aspects of The Good Earth that will make it a nonstarter for many readers. For all that makes it discomfiting, or potentially discomfiting, I loved it.
Stripped of its trappings, The Good Earth is a moving and humane portrayal of one family’s journey. It is not always happy, and the ending is surprisingly dark. There are elements of King Lear and Anna Karenina, among other influences. But make no mistake, the intimacy, the empathy, and the unforgettable characters are all Pearl S. Buck.
- Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth
The Good Earth is a remarkable, entertaining, moving, and unforgettable novel. It held me – from the first page to the last – in its lyrical grasp.
With that said, let me hasten to add that I did not find it remarkable, entertaining, moving, and unforgettable for the same reasons it has been turning up in English classes since its 1931 publication date.
Pearl S. Buck’s classic tale of a Chinese peasant family has been a fixture on syllabuses for decades. It has been used – with the best of intentions, I think – as an introduction to a culture unfamiliar to many Americans, both then and now. The trouble, of course, is that basing your knowledge about a massive country with a history that stretches back over thousands of years is ludicrous, to say the least.
The Good Earth is about a specific spot in China, centered on a single family, and set at a specific (though non-specified) time. It is fiction, and not even historical fiction. The setting is so enveloping, so fully-realized, that it is seductive to say This is China! But it’s not. The Good Earth is no more representative of China than, for instance, Gone With the Wind is representative of the United States.
Thankfully, I never read this in school, meaning I was never subjected to the forced extrapolations that students are required to draw from a novel of this sort. Instead, I read it as a follow-up to Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s The Mountains Sing, a saga about a North Vietnamese family living through Vietnam’s tumultuous 20th Century. I had no real notion of what I was getting into with The Good Earth. I only knew that I wanted to travel somewhere I hadn’t been, and spend some time with people I hadn’t met.
To that end, the striking thing about The Good Earth is how universal a story it tells. This is the quintessential rags-to-riches epic. The central character, Wang Lung, may be Chinese, but he could just as easily be Ragged Dick from a Horatio Alger story. He is a striver, an ambitious farmer who loves the earth, is willing to work hard, and holds a considerable grudge against the House of Hwang, a wealthy family that slights him in a way that he never forgets.
Because this is a story about a man trying to jump into a higher income tax bracket, it follows a familiar arc from humble goodness to raging assholery to potential redemption. Call me crazy (or drunk), but the comparison that jumped into my head was Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, except that famine replaces murder (which, yes, is an important distinction).
When The Good Earth opens, we are introduced to Wang Lung, who lives with his elderly father, eking a living from the earth. It is his wedding day, which for Wang Lung, means going to the House of Hwang to pick up the wife – or “slave” – he has purchased. The woman, whose name is O-Lan, becomes the essential element in Wang Lung’s plan for upward economic mobility.
The Good Earth is written in the third-person, though we are privy to Wang Lung’s thoughts and feelings alone. It is a testament to his complexity that he is allowed to be a jackass, and often.
With the exception of Wang Lung and O-Lan, none of the other supporting characters have much psychological depth or dimension. They lack interior lives. Nonetheless, they are unforgettable, especially the villainous ones. Everyone leaves a mark in your memory.
The Good Earth is a bildungsroman that follows Wang Lung from relative youth, onward through his years. There is not a central plot. Rather, events unfold episodically, over the course of days and months and years. Some incidents are small, some are large, some are absolutely unforgettable. The most memorable set-piece in The Good Earth is a terrible famine that comes on the heels of a punishing drought. Now, most of us have read about famines in history books, whether that is the Ukrainian famine caused by Stalin’s collectivization schemes, the Bengal famine during World War II, or the Great Chinese Famine during the time of Mao. It is one thing to know the overwhelming statistics from those tragedies. It is another thing to have the process recounted in unsparing detail, as Buck does here.
I found The Good Earth to be beautifully written. Buck creates a distinct idiom for the narrative – especially with regard to the dialogue – that is mesmerizing. The verisimilitude here is not the point, as I suspect that repeated phrases such as “such an one” and “hither and dither” may not be perfect recreations of the way that actual Chinese farmers spoke. Yet I appreciated the stylization, and the fact that it was applied consistently. It created a fully-formed world, even if that world should not be accepted as historical fact.
This is a natural place to pivot to the reality that it is not the 1930s anymore.
It just so happened that I read this as a debate about cultural appropriation in literature arose in the wake of Jeanine Cummins’s American Dirt (which followed on the heels of a debate being had in the community of romance writers). Because this discussion – to the extent that trading death threats can be called a discussion – is being had, I feel compelled to state the obvious: Pearl S. Buck was not Chinese.
The daughter of American missionaries, Buck spent the bulk of her life living in China, where she learned the language, made friends, and seemed to genuinely care about the country and her people. To be sure, Buck was not a cultural tourist. Equally true is the fact that she was not Chinese.
I have nothing to add, except to say there is no law – at least in America – keeping an author from writing about whatever he/she/they wants. There is also no law – at least in America – keeping an author’s critics from voicing disapproval and leaving no-read-one-star ratings of the book. If this sounds like a weaselly position to take, well, there is no law – at least in America – against being a weasel.
Worth noting, I suppose, is that unlike James Clavell (Shogun) and Michael Blake (Dances With Wolves), among others, Buck does not tell this story through the eyes of a western intermediary. Westerners are almost completely nonexistent, showing up only on the fringes of a trip to the city, where they are cluelessly-confident bunglers. There is also none of the racial condescension that tends to show up in China-based novels written by non-Chinese authors. Wang Lung is not a stereotyped unskilled laborer, speaking pidgin English and kowtowing to foreign overlords. (I’m thinking, for instance, of The Sand Pebbles, which I otherwise enjoyed, but which employs its Chinese characters as “coolies”).
Since we are dancing around emotionally fraught topics, I should also add that the treatment of women in The Good Earth is deplorable. Low-born girls are sold as slaves or into arranged marriages, while high-born girls have their feet bound and are groomed for refined coquetry. The female role is rather sharply defined as either sexual object or domestic help.
This, it should go without saying, is not a moral worldview that Buck is promoting, but a rendition of things as she saw them. Since there is a long, problematic history of Chinese portrayals (or caricatures) in western culture, this can be troubling. There is always the inherent danger of promoting unfair or inaccurate stereotypes. At the same time, there is no denying that Buck wrote about what she witnessed, and that in a patriarchal milieu such as Wang Lung’s, the general subordination of women was commonplace. Not just in China, obviously, but all over the world.
On the plus side, O-Lan is – in my opinion – the real hero of The Good Earth. She is described as homely and slow-witted, with her chief virtue being her doggedness. At least, that is how she is seen by Wang Lung. Anyone paying the slightest attention, however, will soon learn that she is indomitable, hickory-tough, and twice as clever as Wang Lung on his best day.
Many great novels are described as timeless. They work wherever and whenever you read them. The Good Earth is certainly a classic, but it is not timeless. It is of its time, and the way we view it will continue to vary and change. There are aspects of The Good Earth that will make it a nonstarter for many readers. For all that makes it discomfiting, or potentially discomfiting, I loved it.
Stripped of its trappings, The Good Earth is a moving and humane portrayal of one family’s journey. It is not always happy, and the ending is surprisingly dark. There are elements of King Lear and Anna Karenina, among other influences. But make no mistake, the intimacy, the empathy, and the unforgettable characters are all Pearl S. Buck.
October 2, 2024
Wang Lung on his wedding day gets up at dawn as usual, a poor Chinese farmer's son, who lives with his widowed old father, but is a very hardworking, strong, and ambitious young man, they occupy, a three room house made of dirt bricks, with a straw thatched roof. After getting his ill father hot water, feeding the ox and doing the rest of the chores, Wang for the second time in the year, takes a bath secretly, with the precious water , ashamed to waste it, for such an unnecessary thing, hiding from his father this dishonorable deed. Putting on his best clothes, going for a long walk later, to the Great House of Hwang, the guard at the gate mocks him, demands a bribe for entrance, everywhere laughs are heard, as the farmer travels through the large luxurious estate, with so many beautiful houses. Amazingly looking objects, the bridegroom sees, never knowing of their existence, meeting O-Lan, his bride, for the first time, she is a tall plain looking woman, an unwanted slave, in the great house, beaten everyday, for no apparent reason, maybe to keep strict discipline there. O-Lan was sold by her poor family at ten, and has worked as a slave ever since, she is about twenty years old... Talking to the Old Mistress of the house, scared of her Eminence, is the awed farmer, all had been arranged by his father, bringing the bride back home, no real wedding ceremony, the old one is happy that he will be a grandfather, hopefully soon, grandsons, the only ones that count in China, in the late 19th Century. The small wedding feast, just five guests, including his lazy uncle, younger brother of his father, his son (the cousin also indolent) and three neighbors, Wang and his woman are both virgins on their wedding night. O-Lan is also hard working, a fine cook, always taking care of the house, the old man , in the fields with her husband, giving birth alone, to many sons (daughters also), and then the same day going back to help with the plowing. Silently, without complaints, a perfect wife, if only she wasn't so bad looking Wang thinks... After good harvests, buying land from the faltering House of Hwang, a famine occurs, people are starving to death, the uncle , his wife and son, are always asking for food and money, from Wang, when there is none, Wang has to decide stay and maybe die or go south , with his family, to a city where food is in abundance and abandon his land , that he loves, maybe forever, his modest dreams crushed, the desperate struggles, the backbreaking work, the scorching Sun beating down, the freezing mornings, cold to the bone, done for nothing ? Spellbinding story of a destitute peasant family, climbing literally from rags to riches and encountering difficulties as the new Twentieth Century arrives. Can they survive the changing, callous world?
January 22, 2020
The story is absorbing and exquisitely written. A memorable classic that is a must for any book club or readers who enjoy well written historical fiction novels.
The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in a Chinese village in the early 20th century. It is the first book in a trilogy that includes Sons and A House Divided. It won the Pulitzer Prize and is considered a classic.
The novel is set in a timeless China and provides no exact dates although the author does provide subtle hints that the novel that it is just before the revolution. This is the story of Wang Lung a poor farmer in a small village who in the opening chapters of the book marries O-lan. They have four children together, three boys and one girl. With hard work and determination Wang Lung and to O-lan he build a life for their family but not without struggles and hardship.
This is my second reading of this classic and when this came up as an online group read I really looked forward to re-visiting this story because when I read a book like this with a reading group I tend to immerse myself more in the story and get a better understanding of the novel from the discussion after reading.
I think the characters are beautifully imagined and the story flows from beginning to end.
A novel that educates the reader about China, the Chinese people and their traditions and customs.
This is a novel that can be read and re-read and still the reader will never tire of its message and characters.
A great discussion novel and a book sits proudly on my real life book shelf.
The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in a Chinese village in the early 20th century. It is the first book in a trilogy that includes Sons and A House Divided. It won the Pulitzer Prize and is considered a classic.
The novel is set in a timeless China and provides no exact dates although the author does provide subtle hints that the novel that it is just before the revolution. This is the story of Wang Lung a poor farmer in a small village who in the opening chapters of the book marries O-lan. They have four children together, three boys and one girl. With hard work and determination Wang Lung and to O-lan he build a life for their family but not without struggles and hardship.
This is my second reading of this classic and when this came up as an online group read I really looked forward to re-visiting this story because when I read a book like this with a reading group I tend to immerse myself more in the story and get a better understanding of the novel from the discussion after reading.
I think the characters are beautifully imagined and the story flows from beginning to end.
A novel that educates the reader about China, the Chinese people and their traditions and customs.
This is a novel that can be read and re-read and still the reader will never tire of its message and characters.
A great discussion novel and a book sits proudly on my real life book shelf.
December 4, 2013
I really, really wish I hadn't google-searched 'foot binding' after reading this book.
In the tradition of a beloved college professor, I give The Good Earth a subtitle which reveals more of the moral stuff which fills it. Ahem. :
The Good Earth: Mo' Money, Mo' Problems.
The Good Earth is packed with cautionary tales of wealth and idleness, tradition and progression, and lust. Wow, the character studies one could do in this book! Just things I noticed:
- The very thing Wang Lung detested, O-lan's unbound feet, actually helped him produce his wealth because she could help him with the land, and do all of the labor in the house. Women with bound feet could move very little because it was excruciating to walk.
- With wealth came idleness and a detachment from the land. The antagonists of the story in the end were Wang Lung's own rich, idle sons. There was very rarely ever 'peace' in Wang Lung's house from the time he became rich to the end of the book. And in the times of peace, we see that Wang Lung blatantly ignored the problems and troubles in his house. Ignorance is bliss when you live with the likes of Lotus. Can I get a holla-back? ;)
In the tradition of a beloved college professor, I give The Good Earth a subtitle which reveals more of the moral stuff which fills it. Ahem. :
The Good Earth: Mo' Money, Mo' Problems.
The Good Earth is packed with cautionary tales of wealth and idleness, tradition and progression, and lust. Wow, the character studies one could do in this book! Just things I noticed:
- The very thing Wang Lung detested, O-lan's unbound feet, actually helped him produce his wealth because she could help him with the land, and do all of the labor in the house. Women with bound feet could move very little because it was excruciating to walk.
- With wealth came idleness and a detachment from the land. The antagonists of the story in the end were Wang Lung's own rich, idle sons. There was very rarely ever 'peace' in Wang Lung's house from the time he became rich to the end of the book. And in the times of peace, we see that Wang Lung blatantly ignored the problems and troubles in his house. Ignorance is bliss when you live with the likes of Lotus. Can I get a holla-back? ;)
February 27, 2011
Treasure of the Rubbermaids 6: Made in China
The on-going discoveries of priceless books and comics found in a stack of Rubbermaid containers previously stored and forgotten at my parent’s house and untouched for almost 20 years. Thanks to my father dumping them back on me, I now spend my spare time unearthing lost treasures from their plastic depths.
I bitch about having to mow my lawn, but when I’m done, I usually sit on my deck and have a few ice cold beers. Then I take a hot shower and get in my car to go to the grocery store where I buy a cart full of food without giving it a second thought.
Chinese farmer Wang Lung (I wanted to type Wang Chung there. Damn you ‘80s!) spends all day doing back breaking labor in his own fields and there’s still barely enough food to keep from starving. His big reward is a cup of hot water in the morning with maybe a few tea leaves in it on special occasions, and he sponges himself off with hot water every couple of months whether he needs it or not.
So maybe I shouldn’t complain about walking around behind a power mower for an hour or two a week during the summer?
The book begins on Wang Lung’s wedding day. His bride, O-Lan, is a slave in the great house of his town, and they’ve never met. He splurges by taking a bath, buying her a couple of peaches, and getting a little pork and meat for their wedding feast which O-Lan prepares. For a honeymoon, they go work in the fields together. This whole section made me laugh thinking about the women on those reality wedding shows like Bridezillas.
Wang Lung and O-Lan make a good couple. They’re both hard working and she soon bears him sons which is kind of important to the Chinese. (And she returns to the fields right after giving birth with no assistance. O-Lan is a dream client for an HMO.) Together their family will go through bad times including droughts and famine, but O-Lan’s steady nature and Wang Lung’s farming skills eventually bring them prosperity.
The one thing that sets Wang Lung apart from other farmers is his constant desire to acquire new land. Part of this is pride, but Wang Lung realizes that owning good farm land is the key to providing the necessary cushion to keep from starving during bad years. Plus, he genuinely loves working his crops and bringing them to harvest. His fierce love of the land is the one constant in his life, but he obviously never went through a real estate crash. (Diversify, Wang Lung! Diversify!)
This book works on a lot of levels. As a depiction of a culture that little was known about when it was published, it’s fantastic. I liked how Buck never comments or judges on things that are kind of horrifying like selling girls for slaves or binding their feet, but treats them as just the way things are to all the characters. She just let the facts speak for themselves. It’s also works as a family drama with trials and tribulations worthy of a soap opera. You could also read it as a plain old rags-to-riches success story.
Despite being set in a time and place so alien to me, the characters still seem very real and relatable despite the cultural differences. Wang Lung doesn’t seem that different from any modern American farmer I’ve known. I think it must be universal that farmers everywhere like to gather and shoot the shit whether it’s at a Chinese tea house or a diner in Kansas.
And when a successful Wang Lung experiences a mid-life crisis and falls for a younger woman, you realize that it’s no different from any modern guy divorcing the wife who stood by him for years. It’s just that the sports car hasn’t been invented yet so Wang Lung can’t go buy one.
This is one of those classics that has an easily readable style and a compelling story that still seems fresh even though it was published over 70 years ago.
The on-going discoveries of priceless books and comics found in a stack of Rubbermaid containers previously stored and forgotten at my parent’s house and untouched for almost 20 years. Thanks to my father dumping them back on me, I now spend my spare time unearthing lost treasures from their plastic depths.
I bitch about having to mow my lawn, but when I’m done, I usually sit on my deck and have a few ice cold beers. Then I take a hot shower and get in my car to go to the grocery store where I buy a cart full of food without giving it a second thought.
Chinese farmer Wang Lung (I wanted to type Wang Chung there. Damn you ‘80s!) spends all day doing back breaking labor in his own fields and there’s still barely enough food to keep from starving. His big reward is a cup of hot water in the morning with maybe a few tea leaves in it on special occasions, and he sponges himself off with hot water every couple of months whether he needs it or not.
So maybe I shouldn’t complain about walking around behind a power mower for an hour or two a week during the summer?
The book begins on Wang Lung’s wedding day. His bride, O-Lan, is a slave in the great house of his town, and they’ve never met. He splurges by taking a bath, buying her a couple of peaches, and getting a little pork and meat for their wedding feast which O-Lan prepares. For a honeymoon, they go work in the fields together. This whole section made me laugh thinking about the women on those reality wedding shows like Bridezillas.
Wang Lung and O-Lan make a good couple. They’re both hard working and she soon bears him sons which is kind of important to the Chinese. (And she returns to the fields right after giving birth with no assistance. O-Lan is a dream client for an HMO.) Together their family will go through bad times including droughts and famine, but O-Lan’s steady nature and Wang Lung’s farming skills eventually bring them prosperity.
The one thing that sets Wang Lung apart from other farmers is his constant desire to acquire new land. Part of this is pride, but Wang Lung realizes that owning good farm land is the key to providing the necessary cushion to keep from starving during bad years. Plus, he genuinely loves working his crops and bringing them to harvest. His fierce love of the land is the one constant in his life, but he obviously never went through a real estate crash. (Diversify, Wang Lung! Diversify!)
This book works on a lot of levels. As a depiction of a culture that little was known about when it was published, it’s fantastic. I liked how Buck never comments or judges on things that are kind of horrifying like selling girls for slaves or binding their feet, but treats them as just the way things are to all the characters. She just let the facts speak for themselves. It’s also works as a family drama with trials and tribulations worthy of a soap opera. You could also read it as a plain old rags-to-riches success story.
Despite being set in a time and place so alien to me, the characters still seem very real and relatable despite the cultural differences. Wang Lung doesn’t seem that different from any modern American farmer I’ve known. I think it must be universal that farmers everywhere like to gather and shoot the shit whether it’s at a Chinese tea house or a diner in Kansas.
And when a successful Wang Lung experiences a mid-life crisis and falls for a younger woman, you realize that it’s no different from any modern guy divorcing the wife who stood by him for years. It’s just that the sports car hasn’t been invented yet so Wang Lung can’t go buy one.
This is one of those classics that has an easily readable style and a compelling story that still seems fresh even though it was published over 70 years ago.
January 16, 2018
I found this to be an incredibly moving and humanistic story, full of anger, tragedy, joy, and the elements that make for a great novel. It's a story any person in any country can relate to. The writing is beautiful and reads like a parable more than straight documentation or history, which was her intent, and a tribute to many of the old Chinese tales I've read (now reading it at an older age, I see a lot of references and tributes to other Chinese works I had not known of before). That is also part of its allure and I don't know if I could have appreciated it as much if I had not read it when I was younger first. =)
February 9, 2017
It's not easy to explain how someone feels when they read a book that feels like it's a part of them, as if it will weave itself into the fabric of a soul and walk with someone through their life.
I save 5 stars for books that move me this deeply. Perhaps that's a bit unfair to all the other awesome books out there that might deserve it, but oh well. That's what 4 star ratings are for; besides, there has to be a way to acknowledge a book that is an all-time favorite and give it the respect it deserves for being so special.
Oh, if only all writers could write as well as Pearl S. Buck! Whether you love or hate this novel (some people feel very strongly about it either way), you can't deny that the author has major talent.
She writes with such descriptive fluidity, and maintains a current of understated humility, where she doesn't let herself get in the way of the story. I'm sorry, but too many people try to show off their skills and it's distracting. Just give us the story already, and let us see for ourselves.
No doubt you already know what this amazing book is about, so there's no need to rehash it since it's been said on here a thousand times. I just wanted to use this review to say how much I love her writing ability, and can't wait to read the other 2 books in the trilogy.
I save 5 stars for books that move me this deeply. Perhaps that's a bit unfair to all the other awesome books out there that might deserve it, but oh well. That's what 4 star ratings are for; besides, there has to be a way to acknowledge a book that is an all-time favorite and give it the respect it deserves for being so special.
Oh, if only all writers could write as well as Pearl S. Buck! Whether you love or hate this novel (some people feel very strongly about it either way), you can't deny that the author has major talent.
She writes with such descriptive fluidity, and maintains a current of understated humility, where she doesn't let herself get in the way of the story. I'm sorry, but too many people try to show off their skills and it's distracting. Just give us the story already, and let us see for ourselves.
No doubt you already know what this amazing book is about, so there's no need to rehash it since it's been said on here a thousand times. I just wanted to use this review to say how much I love her writing ability, and can't wait to read the other 2 books in the trilogy.
September 12, 2007
Written by Pearl S. Buck, an American citizen who spent most of her childhood and much of her adult life in China, in 1931. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. I've heard much about it, mostly about a moment in the story when a woman gives birth and then goes back to work in the fields the same day, and have wanted to read it for quite some time.
I think it's always intimidating to read a classic. They are usually reserved for English classes or intellectuals and I worry that my understanding won't be up to snuff. Here goes:
The story begins on Wang Lung's wedding day. He is a peasant farmer, in China, who goes to the house of a wealthy farmer to pick up the bride his father has arranged for him to have: a plain, unattractive slave whose feet have never been bound and appear hideous to him. Large feet notwithstanding, he quickly learns to admire his hard-working and frugal wife. With their hard work and savings, Wang climbs up the economic ladder by being able to buy additional land to farm on. It's ALL about the land, in Wang's opinion. Land is forever. Land cannot be taken away.
Sure enough, what I heard about birthing and returning to work in the fields the same day was true. O-Lan, Wang's wife, is this incredibly docile, unassuming woman. She's the kind of woman that made me feel like a slacker for sitting around reading a book. Or taking a few weeks off of going to church after having a baby. I longed for more O-Lan, but that wasn't what this book was about. There were moments when I saw her pain, when I understood that in this culture, no one really loved O-Lan, despite her humility and service. Not her parents, who probably considered having a girl a burden and sold her as a slave when she was very young, not her owners, not her husband, and eventually, not even her own children. Wang appreciated her but all his appreciation did was allow him to feel ashamed when he brought a concubine to the home.
The beauty of the book, to me, was the irony that Buck skillfully weaves throughout the story. The rise and fall of the House of Hwang, where O-Lan was a slave, parallels Wang Lung's own story. It's the whole Nephite Pride Cycle! In fact, Buck's style of writing felt a bit like reading the scriptures. It was written dispassionately, even when writing about the character's passion. I also appreciated the Epic nature of the story. There is something to be learned from the successes and the tragedies.
As much as I liked it, and I liked it very much, I wasn't completely smitten. I read some of the original reviews which led to the Pulitzer Award, and most of them focus on the groundbreaking honest look into China. Apparently, up until that time, China, or the Orient, was poorly understood and most of the stories about it were romanticized and mystifying. Buck wrote about the China she saw, the day to day work and customs, the glory of sons to their families and the disregard to their daughters. While many parts of the story transcends time, parts of it felt obsolete and simple. Kind of like the first of anything. An original...yes. Groundbreaking...definitely. But then other books follow suit and readers have a choice of style and characters. I've read several books before that tell the chilling tale of peasant life in China. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan each detail the beauty, simplicity, horror and hardship of pre and post revolutionary China. Perhaps that exposure kept me from truly loving this story. Or maybe my expectations were too high.
No doubt, some of you who did read this in a class and had the opportunity to dissect it with an instructor, see what I am missing. If so...please share.
Until being convinced otherwise, my opinion is that this is a great book. Definitely a classic. But not one of my favorites.
I think it's always intimidating to read a classic. They are usually reserved for English classes or intellectuals and I worry that my understanding won't be up to snuff. Here goes:
The story begins on Wang Lung's wedding day. He is a peasant farmer, in China, who goes to the house of a wealthy farmer to pick up the bride his father has arranged for him to have: a plain, unattractive slave whose feet have never been bound and appear hideous to him. Large feet notwithstanding, he quickly learns to admire his hard-working and frugal wife. With their hard work and savings, Wang climbs up the economic ladder by being able to buy additional land to farm on. It's ALL about the land, in Wang's opinion. Land is forever. Land cannot be taken away.
Sure enough, what I heard about birthing and returning to work in the fields the same day was true. O-Lan, Wang's wife, is this incredibly docile, unassuming woman. She's the kind of woman that made me feel like a slacker for sitting around reading a book. Or taking a few weeks off of going to church after having a baby. I longed for more O-Lan, but that wasn't what this book was about. There were moments when I saw her pain, when I understood that in this culture, no one really loved O-Lan, despite her humility and service. Not her parents, who probably considered having a girl a burden and sold her as a slave when she was very young, not her owners, not her husband, and eventually, not even her own children. Wang appreciated her but all his appreciation did was allow him to feel ashamed when he brought a concubine to the home.
The beauty of the book, to me, was the irony that Buck skillfully weaves throughout the story. The rise and fall of the House of Hwang, where O-Lan was a slave, parallels Wang Lung's own story. It's the whole Nephite Pride Cycle! In fact, Buck's style of writing felt a bit like reading the scriptures. It was written dispassionately, even when writing about the character's passion. I also appreciated the Epic nature of the story. There is something to be learned from the successes and the tragedies.
As much as I liked it, and I liked it very much, I wasn't completely smitten. I read some of the original reviews which led to the Pulitzer Award, and most of them focus on the groundbreaking honest look into China. Apparently, up until that time, China, or the Orient, was poorly understood and most of the stories about it were romanticized and mystifying. Buck wrote about the China she saw, the day to day work and customs, the glory of sons to their families and the disregard to their daughters. While many parts of the story transcends time, parts of it felt obsolete and simple. Kind of like the first of anything. An original...yes. Groundbreaking...definitely. But then other books follow suit and readers have a choice of style and characters. I've read several books before that tell the chilling tale of peasant life in China. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan each detail the beauty, simplicity, horror and hardship of pre and post revolutionary China. Perhaps that exposure kept me from truly loving this story. Or maybe my expectations were too high.
No doubt, some of you who did read this in a class and had the opportunity to dissect it with an instructor, see what I am missing. If so...please share.
Until being convinced otherwise, my opinion is that this is a great book. Definitely a classic. But not one of my favorites.
February 18, 2019
This is one hell of a classic. I kept thinking of The Grapes of Wrath during the first half of this read this and kept wondering at it. Poverty, want, great toil, and then even more want filled these pages. The Good Earth came out 8 years before Steinbeck's masterpiece and yet my biggest wonder is why the Good Earth isn't better known, more well known, than Steinbeck.
Is it because it happens to Chinese characters rather than Okies from Oklahoma?
Let's let that question pass on by for a moment because this book deserves to stand on its own worth. The Earth is indeed the source of all wealth... but definitely not all sorrow. Some, sure, but most of the sorrow in these pages are created by those who do not understand or work the land. This is an important point. As important as that in Candide, but more poignant, emotional, and effective in this novel.
High praise? I think so. And well deserved.
I will like classics of all types for many different reasons, but some are much more impactful to me than others.
This one has that punch. Glorious, wonderful, sad, and so cruel. Life, with tragedy and small bits of joy here and there... but what an epic! This ought to be on the required reading lists except for one small point... it should be enjoyed and cherished without coercion. :)
Is it because it happens to Chinese characters rather than Okies from Oklahoma?
Let's let that question pass on by for a moment because this book deserves to stand on its own worth. The Earth is indeed the source of all wealth... but definitely not all sorrow. Some, sure, but most of the sorrow in these pages are created by those who do not understand or work the land. This is an important point. As important as that in Candide, but more poignant, emotional, and effective in this novel.
High praise? I think so. And well deserved.
I will like classics of all types for many different reasons, but some are much more impactful to me than others.
This one has that punch. Glorious, wonderful, sad, and so cruel. Life, with tragedy and small bits of joy here and there... but what an epic! This ought to be on the required reading lists except for one small point... it should be enjoyed and cherished without coercion. :)
July 1, 2018
شخص بلا أرض، شخص بلا جذور
من الروايات التى شعرت بكم هائل من المشاعر و انا أقرأها، بداية من التعاطف مع ذلك الفلاح البائس في صراعه مع حياة قاسية ،صراع مرير يبدو بلا نهاية مع ظروف أقوى من قدرته البسيطة على مقاومتها، مروراً برحلته الشاقة للحفاظ على أرضه بعد أن أبتسم له القدر أخيراً لينتقل من الفاقة إلى عالم الثراء دون أن يفقد جذوره كفلاح يعرف قيمة الأرض و يقدسها
وصف الكاتبة كان أكثر من رائع و بخاصة في الفصول الأولى من الكتاب و الذى ذكرني برائعة عبدالرحمن الشرقاوي"الأرض" و يبدو أن معاناة البشر مع الارض واحدة مهما أختلف المكان، النهاية أيضاً رغم قسوتها كانت مميزة و معبرة، البطل"وانغ" يتخلى عن زوجته"اولان" بعد أن طرق الثراء بابه متناسياً رحلتها الشاقة معه، ليتخلى أولاده عن الأرض التى طالما أفني حياته في خدمتها، ليطغى بريق المال على أى أنتماء للأرض في نهاية حزينة للعمل لكنها واقعية و مميزة
كتاب رائع و أستحقت عنه الكاتبة الفوز بجائزة نوبل عن جدارة
من الروايات التى شعرت بكم هائل من المشاعر و انا أقرأها، بداية من التعاطف مع ذلك الفلاح البائس في صراعه مع حياة قاسية ،صراع مرير يبدو بلا نهاية مع ظروف أقوى من قدرته البسيطة على مقاومتها، مروراً برحلته الشاقة للحفاظ على أرضه بعد أن أبتسم له القدر أخيراً لينتقل من الفاقة إلى عالم الثراء دون أن يفقد جذوره كفلاح يعرف قيمة الأرض و يقدسها
وصف الكاتبة كان أكثر من رائع و بخاصة في الفصول الأولى من الكتاب و الذى ذكرني برائعة عبدالرحمن الشرقاوي"الأرض" و يبدو أن معاناة البشر مع الارض واحدة مهما أختلف المكان، النهاية أيضاً رغم قسوتها كانت مميزة و معبرة، البطل"وانغ" يتخلى عن زوجته"اولان" بعد أن طرق الثراء بابه متناسياً رحلتها الشاقة معه، ليتخلى أولاده عن الأرض التى طالما أفني حياته في خدمتها، ليطغى بريق المال على أى أنتماء للأرض في نهاية حزينة للعمل لكنها واقعية و مميزة
كتاب رائع و أستحقت عنه الكاتبة الفوز بجائزة نوبل عن جدارة
February 6, 2020
Great book, loved it. It's rags to riches then back to rags. I loved the way the book describes the way of life in China. I highly recommend.
September 8, 2023
ی قصه ی کهن اما هنوز پر تکرار...
خاک خوب نه تنها روایت زحمت و زمینه، که قصه ی ریشه ها و پیشینه هاست.
این کتاب، داستان چند نسل و دیدگاهشون نسبت به زمین، زندگی، ازدواج و ثروت اندوزی رو در بر میگیره.
لانگ که در زندگی، جز کار سنگین، تنگدستی و سیاهی ندیده، به واسطه ی ازدواج با کنیزی روی زمین پا سفت میکنه و سرش رو به سمت آسمون میگیره... گرچه دنیا همیشه به یک اندازه خوشی و نعمت بهش روا نمیداره اما بعد ورود و همت این کنیز، راه موفقیت و اعتبار برای لانگ هموار میشه.
این ثروت، ایده آل های لانگ رو تغییر میده اما باز هم فقط بازگشت به زمین و لمسش، برای اون حس امنیت و تسلی خاطر رو به همراه میاره.
خاک خوب، روایت تراژیک دیگه ای از زندگی رو هم نشون میده، زنی که همیشه تحقیر شده، باورهاش از ارزشمند بودنش از همون ابتدا لگدمال شده، تاب اوردن و پوست کلفتی بهش تحمیل شده، و عادت کرده فراتر از جسم و روحش بار زندگی رو به دوش بکشه، حتی وقتی با رنج و تلاش، به ثبات مالی میرسه، آسایش و رفاه رو حق خودش نمی دونه، و تا پایان عمر، سهمش از زندگی سکوت، حسرت، نگاه و آرزوی خوشبختی خانواده ش میشه.
اما لانگ، با وجود شرمندگی در مقابل سازگاری و فداکاری های این زن، همیشه با نگاهی از بالا اون رو با زن های رنگ و لعاب دار قهوه خانه ها مقایسه میکنه و در نهایت بخشی از حاصل این تلاش بی چشمداشت رو با دست و دلبازی در مسیر هوس هاش و مخفی کردن اصل خودش هزینه میکنه...
نکته ای که ممکن بود با بهتر پرداختن، کمی سطح کتاب رو برای من تغییر بده رد پای جنگ بود، البته اشاره ای کوچک به اعلامیه هایی که علت فقر رو پولدارها میدونست، تکان کوچکی به داستان داد اما در حواشی زندگی لانگ اهمیتشون گم شد:
"عجب جاهل و نفهمی هستی تو که هنوز موهای سرت را می بافی، و مثل دم آویزان می کنی! وقتی باران نیاید که کسی نمیتواند آن را بباراند. اما این به ما چه ربطی دارد؟ اگر پول دار ها آنچه دارند با ما قسمت کنند، باریدن یا نباریدن باران برای کسی تفاوت نمی کرد چون که همه پول و خوراک داشتند."
داستان بدی نداره، روایت ی زندگیه اما این کتاب نکته ای نداره که از بقیه ی کتاب های مشابه متمایزش کنه!
خاک خوب نه تنها روایت زحمت و زمینه، که قصه ی ریشه ها و پیشینه هاست.
این کتاب، داستان چند نسل و دیدگاهشون نسبت به زمین، زندگی، ازدواج و ثروت اندوزی رو در بر میگیره.
لانگ که در زندگی، جز کار سنگین، تنگدستی و سیاهی ندیده، به واسطه ی ازدواج با کنیزی روی زمین پا سفت میکنه و سرش رو به سمت آسمون میگیره... گرچه دنیا همیشه به یک اندازه خوشی و نعمت بهش روا نمیداره اما بعد ورود و همت این کنیز، راه موفقیت و اعتبار برای لانگ هموار میشه.
این ثروت، ایده آل های لانگ رو تغییر میده اما باز هم فقط بازگشت به زمین و لمسش، برای اون حس امنیت و تسلی خاطر رو به همراه میاره.
خاک خوب، روایت تراژیک دیگه ای از زندگی رو هم نشون میده، زنی که همیشه تحقیر شده، باورهاش از ارزشمند بودنش از همون ابتدا لگدمال شده، تاب اوردن و پوست کلفتی بهش تحمیل شده، و عادت کرده فراتر از جسم و روحش بار زندگی رو به دوش بکشه، حتی وقتی با رنج و تلاش، به ثبات مالی میرسه، آسایش و رفاه رو حق خودش نمی دونه، و تا پایان عمر، سهمش از زندگی سکوت، حسرت، نگاه و آرزوی خوشبختی خانواده ش میشه.
اما لانگ، با وجود شرمندگی در مقابل سازگاری و فداکاری های این زن، همیشه با نگاهی از بالا اون رو با زن های رنگ و لعاب دار قهوه خانه ها مقایسه میکنه و در نهایت بخشی از حاصل این تلاش بی چشمداشت رو با دست و دلبازی در مسیر هوس هاش و مخفی کردن اصل خودش هزینه میکنه...
نکته ای که ممکن بود با بهتر پرداختن، کمی سطح کتاب رو برای من تغییر بده رد پای جنگ بود، البته اشاره ای کوچک به اعلامیه هایی که علت فقر رو پولدارها میدونست، تکان کوچکی به داستان داد اما در حواشی زندگی لانگ اهمیتشون گم شد:
"عجب جاهل و نفهمی هستی تو که هنوز موهای سرت را می بافی، و مثل دم آویزان می کنی! وقتی باران نیاید که کسی نمیتواند آن را بباراند. اما این به ما چه ربطی دارد؟ اگر پول دار ها آنچه دارند با ما قسمت کنند، باریدن یا نباریدن باران برای کسی تفاوت نمی کرد چون که همه پول و خوراک داشتند."
داستان بدی نداره، روایت ی زندگیه اما این کتاب نکته ای نداره که از بقیه ی کتاب های مشابه متمایزش کنه!
August 13, 2008
When the earth suffers, women suffer-- when women suffer the earth suffers. I think this is what Buck captured so beautifully in her book. She is a brilliant feminist writer!
Through her character O-lan, Buck makes the argument that all of man's (in the story Wang-lung)increase and prosperity comes because of his reliance on the "good earth", which refers not only to his land but also to his good woman. Without his woman he would have had none of the prosperity he enjoys! The tragedy is that he doesn't appreciate what he has and the woman suffers. My heart just ached for O-lan and she reminded me that so many woman in the world live similar lives. So many women bring forth fruit, raise it and cultivate it, in silence. They are trampled on, destroyed and unappreciated.
Life would cease to exist without the earth, just as life would cease to exist without women.
Through her character O-lan, Buck makes the argument that all of man's (in the story Wang-lung)increase and prosperity comes because of his reliance on the "good earth", which refers not only to his land but also to his good woman. Without his woman he would have had none of the prosperity he enjoys! The tragedy is that he doesn't appreciate what he has and the woman suffers. My heart just ached for O-lan and she reminded me that so many woman in the world live similar lives. So many women bring forth fruit, raise it and cultivate it, in silence. They are trampled on, destroyed and unappreciated.
Life would cease to exist without the earth, just as life would cease to exist without women.
February 27, 2025
Published in 1931, The Good Earth was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. Author Pearl S. Buck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. She was the first American woman to win both the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes. Pearl spent her life working continuously on behalf of underprivileged children.
Although Pearl Buck was born in West Virginia in 1892, she grew up in rural China where her parents were missionaries. The Good Earth is based on her own observations of rural village life in China in the early 20th century.
As I was reading this classic, I had the feeling I was reading a parable, a reminder of important life lessons.
The story is a cycle of life, rags to riches saga of one peasant farmer and his family. We are reminded that our sustenance comes from the earth. There is a deep connection between man and the land. Working hard to acquire wealth is not necessarily a bad thing, but too often the rise to wealth and status can result in the breakdown of traditional values. Obsession with land and wealth can lead to moral corruption.
Pearl focuses also on the role of woman in rural China during this period. The farmer’s wife, O-Lan, is one of the most sympathetic female characters I have come across. With humble beginnings as a slave in the home of a rich family, she is long-suffering and loyal. She works hard. She works in the field, goes inside to give birth, cleans the birthing area, and returns to the field to work some more. Even after the family has acquired some land and wealth, it doesn’t change her. She is strong and clever. However, I kept hoping she would speak up and become a better self-advocate. That was not her way. Her internal dialogue is not revealed, and it would be incredible if an author used this character and wrote a spin narrative for O-Lan the way Percival Everett did for James.
Overall, this was an enjoyable reading experience of an enduring classic.
Although Pearl Buck was born in West Virginia in 1892, she grew up in rural China where her parents were missionaries. The Good Earth is based on her own observations of rural village life in China in the early 20th century.
As I was reading this classic, I had the feeling I was reading a parable, a reminder of important life lessons.
The story is a cycle of life, rags to riches saga of one peasant farmer and his family. We are reminded that our sustenance comes from the earth. There is a deep connection between man and the land. Working hard to acquire wealth is not necessarily a bad thing, but too often the rise to wealth and status can result in the breakdown of traditional values. Obsession with land and wealth can lead to moral corruption.
Pearl focuses also on the role of woman in rural China during this period. The farmer’s wife, O-Lan, is one of the most sympathetic female characters I have come across. With humble beginnings as a slave in the home of a rich family, she is long-suffering and loyal. She works hard. She works in the field, goes inside to give birth, cleans the birthing area, and returns to the field to work some more. Even after the family has acquired some land and wealth, it doesn’t change her. She is strong and clever. However, I kept hoping she would speak up and become a better self-advocate. That was not her way. Her internal dialogue is not revealed, and it would be incredible if an author used this character and wrote a spin narrative for O-Lan the way Percival Everett did for James.
Overall, this was an enjoyable reading experience of an enduring classic.
June 8, 2024
Published in 1931 and made into an Oscar winning movie in 1937, The Good Earth owes much of its popularity to the Depression. There were two options for Americans who didn't leap from a building or leave the country. You could sit in the dark of a cinema and watch rich people in gowns and tuxedos drink champagne and enter into comic/romantic situations OR you could watch the tearjerkers and other tales of even harder lives than your own. The Good Earth falls into the latter category on the screen as well as the page.
Whatever is happening to your bank balance or in your romantic life, this book will touch you.It's a very human story of good and bad fortune and the curve balls you don't see coming. If you want to visit China, go. I did when it first opened up. But don't confuse this novel with a copy of Fodor's or a Lonely Planet guide. Buck lived in China and knew it at a particular time. For something more up to date read Timothy Mo's Sour Sweet about Chinese immigrants in London. You may still order sweet and sour sauce, but won't look at it the same way again.
Whatever is happening to your bank balance or in your romantic life, this book will touch you.It's a very human story of good and bad fortune and the curve balls you don't see coming. If you want to visit China, go. I did when it first opened up. But don't confuse this novel with a copy of Fodor's or a Lonely Planet guide. Buck lived in China and knew it at a particular time. For something more up to date read Timothy Mo's Sour Sweet about Chinese immigrants in London. You may still order sweet and sour sauce, but won't look at it the same way again.
August 1, 2024
پرل باک، نویسندهی امریکایی این کتاب نیمی از زندگیاش را در چین گذرانده، در کودکی همراه پدرش برای زندگی به چین رفته و همین باعث شده با خرافات، آداب و رسوم و راه و رسم زندگی آنها بیشتر آشنا بشه و ظاهرا آثار زیادی در باب فرهنگ چین نوشته و داستانهایی در مورد این کشور داره. این کتاب هم برندهی جایزه نوبل شده. داستان کتاب از آنجایی شروع میشود که ونگ لانگ جوانی است که جای خالی مادرش را در زندگی بسیار حس میکند و همراه پدر پیرش در روستایی زندگی میکند. زندگی آنها با فقر و مشقت همراه هست ولی آنها به یک چیز امید دارند و آن هم زمینشان است. ونگ لانگ ازدواج میکند و طی سالیان ثروتمند میشود؛ البته با سختکوشی و انرژی و وقتی که برای کار کردن و فرزندانش میگذاره و همینطور گذراندن روزهای سختتری که همون روزها باعث رسیدن به این ثروت شده... ولی در وجود هر آدمی سایههای تاریکی وجود داره که وقتی بیدار میشن، خودشم از درک آنها عاجزه... کتاب خوب و روانی بود.
April 25, 2025
The Good Earth may have been published almost a hundred years ago, but it was still an unputdownable read in 2025.
It's just a good story, that's all there is to it. The characters are complex and memorable; the trials they go through are harrowing and heartrending. Even though Buck’s protagonist is a man, much of the story here is the tragic tale of women and girls: the position of wives, the disposability of daughters sold as slaves, the treatment of sex workers, and the pain and horror of foot binding.
O-lan, especially, got to me. She was a brilliant, hardworking, courageous woman, ignored and largely unloved because of her plain appearance. Poor O-lan, she deserved so much better in so many ways.
Buck did something quite brilliant with Wang Lung, her protagonist, because not many authors can introduce me to a man who is, in turn, deeply selfish, occasionally violent, and even, at times, predatory, and still manage to evoke sympathy for them. But she did. Somehow, he worked. His love for his family, especially his disabled daughter, and his deep emotional ties to his land, warmed me to him.
I just can't believe that was the last line of the book. I turned the page, looking for a next chapter that wasn't there. I hadn't even planned to read the sequel with it being less highly-rated, but maybe I have to?
It's just a good story, that's all there is to it. The characters are complex and memorable; the trials they go through are harrowing and heartrending. Even though Buck’s protagonist is a man, much of the story here is the tragic tale of women and girls: the position of wives, the disposability of daughters sold as slaves, the treatment of sex workers, and the pain and horror of foot binding.
O-lan, especially, got to me. She was a brilliant, hardworking, courageous woman, ignored and largely unloved because of her plain appearance. Poor O-lan, she deserved so much better in so many ways.
Buck did something quite brilliant with Wang Lung, her protagonist, because not many authors can introduce me to a man who is, in turn, deeply selfish, occasionally violent, and even, at times, predatory, and still manage to evoke sympathy for them. But she did. Somehow, he worked. His love for his family, especially his disabled daughter, and his deep emotional ties to his land, warmed me to him.
I just can't believe that was the last line of the book. I turned the page, looking for a next chapter that wasn't there. I hadn't even planned to read the sequel with it being less highly-rated, but maybe I have to?
November 1, 2023
رمانى از خانم پرل باك كه با قصه هايي كه در گذشته مادربزرگ ها وپدر بزرگ ها براى نوه ها و بچه ها تعريف مى كردند هم رديف ويكسان است.شيرين،جذاب وكمى پند آموز وديگر هيچ..!
خاك خوب داستان وفادارى وپناه جستن انسان وآدمى است به زمين،به كوشش و تلاش در خاكى كه حاصل آن اميد است.به عشق ومهرى كه از خاك جان مى گيرد وجان مى بخشد.
گويا نويسنده آمريكايي با تجربه زيستن طولانى مدت در كشور چين و جهت شناساندن ومعرفى فرهنگ و ضعيت زندگى آن سرزمين،به نگارش اين رمان همت ورزيد.
رمانى كه اولين نوبل ادبيات براى خانمى از كشور آمريكا را به ازمغان آورد.
كتاب نقل زندگى مردى است از چين در زمانه قبل از انقلاب وبحبوحه سالهاى جنگ داخلى كه با شروع كتاب خانواده اى تشكيل مى دهد و با مشقت وتلاش بر روى خاك وكشاورزى،از فقر وتهيدستى به ثروت ورفاه مى رسد و در اوج رفاه وثروت مغلوب آرزوها و حسرت ها و لذت جوانى نكرده خود مى شود.وسپس همين حسرت ها وعقده هاى دوران ندارى مصائب ومشكلاتى در ميانسالى براي اين كشاورز زحمت كش به بار مى آورد.هرچند
اين رسيدن به رفاه و ثروت و شوكت؛ علاوه بر بخت و اقبال روزگار و كوشش وتلاش مرد كشاورز،بيشتر مديون فداكارى وگذشت همسر اين كشاورز است.همسرى كه با توجه به فرهنگ وقت كشور چين كنيز نام مى گيرد و همچون يك كنيز كار مى كند وجان مى دهد و از خود و زندگى دست مى شورد و براى رشد خانواده ومرد خود حتى دم هم نمى زند. تاجايي كه خواننده فكر مى كند شايد آرزو كردن وحتى فكر كردن به خيالى خوش هم در توان او نيست.زنى و كنيزى كه در اين شكل ونوع انتخاب براى زيستن و زندگى مشترك،علاوه بر تاثير گرفتن از شرايط و جبر روزگار،نقش فرهنگ وآداب وقت كشور چين در نگاه به زن وجنس مونث در آن ديده مى شود.فرهنگ و سننى از كشورى در خاور دور شبيه به ايران ما در همان بازه زمانى،كشورى در ميانه خاورميانه.
و سپس نسلى كه فرزندان اين خانواده هستند و بر حسب شرايط وتغير زمانه وباورها از خاكى كه آنان را برافلاك رساند دورى مى كنند و به عيش ولذت بردن دسترنج پدر مشغول مى شوند.
ترجمه رمان با اينكه مربوط به دهه٤٠شمسى است روان وخوشخوان است ولى ناشرين كتاب مى توانستند براى بعضى از اتفاقات و مسائل با افزودن اندكى توضيحات و اشاره به وقايع و رويدادها در قالب پى نوشت جذابيت بهتر و تصوير روشن ترى براى خواننده كتاب ابجاد نمايند.
خاك خوب داستان وفادارى وپناه جستن انسان وآدمى است به زمين،به كوشش و تلاش در خاكى كه حاصل آن اميد است.به عشق ومهرى كه از خاك جان مى گيرد وجان مى بخشد.
گويا نويسنده آمريكايي با تجربه زيستن طولانى مدت در كشور چين و جهت شناساندن ومعرفى فرهنگ و ضعيت زندگى آن سرزمين،به نگارش اين رمان همت ورزيد.
رمانى كه اولين نوبل ادبيات براى خانمى از كشور آمريكا را به ازمغان آورد.
كتاب نقل زندگى مردى است از چين در زمانه قبل از انقلاب وبحبوحه سالهاى جنگ داخلى كه با شروع كتاب خانواده اى تشكيل مى دهد و با مشقت وتلاش بر روى خاك وكشاورزى،از فقر وتهيدستى به ثروت ورفاه مى رسد و در اوج رفاه وثروت مغلوب آرزوها و حسرت ها و لذت جوانى نكرده خود مى شود.وسپس همين حسرت ها وعقده هاى دوران ندارى مصائب ومشكلاتى در ميانسالى براي اين كشاورز زحمت كش به بار مى آورد.هرچند
اين رسيدن به رفاه و ثروت و شوكت؛ علاوه بر بخت و اقبال روزگار و كوشش وتلاش مرد كشاورز،بيشتر مديون فداكارى وگذشت همسر اين كشاورز است.همسرى كه با توجه به فرهنگ وقت كشور چين كنيز نام مى گيرد و همچون يك كنيز كار مى كند وجان مى دهد و از خود و زندگى دست مى شورد و براى رشد خانواده ومرد خود حتى دم هم نمى زند. تاجايي كه خواننده فكر مى كند شايد آرزو كردن وحتى فكر كردن به خيالى خوش هم در توان او نيست.زنى و كنيزى كه در اين شكل ونوع انتخاب براى زيستن و زندگى مشترك،علاوه بر تاثير گرفتن از شرايط و جبر روزگار،نقش فرهنگ وآداب وقت كشور چين در نگاه به زن وجنس مونث در آن ديده مى شود.فرهنگ و سننى از كشورى در خاور دور شبيه به ايران ما در همان بازه زمانى،كشورى در ميانه خاورميانه.
و سپس نسلى كه فرزندان اين خانواده هستند و بر حسب شرايط وتغير زمانه وباورها از خاكى كه آنان را برافلاك رساند دورى مى كنند و به عيش ولذت بردن دسترنج پدر مشغول مى شوند.
ترجمه رمان با اينكه مربوط به دهه٤٠شمسى است روان وخوشخوان است ولى ناشرين كتاب مى توانستند براى بعضى از اتفاقات و مسائل با افزودن اندكى توضيحات و اشاره به وقايع و رويدادها در قالب پى نوشت جذابيت بهتر و تصوير روشن ترى براى خواننده كتاب ابجاد نمايند.
January 1, 2016
This book is a hard one to rate. I found the book difficult to read emotionally, but knew all the while that it was brilliant.
It was sad to see how Wang Lung's obsession with land ruined his potential for happiness. And it seemed that with more money came more difficult problems.
The cycle of the rich House of Hwang turning into the farmer's house-with all its disgusting rich-people habits--was the most brilliant part of all. And it began with him buying that bit of land even before all the real problems began. I guess I should have realized this was a problem for him when he chose to use his meagre earnings to buy more land than save to feed his little family.
I really despised Wang Lung, while I loved O-lan. How could he not have loved her for what she had given to him, so humbly and silently? Couldn't he find her beauty despite her physical appearance? After O-lan died, I seriously wanted Wang Lung to suffer. I was hoping his house would be robbed like the rich houses that were pillaged by robbers "when the rich get too rich."
I found it ironic, however, at the end when Wang Lung's biggest comforts came in the form of daughters (those daughters that were so useless they called them "slaves" and merely shrugged when they were born)--with his "little fool" as he called her and Peach Blossom, who was like a daughter to him. While his sons caused him nothing but trouble.
There is so much to mention here, I feel like I should have taken notes. But I feel that this is definitely a book worth reading, although it was hard. But the lesson here was learned: lusting after money/land will only bring hardship.
It was sad to see how Wang Lung's obsession with land ruined his potential for happiness. And it seemed that with more money came more difficult problems.
The cycle of the rich House of Hwang turning into the farmer's house-with all its disgusting rich-people habits--was the most brilliant part of all. And it began with him buying that bit of land even before all the real problems began. I guess I should have realized this was a problem for him when he chose to use his meagre earnings to buy more land than save to feed his little family.
I really despised Wang Lung, while I loved O-lan. How could he not have loved her for what she had given to him, so humbly and silently? Couldn't he find her beauty despite her physical appearance? After O-lan died, I seriously wanted Wang Lung to suffer. I was hoping his house would be robbed like the rich houses that were pillaged by robbers "when the rich get too rich."
I found it ironic, however, at the end when Wang Lung's biggest comforts came in the form of daughters (those daughters that were so useless they called them "slaves" and merely shrugged when they were born)--with his "little fool" as he called her and Peach Blossom, who was like a daughter to him. While his sons caused him nothing but trouble.
There is so much to mention here, I feel like I should have taken notes. But I feel that this is definitely a book worth reading, although it was hard. But the lesson here was learned: lusting after money/land will only bring hardship.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 7, 2015
This is an engaging family history, and the way an unsympathetic character mellows is well done. However, the fact that Buck's parents were missionaries is demonstrated by a dated writing style that is reminiscent of the King James Bible. Although not preachy in content, I found the tone increasingly incongruous and irritating, though I was still keen to read to the end of the story.
It tells of Wang Lung's life from young adulthood till old age, in rural China before the second world war, though the protagonists are only vaguely aware of distant upheavals. He is a peasant farmer, in need of a wife, but without the means to be an attractive prospect. He marries an unattractive slave from the big Hwang house (local landowners) and it is one of his best decisions: O-lan is skilled, shrewd, very hardworking, loyal and deferential. He becomes proud of her, and this raises his ambitions. As they have some success, the permeation of the Biblical language makes the reader expect a fall.
As the title implies, land is at the heart of the book and is Wang Lung's true love. He is a farmer who lives for the land and from it, and whatever the ups and downs of his life, he never loses that deep bond. He is nourished by it in every sense and is lost when he is unable to tend it, whether through drought, flood or old age. "It was true that all their lives depended upon the earth." When he has a little silver, he is conscious that it came from the earth so naturally having more land is "the desire of his heart". He even uses earth to hide silver that is not invested in land. "It is the end of a family - when they begin to sell the land. No one can rob you of land." (Sadly untrue in Communist China.) Land is also his escape, "as was his wont when the affairs of his house became too deep for him, he took a hoe and he went to his fields".
Wang Lung is a man of his time and place, so he is autocratic and sees girls as a worthless burden or commodity - and yet he does love his disabled daughter ("poor fool") and, sometimes, care for his wife (though he never fully appreciates all that she does for him). As the book progresses, Buck is keen to contrast Wang Lung's darker side with his gentler one, "he was a man so soft-hearted that he could not kill an ox" and who buys a starving child as a slave, but pets and protects her. Such instances are all the more poignant because they seem slightly transgressive in his world.
Although Wang Lung's love of the land never diminishes, in later sections, the quest for domestic peace within his extended family is a more significant driving force than the quest for land, yet this doesn't derail the narrative or change the characters in an implausible way.
The other, far odder, change in the final third or so is that suddenly most of the characters develop the habit of prefacing almost everything they said with "Well, and". I haven't run a word count, but it suddenly became very noticeable, and remained so, in a way that was distracting and increasingly annoying.
Biblical notes: Here is a passage that sounded very like a New Testament parable:
"'Sell me the little parcel of land that you have and leave your lonely house and come into my house and help me with my land.' And X did this and was glad to do so."
In another section, sex with a prostitute proves unfulfilling in a way that was very reminiscent of Jesus telling the woman at the well that if she drank the water of life she would not be thirsty again.
It tells of Wang Lung's life from young adulthood till old age, in rural China before the second world war, though the protagonists are only vaguely aware of distant upheavals. He is a peasant farmer, in need of a wife, but without the means to be an attractive prospect. He marries an unattractive slave from the big Hwang house (local landowners) and it is one of his best decisions: O-lan is skilled, shrewd, very hardworking, loyal and deferential. He becomes proud of her, and this raises his ambitions. As they have some success, the permeation of the Biblical language makes the reader expect a fall.
As the title implies, land is at the heart of the book and is Wang Lung's true love. He is a farmer who lives for the land and from it, and whatever the ups and downs of his life, he never loses that deep bond. He is nourished by it in every sense and is lost when he is unable to tend it, whether through drought, flood or old age. "It was true that all their lives depended upon the earth." When he has a little silver, he is conscious that it came from the earth so naturally having more land is "the desire of his heart". He even uses earth to hide silver that is not invested in land. "It is the end of a family - when they begin to sell the land. No one can rob you of land." (Sadly untrue in Communist China.) Land is also his escape, "as was his wont when the affairs of his house became too deep for him, he took a hoe and he went to his fields".
Wang Lung is a man of his time and place, so he is autocratic and sees girls as a worthless burden or commodity - and yet he does love his disabled daughter ("poor fool") and, sometimes, care for his wife (though he never fully appreciates all that she does for him). As the book progresses, Buck is keen to contrast Wang Lung's darker side with his gentler one, "he was a man so soft-hearted that he could not kill an ox" and who buys a starving child as a slave, but pets and protects her. Such instances are all the more poignant because they seem slightly transgressive in his world.
Although Wang Lung's love of the land never diminishes, in later sections, the quest for domestic peace within his extended family is a more significant driving force than the quest for land, yet this doesn't derail the narrative or change the characters in an implausible way.
The other, far odder, change in the final third or so is that suddenly most of the characters develop the habit of prefacing almost everything they said with "Well, and". I haven't run a word count, but it suddenly became very noticeable, and remained so, in a way that was distracting and increasingly annoying.
Biblical notes: Here is a passage that sounded very like a New Testament parable:
"'Sell me the little parcel of land that you have and leave your lonely house and come into my house and help me with my land.' And X did this and was glad to do so."
In another section, sex with a prostitute proves unfulfilling in a way that was very reminiscent of Jesus telling the woman at the well that if she drank the water of life she would not be thirsty again.
October 27, 2017
دوستانِ گرانقدر، نویسندهٔ این کتاب <پرل بک>، دورانِ کودکی خویش را در چین گذراند و در همانجا نیز درس خواند.. او عاشقِ سرزمینِ چین است و چین را قلب و روحِ خود میداند... وی توانست فرهنگ و زندگیِ مردمانِ چین را به آمریکاییان و اروپائیان شناسانده و با داستانهایش فرهنگهای این مردمان را به یکدیگر پیوند بزند و در این راه جایزهٔ نوبل را نیز کسب نمود
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در این داستان، <وانگ لونگ> دهقانی است که خود را از زمین میداند و تمامِ زندگی خویش را فدایِ زمین کرده است و عشق دیوانه واری نسبت به زمین دارد ... او حاضر است آب را از فرزندانش دریغ کند، ولی همان آب را به زمین بدهد
همسرِ او <اُو-لان> نام دارد و از آنجایی که پیش از ازدواج با وانگ لونگ کنیز و بردهٔ خانوادهٔ بزرگ و زمیندار <هوانگ> بوده است، بنابراین به زندگی در هر شرایطی با وانگ لونگ، شاد و خرسند است
هوانگِ پیر، رئیس خاندانِ بزرگِ هوانگ، زندگی و دارایی اش به خطر می افتد، چراکه فساد و اعتیاد به تریاک، این خاندان را به بیچارگی میکشاند
وانگ لونگ از این فرصت استفاده کرده و بخشی از زمین هایِ خاندانِ هوانگ را خریداری میکند تا در راهِ پیشرفت، گام بزرگی بردارد... ولی از شانسِ بدِ او، جنگ و انقلاب و شورش و خشکسالی، به یکباره خسارت هایِ زیادی به او و خانواده اش وارد میکند.... آنها پس از تحملِ بدبختی هایِ فراوان، سرانجام در راهِ زمینداری و کشاورزی، به خوشبختی دست پیدا میکنند
پس از گذشتِ زمان، وانگ لونگ پیر میشود و زمینهایش را برای فرزندانش به ارث میگذارد... ولی فرزندانش همچون پدرشان نسبت به زمین عشق و تعصب نداشته و تصمیم میگیرند تا زمینها را به فروش برسانند
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شمارهٔ بعدیِ این رمان، با عنوانِ "پسران خاندانِ وانگ" از آنجایی آغاز میشود که پسرانِ این خانواده: وانگِ بزرگ، وانگ دوم و وانگ سوم یا همان ببر، زمینها را بین یکدیگر تقسیم کرده و داستان به زندگی آنها و نواده هایِ وانگ لونگ، میپردازد
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امیدوارم این ریویو در جهتِ شناختِ این کتاب، کافی و مفید بوده باشه
<پیروز باشید و ایرانی>
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در این داستان، <وانگ لونگ> دهقانی است که خود را از زمین میداند و تمامِ زندگی خویش را فدایِ زمین کرده است و عشق دیوانه واری نسبت به زمین دارد ... او حاضر است آب را از فرزندانش دریغ کند، ولی همان آب را به زمین بدهد
همسرِ او <اُو-لان> نام دارد و از آنجایی که پیش از ازدواج با وانگ لونگ کنیز و بردهٔ خانوادهٔ بزرگ و زمیندار <هوانگ> بوده است، بنابراین به زندگی در هر شرایطی با وانگ لونگ، شاد و خرسند است
هوانگِ پیر، رئیس خاندانِ بزرگِ هوانگ، زندگی و دارایی اش به خطر می افتد، چراکه فساد و اعتیاد به تریاک، این خاندان را به بیچارگی میکشاند
وانگ لونگ از این فرصت استفاده کرده و بخشی از زمین هایِ خاندانِ هوانگ را خریداری میکند تا در راهِ پیشرفت، گام بزرگی بردارد... ولی از شانسِ بدِ او، جنگ و انقلاب و شورش و خشکسالی، به یکباره خسارت هایِ زیادی به او و خانواده اش وارد میکند.... آنها پس از تحملِ بدبختی هایِ فراوان، سرانجام در راهِ زمینداری و کشاورزی، به خوشبختی دست پیدا میکنند
پس از گذشتِ زمان، وانگ لونگ پیر میشود و زمینهایش را برای فرزندانش به ارث میگذارد... ولی فرزندانش همچون پدرشان نسبت به زمین عشق و تعصب نداشته و تصمیم میگیرند تا زمینها را به فروش برسانند
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شمارهٔ بعدیِ این رمان، با عنوانِ "پسران خاندانِ وانگ" از آنجایی آغاز میشود که پسرانِ این خانواده: وانگِ بزرگ، وانگ دوم و وانگ سوم یا همان ببر، زمینها را بین یکدیگر تقسیم کرده و داستان به زندگی آنها و نواده هایِ وانگ لونگ، میپردازد
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امیدوارم این ریویو در جهتِ شناختِ این کتاب، کافی و مفید بوده باشه
<پیروز باشید و ایرانی>
May 23, 2025
Note, May 23, 2025: I've just edited this review to correct a major typo.
Though born in West Virginia, Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (1892-1973) was raised in China, where both of her parents were Southern Presbyterian missionaries. She grew up speaking both Chinese and English, and spent most of her first 40 years in China, though she got her undergraduate and master's degrees in the U.S. Her first husband was also a Presbyterian missionary (they would subsequently divorce in 1935). For a number of years, she served as a missionary herself, mostly teaching English-language literature in a church-run college; but her own religious views, though definitely theistic, were not necessarily evangelically Christian. What forced her resignation as a missionary in 1933, however, was the furor over an article published in Harper's, in which she argued that the institutional mission system of that day fostered domination by foreign missionaries over the native Chinese church, which did a disservice to the latter. When she finally returned to the U.S. in 1934 (apparently because of the collapse of her marriage), she fully intended to return to China later; but was prevented, first by the Sino-Japanese War and World War II, and then by the refusal of the Red Chinese regime to let her back into the country, in retaliation for her outspoken opposition to Communist tyranny.
Buck's background shaped her voluminous fiction. The great majority of it is set in China and focuses, not on expatriate Westerners, but on native Chinese people, whom she learned from both her parents to respect and value as equals. The Good Earth was her second novel, and remains the best known of her works. I read it back around 1969, in a period of my reading life when I was consciously trying to read acknowledged classics in order to make myself into a cultured and “educated” person. Even though that project had a certain naivete to it, this particular read wasn't a bad choice; and I still remember it well enough to do it justice in a review. (And I do have a copy before me for reference!) It's still the only one of her novels I've read, but I've also read her short story (one of many!) “The Frill,” also set in China, and highly recommend it as a powerful indictment of Western racism and snobbery.
When I read the book, I assumed the chronological setting was roughly the author's present. At the time, though, I wasn't aware that it's actually the first book of a multi-generational trilogy. The novel itself also spans several decades of protagonist Wang Lung's life, from his marriage day as a young man to his old age. So we should probably view it as beginning at least in the time of Buck's childhood, if not somewhat before. (Of course, the lot of the peasantry and urban poor in China didn't particularly improve between, say, 1881 and 1931.) Basically, the plot is the story of Wang Lung. who starts out as a very small-scale landowner, and his family, in the course of various vicissitudes, which will take them from the country to the city and back again to the country, and through assorted challenges and dangers. (It's never a boring tale.) But, at least as I experienced and perceived the book, it's as much an introduction to an unfamiliar culture, a different worldview and way of life, as it is a story about specific individuals. I've sometimes said of Buck that she was multicultural before multiculturalism was a buzzword.
Precisely because her multiculturalism wasn't just a fashionable buzzword to be affected, but the result of real-life immersive encounter with another culture and people in it whom she cared about and genuinely understood (and wants us, the readers, to understand), it's much more the genuine article than what sometimes passes for it today. In particular, it's a warts-and-all view, not a rosy whitewash job. She depicts a society that's both very stratified, with grinding poverty on the lower end, and highly sexist and patriarchal, with practices like legalized slavery, arranged marriages, female infanticide, and concubinage, and one that devalues the handicapped. We're also given a good look at the ravages that opium addiction inflicts on a human being (though Buck doesn't bring out the role of the British as the instigators and promoters of the opium trade). Since Wang Lung is our viewpoint character, and there are no significant Westerners as characters here, we see all of these things through Chinese eyes that accept them as normal. This doesn't mean that Buck is trying to indoctrinate us with the attitude that this is all “just part of their culture,” and therefore perfectly fine for “those people.” On the contrary, Buck herself was a staunch advocate of gender equality and women's rights across cultures, an opponent of both abortion and infanticide, and a spokesperson for the worth and social value of the handicapped (her own first child was mentally handicapped, which gave her a lifelong sensitivity to the needs of the marginalized and disabled). Rather, I think what she's doing with this novel is enabling us to see and understand how people raised and socialized into this sort of culture see it, not so that we can see it with the same blinkered view, but so that we can recognize that they don't embrace these attitudes and practices because they're malevolent or perverse, and so that, if we have the opportunity for dialogue and interaction with them, we can go into it with an intelligent understanding of where they're coming from.
Being a Christian reader, I'm apt to pick up on religious content in a novel; and religion was also important to Buck, so it's a topic she seriously addresses here. There are scenes here that drive home, very forcefully, a gut-level understanding of the fundamental difference in religious attitudes between traditional Chinese culture and the Judeo-Christian-influenced mindset of most Westerners in 1931 (or of Western theists even today). Religious Westerners are accustomed to thinking of their physical and material blessings as gifts from God, that we should express thanks for. But when Wang Lung and his wife, walking along outdoors at a time when they're prospering, thoughtlessly talk to each other out loud about how pleased they are with their situation, the realization suddenly hits that the heavenly powers might hear them; so, lest they be smitten down in retaliation for being happy, they immediately fall to bemoaning their supposed afflictions and privations, so that any listening spirits will think that they're already appropriately bad off and can be left alone. For them, the ruling spirits of this world are not benevolent and sympathetic to human flourishing, but more apt to be hostile. Their hopes and agenda for their own well-being are their own. The function of religion is not to discern the good and helpful will of a well-intentioned Creator, and to enable people to line up with it, but rather to cajole or bribe reluctant supernatural powers to line up for a moment with human will and do something to further it. “Gods” aren't worshiped for their moral excellence, but propitiated for whatever humans can get out of them. (And if that turns out to be nothing, humans don't owe them anything, except maybe the deference that fear of their vindictive power might suggest. Another instructive scene here is when our protagonist,in a time of drought-induced famine that prayers totally fail to relieve, goes to the local shrine and surreptitiously spits in the face of the clay idol.)
Christian witness, however, doesn't offer an effective alternative in this novel. Our characters' only encounter with it comes when a missionary thrusts a Chinese-language tract with a picture of the crucified Christ into Wang Lung's hand. Since nobody in the family can read, he concludes that the foreigners are looking for the perpetrators of this outrage against one of their own. (The tract winds up sewn into a shoe to bolster the thin sole.) As an object lesson in how NOT to do constructive mission work, this vignette speaks volumes.
Although Buck was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, and won the Pulitzer Prize for this novel, in general the modern critical community and U.S. reading public hasn't paid her the attention her merits deserve. (In American Literature classes in high school and college, for instance, I don't think she was ever mentioned, and I certainly wasn't exposed to any of her work; I'd heard of this book elsewhere, and sought it out on my own.) This isn't necessarily a cheery, feel-good read; it can be grim and depressing in places. But I'd say it's well worthwhile for serious readers –and indeed, in today's ever-shrinking world, perhaps even more so now than when it was first written.
Though born in West Virginia, Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (1892-1973) was raised in China, where both of her parents were Southern Presbyterian missionaries. She grew up speaking both Chinese and English, and spent most of her first 40 years in China, though she got her undergraduate and master's degrees in the U.S. Her first husband was also a Presbyterian missionary (they would subsequently divorce in 1935). For a number of years, she served as a missionary herself, mostly teaching English-language literature in a church-run college; but her own religious views, though definitely theistic, were not necessarily evangelically Christian. What forced her resignation as a missionary in 1933, however, was the furor over an article published in Harper's, in which she argued that the institutional mission system of that day fostered domination by foreign missionaries over the native Chinese church, which did a disservice to the latter. When she finally returned to the U.S. in 1934 (apparently because of the collapse of her marriage), she fully intended to return to China later; but was prevented, first by the Sino-Japanese War and World War II, and then by the refusal of the Red Chinese regime to let her back into the country, in retaliation for her outspoken opposition to Communist tyranny.
Buck's background shaped her voluminous fiction. The great majority of it is set in China and focuses, not on expatriate Westerners, but on native Chinese people, whom she learned from both her parents to respect and value as equals. The Good Earth was her second novel, and remains the best known of her works. I read it back around 1969, in a period of my reading life when I was consciously trying to read acknowledged classics in order to make myself into a cultured and “educated” person. Even though that project had a certain naivete to it, this particular read wasn't a bad choice; and I still remember it well enough to do it justice in a review. (And I do have a copy before me for reference!) It's still the only one of her novels I've read, but I've also read her short story (one of many!) “The Frill,” also set in China, and highly recommend it as a powerful indictment of Western racism and snobbery.
When I read the book, I assumed the chronological setting was roughly the author's present. At the time, though, I wasn't aware that it's actually the first book of a multi-generational trilogy. The novel itself also spans several decades of protagonist Wang Lung's life, from his marriage day as a young man to his old age. So we should probably view it as beginning at least in the time of Buck's childhood, if not somewhat before. (Of course, the lot of the peasantry and urban poor in China didn't particularly improve between, say, 1881 and 1931.) Basically, the plot is the story of Wang Lung. who starts out as a very small-scale landowner, and his family, in the course of various vicissitudes, which will take them from the country to the city and back again to the country, and through assorted challenges and dangers. (It's never a boring tale.) But, at least as I experienced and perceived the book, it's as much an introduction to an unfamiliar culture, a different worldview and way of life, as it is a story about specific individuals. I've sometimes said of Buck that she was multicultural before multiculturalism was a buzzword.
Precisely because her multiculturalism wasn't just a fashionable buzzword to be affected, but the result of real-life immersive encounter with another culture and people in it whom she cared about and genuinely understood (and wants us, the readers, to understand), it's much more the genuine article than what sometimes passes for it today. In particular, it's a warts-and-all view, not a rosy whitewash job. She depicts a society that's both very stratified, with grinding poverty on the lower end, and highly sexist and patriarchal, with practices like legalized slavery, arranged marriages, female infanticide, and concubinage, and one that devalues the handicapped. We're also given a good look at the ravages that opium addiction inflicts on a human being (though Buck doesn't bring out the role of the British as the instigators and promoters of the opium trade). Since Wang Lung is our viewpoint character, and there are no significant Westerners as characters here, we see all of these things through Chinese eyes that accept them as normal. This doesn't mean that Buck is trying to indoctrinate us with the attitude that this is all “just part of their culture,” and therefore perfectly fine for “those people.” On the contrary, Buck herself was a staunch advocate of gender equality and women's rights across cultures, an opponent of both abortion and infanticide, and a spokesperson for the worth and social value of the handicapped (her own first child was mentally handicapped, which gave her a lifelong sensitivity to the needs of the marginalized and disabled). Rather, I think what she's doing with this novel is enabling us to see and understand how people raised and socialized into this sort of culture see it, not so that we can see it with the same blinkered view, but so that we can recognize that they don't embrace these attitudes and practices because they're malevolent or perverse, and so that, if we have the opportunity for dialogue and interaction with them, we can go into it with an intelligent understanding of where they're coming from.
Being a Christian reader, I'm apt to pick up on religious content in a novel; and religion was also important to Buck, so it's a topic she seriously addresses here. There are scenes here that drive home, very forcefully, a gut-level understanding of the fundamental difference in religious attitudes between traditional Chinese culture and the Judeo-Christian-influenced mindset of most Westerners in 1931 (or of Western theists even today). Religious Westerners are accustomed to thinking of their physical and material blessings as gifts from God, that we should express thanks for. But when Wang Lung and his wife, walking along outdoors at a time when they're prospering, thoughtlessly talk to each other out loud about how pleased they are with their situation, the realization suddenly hits that the heavenly powers might hear them; so, lest they be smitten down in retaliation for being happy, they immediately fall to bemoaning their supposed afflictions and privations, so that any listening spirits will think that they're already appropriately bad off and can be left alone. For them, the ruling spirits of this world are not benevolent and sympathetic to human flourishing, but more apt to be hostile. Their hopes and agenda for their own well-being are their own. The function of religion is not to discern the good and helpful will of a well-intentioned Creator, and to enable people to line up with it, but rather to cajole or bribe reluctant supernatural powers to line up for a moment with human will and do something to further it. “Gods” aren't worshiped for their moral excellence, but propitiated for whatever humans can get out of them. (And if that turns out to be nothing, humans don't owe them anything, except maybe the deference that fear of their vindictive power might suggest. Another instructive scene here is when our protagonist,in a time of drought-induced famine that prayers totally fail to relieve, goes to the local shrine and surreptitiously spits in the face of the clay idol.)
Christian witness, however, doesn't offer an effective alternative in this novel. Our characters' only encounter with it comes when a missionary thrusts a Chinese-language tract with a picture of the crucified Christ into Wang Lung's hand. Since nobody in the family can read, he concludes that the foreigners are looking for the perpetrators of this outrage against one of their own. (The tract winds up sewn into a shoe to bolster the thin sole.) As an object lesson in how NOT to do constructive mission work, this vignette speaks volumes.
Although Buck was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, and won the Pulitzer Prize for this novel, in general the modern critical community and U.S. reading public hasn't paid her the attention her merits deserve. (In American Literature classes in high school and college, for instance, I don't think she was ever mentioned, and I certainly wasn't exposed to any of her work; I'd heard of this book elsewhere, and sought it out on my own.) This isn't necessarily a cheery, feel-good read; it can be grim and depressing in places. But I'd say it's well worthwhile for serious readers –and indeed, in today's ever-shrinking world, perhaps even more so now than when it was first written.
August 26, 2016
I couldn't put this book down. It was very informative about pre-revolutionary Chinese culture. But even more than that, it was an interesting emotional journey. In the beginning, Wang Lung's character seems so simple and kinda static, albeit respectable. But as the novel progresses, his character becomes more and more complex, more and more human. It was hard for me to really define my opinion of him when it was all over. It wasn't as simple as just hating him because there was also a part of him that was good, even in the end. That's what makes him human. I think that feeling is the result of the peek Buck gives us into Wang Lung's mind during difficult decisions.
I think we all wanted to get more of O-lan. Obviously we all sympathize with her and, despite her unlikeability to pretty much everyone in the novel, she is extremely likeable and respectable to us as modern western readers. But I think the fact that we DON'T get to be more involved with her has meaning in itself. She was considered insignificant despite the fact that all of her contributions are arguably the most significant. As readers we were only allowed to see the surface of O-lan's character, just as everyone in her society saw--it's all they cared to see and really, it's all they believed there was. I think it's very clever writing on Buck's part.
I think we all wanted to get more of O-lan. Obviously we all sympathize with her and, despite her unlikeability to pretty much everyone in the novel, she is extremely likeable and respectable to us as modern western readers. But I think the fact that we DON'T get to be more involved with her has meaning in itself. She was considered insignificant despite the fact that all of her contributions are arguably the most significant. As readers we were only allowed to see the surface of O-lan's character, just as everyone in her society saw--it's all they cared to see and really, it's all they believed there was. I think it's very clever writing on Buck's part.
August 17, 2024
خیلی کتاب تلخی بود برام.
هرچقدر به صفحات پایانی میرسیدم تلختر میشد،اما خیلی دوستش داشتم داستان آروم و ملایم پیش میرفت.
اولین تجربه ی خواندنی ام از این نویسنده بود و خیلی لذت بردم.
حیفه که تجدید چاپ نمیکنن من از فیدیبو خوندم که خیلی سختم بود.
هرچقدر به صفحات پایانی میرسیدم تلختر میشد،اما خیلی دوستش داشتم داستان آروم و ملایم پیش میرفت.
اولین تجربه ی خواندنی ام از این نویسنده بود و خیلی لذت بردم.
حیفه که تجدید چاپ نمیکنن من از فیدیبو خوندم که خیلی سختم بود.
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