Another interesting book by Pearl S. Buck, this time not an Asian story but one that is taking place in the United States and could happen to anyone. It's more a rich man - poor girl relationship but, like any books by Pearl S. Buck, well written. A good insight into marriage, what makes a good one and what doesn't. And still quite valid today, I think.
I have yet to find a book by Pearl S. Buck that I didn't like.
From the back cover:
"At the turn of the century, an upper-class painter from Philadelphia goes searching for inspiration. He finds his muse on a farm - the farmer’s beautiful and humble daughter. His portrait of her becomes one of his most inspired works, but his passion for the illiterate girl doesn’t stop at the easel: He returns to marry her and settle down to country life - a journey that means bridging enormous gaps between their cultures, breaking from his parents, and creating tension between their friends. Pearl S. Buck compassionately imagines both sides of the complex marriage, and in addition, creates a wonderfully vivid picture of America leading up to the Second World War.
Buck follows one woman's journey through a long-term marriage; its romanticized beginning, jolts of disillusionments and losses, and peace through acceptance and faith; as a metaphor for life."
Find other books by Pearl S. Book that I read here.
Pearl S. Buck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938 "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces".
I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.
I had no idea she wrote so many books - I'm only familiar with The Good Earth & one of her children's books. Great review, Marianne.
ReplyDeleteI know, Carol. That is one of the reasons some people were against her being awarded the Nobel Prize, because she wrote too many books. But they were all fantastic, so what's the problem?
DeleteI´ve read this book, too, when I was very young. I borrowed it from my parent´s bookshelves. I was very fascinated of chinese living and thinking.
ReplyDeleteSame here, Mrs. Calloway. I found them in the library, my parents didn't have that many books. But I am still fascinated by Asian living.
DeleteI've now read your review that you just posted to Read the Nobels. You know what's wrong with the site? Contributors don't get any feedback. No comments, no likes. No discussion about the books between different reviewers of the same book, unless they've cross-posted it at their own blog. It's a pity because talking about books is what we love to do!
ReplyDeleteYou are right with the feedback, Lisa. I have received lots of feedback from others on my site but I also have had trouble even seeing that there is feedback. On my pages, it says "comments" under "posts", that's not there on the Nobel page. I have asked about that ages ago but nothing was changed. Also, we can't just create links that will appear, the host will have to do that and that hasn't been done for ages. I have no idea what to do about that other than going through all my posts there from time to time and see whether there was anything...
DeleteIt's probably been set up that way to reduce the work of moderation, which can be a pain if there's a lot of traffic. But still, it's not very encouraging for contributors. Maybe we should start adding at the bottom where we put 'cross-posted at...' that visitors are welcome to discuss the books there...
ReplyDeleteI am always shocked when I find comments that are really old but it is just not easy to go through all the old posts all the time. Someone might find my very first post by googling for the book but that was years ago.
DeleteI always put "Original Post on Let's Read" with a link and have gotten in touch with some nice other bloggers that way, I think you might be one of them, I don't remember exactly. I will try again to get in touch with Aloi.
Thank you for all the effort you've put into this Marianne, it's very good of you.
ReplyDeleteI'm just as interested in this as you are, Lisa. I love the Nobel Prize winners and this page is dedicated to them.
DeleteYou know what I worry about, and not just this site...
ReplyDeleteBloggers get old and tired and sick or just too busy with a new baby or work, and if they haven't made some kind of arrangement beforehand, the blog just becomes defunct. I wonder if WordPress or Blogger have any kind of support for rescue a blog when this has happened?
Yes, you are totally right. I don't know about WordPress but I'd be totally surprised if Blogger had it. I had some problems recently and wrote to them again and again with no result.
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