Alphabet Authors ~ B is for Buck

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

I might not do it exactly as he does but I will try to get to all the letters of the alphabet over time.

I was contemplating to take Bill Bryson for this letter but he writes (or rather wrote) non-fiction books, and I decided to stick to non-fiction. But there are letters where you find many more authors and it is always going to be hard to decide for the one you like most.

Pearl S. Buck has always been a special author for me. She was probably one of the first "grown-up" authors, no, the very first "grown-up" author I ever read. And certainly the first Nobel Prize winner, maybe that's why I still like to read them.

Pearl S. Buck wrote a lot of books about China, where she grew up as the daughter of a missionary. She must have written at least a hundred but I only read a handful of them. However, I believe she was a brilliant writer and had a lot of stories to tell,

- "East Wind: West Wind" - 1930
- "The Good Earth" (House of Earth Trilogy #1) - 1931 - ILK
- "The First Wife and Other Stories" - 1933
- "Sons" (House of Earth Trilogy #2) - 1932
- "The Mother"- 1933
- "A House Divided" (House of Earth Trilogy #3) - 1935
- "The Exile" - 1936
- "The Patriot" - 1939
- "Portrait of a Marriage" - 1945
- "Pavilion of Women" - 1946
- "Peony" - 1948
- "Kinfolk" - 1949
- "Love and the Morning Calm" - 1951

She has also written a few non-fiction books:
- "My several worlds: A Personal Exile" - 1954
- "Imperial Woman" - 1956
- "A Bridge for Passing" - 1961
- "The Story Bible" - 1971

Facts about Pearl S. Buck:
Born    26 June 1892 Virginia, USA
Died    6 March 1973 (aged 80) Vermont, USA
Buried in Pennsylvania, USA
A 5¢ Great Americans series postage stamp was issued by the United States Postal Service
A statue of the author stands in front of the former residence at Nanjing University
She appears on the £10 note of the Bank of England.

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.

* * *

This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Buck, Pearl S. "Portrait of a Marriage"

Buck, Pearl S. "Portrait of a Marriage" - 1945

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.

Buck, Pearl S. "Love and the Morning Calm"

 

Buck, Pearl S. "Love and the Morning Calm" - 1951

Like many of Pearl S. Buck's books, I read this many years ago. Although the story of the two sisters can be a bit dated, it shows what it's like when two different cultures meet, how people who grow up in one sometimes have a very difficult time fitting into another.

And that is a topic that is more current today than ever before.

From the back cover (re-translated by me):

"They grew up in Korea, the two sisters Deborah and Mary; the active Christianity of their missionary parents and the ancient wisdom teachings of the East formed their world view. When they, one seventeen, the other eighteen years old, arrive in New York, they appear to their relatives like flowery creatures from another planet, bewildering and alienating - just as they themselves are bewildered and alienated by the strange mysteries that American life throws at them. It is an encounter portrayed with great grace and a humour almost mischievous between East and West, which Pearl S. Buck has made the subject of this little novel. But behind the grace and the mischievousness stands a very serious concern, because the quiet work of the two sisters, carried by selfless concern for the fate of their fellow human beings, in their new environment, like a pure, clear mirror, reveals all the hollow, meaningless nothingness of our own self-centeredness on existence. A story to think about, presented in the most entertaining form."

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.

Buck, Pearl S. "The Patriot"

Buck, Pearl S. "The Patriot" - 1939

Pearl S. Buck was always a great writer of historical fiction. Here, she talks about the problems between China and Japan during Chiang Kai-Chek's time and the Sino-Japanese war.

A mixed marriage brings two families together, and nobody can tell the story of two cultures clashing better than the Nobel Prize winning author.

The history intermingles with the lives of the protagonists - it would, of course, and we can see how politics influence the family and how their reactions influence their lives.

As all books by Pearl S. Buck, a great tale of different cultures.

From the back cover:

"A Chinese dissident is torn between love and country in this novel from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Good Earth.

When Wu I-wan starts taking an interest in revolution, trouble follows: Winding up in prison, he becomes friends with fellow dissident En-lan. Later, his name is put on a death list and he’s shipped off to Japan. Thankfully, his father, a wealthy Shanghai banker, has made arrangements for his exile, putting him in touch with a business associate named Mr. Muraki. Absorbed in his new life, I-wan falls in love with Mr. Muraki’s daughter, and must prove he is worthy of her hand. As news spreads of what the Japanese army is doing back in China, I-wan realizes he must go back and fight for the country that banished him."

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.

Buck, Pearl S. "A Bridge for Passing"

Buck, Pearl S. "A Bridge for Passing" - 1961

This is arguably one of the author's most personal books. She talks not only about her stay in Japan to witness the shooting of "The Big Wave", but above all about the death of her husband and how she is trying to come to terms with it.

Ultimately, she finds solace in Japan, the people and country are very helpful.

But the story of the film adaptation of her book is also very interesting and probably offered the author some distraction in these difficult times.

From the back cover:

"While in Japan to observe the filming of one of her novels, Pearl Buck was informed that her husband had died. This book is the deeply affecting story of the period that immediately followed - the grief, fears, doubts, and readjustments that a woman must make before crossing the bridge that spans marriage and widowhood."

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.

Buck, Pearl S. "Kinfolk"

Buck, Pearl S. "Kinfolk" - 1949

A story that tells us about the question everyone who has lived in a different country asks themselves, especially those that are born in another world than their parents or who moved there when they were little. Do I belong to the country where I live or to the country that my passport shows.

This is a story about a Chinese family in New York who moves "back" to China. My children have lived in different countries all their lives, the youngest wasn't even born in Germany. And while the difference between several European countries is probably not as large as that between countries from different continents, I know they don't exactly feel as belonging to a certain country, they are simply "European".

This is not so easy for the chldren of Dr. Liang, they are American but their ancestors are Asian, and they have to discover the difference between those two countries.

As any of Pearl S. Buck's books, this is a highly interesting book about a culture that is quite foreign to us. But she has depicted it so well, as always. The characters are so alive and every single one of them shows us their life.

From the back cover:

"Kinfolk is the story of a Chinese family. Dr. Liang moves to America in search of a better life, but his children long to return to China. Each responds to their new life in China differently, providing rich insight into the struggles between Eastern and Western culture, and the differences between generations.

A tale of four Chinese-American siblings in New York, and their bewildering return to their roots
In Kinfolk, a sharp dissection of the expatriate experience, Pearl S. Buck unfurls the story of a Chinese family living in New York. Dr. Liang is a comfortably well-off professor of Confucian philosophy, who spreads the notion of a pure and unchanging homeland. Under his influence, his four grown children decide to move to China, despite having spent their whole lives in America. As the siblings try in various ways to adjust to a new place and culture, they learn that the definition of home is far different from what they expected."

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.

Buck, Pearl S. "My several worlds"

Buck, Pearl S. "My several worlds: A Personal Exile" - 1954

I read this book ages ago and don't know why I never reviewed it. It left a vivid memory about Pearl S. Buck and her life. She belongs to my list of favourite authors, she was actually the first grown-up author I read and therefore occupies a special place in my heart.

In her autobiography, she writes just as well as in her novels where she manages to show us Chinese life as if we lived there ourselves. And here she becomes a close acquaintance of us, if not even a friend.

I know there was a controversy about her award of the Nobel Prize for Literature but that might have been because many men couldn't see a woman getting the award. So they had to find a reason why this was wrong. But her biographies are truly masterpieces and her descriptions of peasant life in China truly epic and rich. There certainly have been laureates who didn't deserve the prize, Pearl S. Buck isn't one of them.

She was a remarkable woman and writer.

From the back cover:

"Autobiography of Pearl S Buck. A memoir of the life of the first female Nobel Laureate for Literature, who was also a world citizen and a major humanitarian, Pearl (Sydenstricker) Buck (1892-1973) three quarters of the way through her life. Published by the John Day Company to whose president, Richard John Walsh (1886-1960), she was then married, the book was successful and temporarily revived her waning reputation. The China oriented writer Helen Foster Snow described her partnership with John Day and Walsh as 'the most successful writing and publishing partnership in the history of American letters.' The firm had published everything she'd written since their marriage in 1935. Her biographer, Professor Peter Conn, describes the book as 'a thickly textured representation of the Chinese and American societies in which she had lived.' Friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, cultural ambassador between China and America, tireless advocate for racial democracy and women's rights and founder of the first international adoption agency, this is a book by and about a special American citizen of the twentieth century."

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.

#ThrowbackThursday. The Good Earth and Sons

Buck, Pearl S. "The Good Earth" - 1931
Buck, Pearl S. "Sons" - 1932

The first and second volume in the "Good Earth Trilogy", the third one is "A House Divided".

I absolutely love this story. The description of all sorts of people in pre-revolutionary China is really interesting, Pearl S. Buck manages to describe every single person and event so vividly, you feel like you're almost there.

Read more on my original posts here and here.

Photo ABC

I am a member of a photo group where we get a prompt for every day and have to take an appropriate picture. Because we had the alphabet one month, I decided to do a book theme.

I always added either the link to my blog or to the books. I have decided to post a picture every week so my booky friends can enjoy them, as well.

P is for ... Pulitzer Prize. The first one I ever read.

Pearl S. Buck "The Good Earth" 

All the Pulitzer Prize winning books I read can be found here.

Buck, Pearl S. "The First Wife and Other Stories"

Buck, Pearl S. "The First Wife and Other Stories" - 1933

Some wonderfully described stories about Chinese life up until the beginning of the 20th century. The author talks about the clash between the traditional Chinese and the Western way, something she must have experienced herself as the daughter of a US missionary in China. The title story talks about a guy who goes abroad and doesn't really relate to his coutry wife anymore so that he divorces her and takes a new one, something that would not have happened before.

But there are also other subjects in the various other stories, some talk about the revolution and what was going on at that time, the devastations after a great flood, daily life in China at the time.

This is a great book to see what changes in tradition and life can do to people. Not just in China. If I compare my chidlren's life with that of my grandparents, there is a huge difference and I don't think my grandparents would have understood any of it. Pearl S. Buck saw this when living in China, she saw how people struggled with the newness of everything adn how a lot of them couldn't cope with it.

A nice collection of stories.

Contents:
Old and new:

• The first wife
• The old mother
• The frill
• The quarrel
• Repatriated
• The rainy day

Revolution:

• Wang Lung
• The communist
• Father Andrea
• The new road

Flood

• Barren spring
• The refugees
• Fathers and mothers
• The good river 

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.

Buck, Pearl S. "The Mother"

Buck, Pearl S. "The Mother" - 1933

I have been reading Pearl S. Buck novels ever since I was a teenager, so about 40 years now. But there are still so many of her books I haven't read.

I came across this little gem in a used bookshop.

As it happens so often in her books, the author does not reveal the names of the children as this seems to have been quite normal in China. But in this case, there isn't even another name involved. The only one we come across, "the mother" is sometimes called Mrs. Lee.

However, the names don't matter. We get to know a poor peasant woman and her family, her thoughts and her feelings, her hardships, how she leads her life, how she is forced to look after her family, how all her life is just work and responsibility.

I have seldom read a book that goes so deep into the heart of the protagonist. We get to know the traditions in a little village in China, the way girls are married off into another family.

If you want to learn about pre-revolutionary rural China, this is the right book. If you want to read more books by Pearl S. Buck, check all my posts about her here. I suggest you start with "The Good Earth".

From the back cover:

"Within this novel Ms. Buck paints the portrait of a poor woman living in a remote village whose joys are few and hardships are many. As the ancient traditions, which she bases her philosophies upon, begin to collide with the new ideals of the communist era, this peasant woman must find a balance between them and deal with the consequences."

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.

Buck, Pearl S. "Imperial Woman"

Buck, Pearl S. "Imperial Woman" - 1956

A mixture between fiction and non-fiction, a biography but also a novel. Tzu Hsi, the last Empress in China. Her life and her death.

Pearl S. Buck manages, as always, to describe the life of this extraordinary city in a gripping way. A fascinating description of a world long gone, the way people lived in the Far East.

It is difficult to understand in our modern world how families could send their daughters to become a concubine of any man, even if he was to become the emperor of a vast dynasty.

I really love this book that resonates with me even years after I read it the last time.

From the back cover:

"Imperial Woman is the fictionalized biography of the last Empress in China, Ci-xi, who began as a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor and on his death became the de facto head of the Qing Dynasty until her death in 1908. Buck recreates the life of one of the most intriguing rulers during a time of intense turbulence. Tzu Hsi was born into one of the lowly ranks of the Imperial dynasty. According to custom, she moved to the Forbidden City at the age of seventeen to become one of hundreds of concubines. But her singular beauty and powers of manipulation quickly moved her into the position of Second Consort. Tzu Hsi was feared and hated by many in the court, but adored by the people. The Empress's rise to power (even during her husband's life) parallels the story of China's transition from the ancient to the modern way."

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.

Buck, Pearl S. "Pavilion of Women"

Buck, Pearl S. "Pavilion of Women" - 1946

I have always loved the books by Pearl S. Buck. She writes about a world that is so different from the one I know. And every single one of her stories is telling us a new aspect of that life. In this case, rich Madame Wu who lives in pre-communist China. On her 40th birthday, she decides that she wants to retire from her conjugal duties and informs her husband that she will bring in a young second wife and changes her whole life. Her family is absolutely horrified but she carries on with her own life, she starts reading and then goes on to study, something women at that time in China didn't do.

Her books captivate me every time. They raise so many subjects, often about women but also about freedom and justice. I love them. If I've had the misfortune to choose a few books in a row that I didn't like very much, Pearl S. Buck is always a safe bet to get me back to good reading.

From the back cover:

"On her fortieth birthday, Madame Wu carries out a decision she has been planning for a long time: she tells her husband that after twenty-four years their physical life together is now over and she wishes him to take a second wife. The House of Wu, one of the oldest and most revered in China, is thrown into an uproar by her decision, but Madame Wu will not be dissuaded and arranges for a young country girl to come take her place in bed. Elegant and detached, Madame Wu orchestrates this change as she manages everything in the extended household of more than sixty relatives and servants. Alone in her own quarters, she relishes her freedom and reads books she has never been allowed to touch. When her son begins English lessons, she listens, and is soon learning from the "foreigner," a free-thinking priest named Brother Andre, who will change her life. Few books raise so many questions about the nature and roles of men and women, about self-discipline and happiness."

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.

Buck, Pearl S. "The Exile"

Buck, Pearl S. "The Exile" - 1936

Pearl S. Buck grew up mostly in China, the daughter of American missionaries. In her many novels she describes the life of Chinese people past and present.

This book, however, is a biography about her mother, Carie Stulting Sydenstricker, a missionary and the wife of a missionary, who led most of her adult life in a foreign place, who went through hard times both politically as well as personally. She lived through several invasions, the Japanese, the Russians, through illnesses and death of her children. She lives in two worlds and cannot claim either of them as her real home in the end.

Same as her novels, I really loved this biography of the author's mother. She shows how much love can change life of the people around you and sometimes of a lot more.

From the back cover:

"The biography of the mother of Pearl S. Buck, a portrait of an American woman in China."

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.

Buck, Pearl S. "Peony"

Buck, Pearl S. "Peony" - 1948

This book is the reason why I fell in love with Pearl S. Buck. It must have been one of the first "adult" books I read and still, I remember it as if it had been yesterday.

Peony is a young servant (almost a slave) in a rich Chinese Jewish household. Her love to the son of the family cannot result in anything as traditional rules don't allow a marriage between them.

While we learn about Chinese traditions, the author also tells us about the life of the Kaifeng Jews of which I had nothing heard before (or after). We can again dive into the sea of knowledge Pearl S. Buck acquired about Chinese life when she spent most of her life there, starting when her missionary parents took her there at a very young age. I have loved reading about China ever since, both historical and present day novels as well as non-fiction. I would love to visit this highly interesting country one day.

However, other than a lot of her other novels, she tries to incorporate the multi-cultural theme into this one, the trial of assimilation. How far does an immigrant want to become like the people in his host nation? A wonderful account of two worlds colliding.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"In 1850s China, a young girl, Peony, is sold to work as a bondmaid for a rich Jewish family in Kaifeng. Jews have lived for centuries in this region of the country, but by the mid-nineteenth century, assimilation has begun taking its toll on their small enclave. When Peony and the family’s son, David, grow up and fall in love with one another, they face strong opposition from every side. Tradition forbids the marriage, and the family already has a rabbi’s daughter in mind for David.
Long celebrated for its subtle and even-handed treatment of colliding traditions, Peony is an engaging coming-of-age story about love, identity, and the tragedy and beauty found at the intersection of two disparate cultures."

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.

Buck, Pearl S. "East Wind: West Wind"

Buck, Pearl S. "East Wind: West Wind" - 1930

This was one of my first Pearl S. Buck novels. I came to adore her, read a lot of her books during my teenage years, probably because they were easy to read, yet so informative. I still love them and still read a book of hers from time to time.

I love the way Pearl S. Buck can explain the life in China, life in China during her lifetime, of course, I am well aware that it has changed a lot again. She has a wonderful way of explaining the Chinese way, almost in parables.

But this is history, life in Asia seen through the eyes of an American. The title already tells us about the divide between the East and the West, how people believe that they cannot be mixed. For example, the protagonist of the story, Kwei-Li, lives in a modern style house and is amazed by a lot of the features. Her brother brings home an American wife who is not accepted by the family. Lots of explanations about the different kind of life in the two different continents. This book achieves to portray this so wonderfully.

The biggest subject of the novel is the custom of arranging marriages. Kwei-Lan is married to a doctor, an educated man, who starts caring for her when she asks him to unbind her feet. Her brother refuses to marry the wife his parents have chosen for him and gets disinherited. A subject, most of us in the modern West are completely unaccustomed to.

Certainly one of Pearl S. Buck's books where we see the difference between our lives and that of the ancient Chinese most, where she serves it to us on a silver platter. I would probably recommend anyone to start with this book if they haven't read one by this great author.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"'East Wind: West Wind' is told from the eyes of a traditional Chinese girl, Kwei-lan, married to a Chinese medical doctor, educated abroad. The story follows Kwei-lan as she begins to accept different points of view from the western world, and re-discovers her sense of self through this coming-of-age narrative."

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.

Buck, Pearl S. "Sons"

Buck, Pearl S. "Sons" - 1932

The second volume in the "House of Earth Trilogy", this book focuses on Wang Lung's sons and how life goes on after his death. Again, Pearl S. Buck manages to describe everyone's life in so much detail.

I didn't like the characters as much as the ones in "The Good Earth" but I thought the actions were very interesting and exciting. You can tell how China got closer to the revolution. You can also tell why they had a revolution and how history evolved from there.

Great book. I'm still looking for the third volume "A House Divided" which is out of print. :-(

From the back cover:

"Second in the trilogy that began with The Good Earth, Buck's classic and starkly real tale of sons rising against their honored fathers tells of the bitter struggle to the death between the old and the new in China. Revolutions sweep the vast nation, leaving destruction and death in their wake, yet also promising emancipation to China's oppressed millions who are groping for a way to survive in a modern age."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2022.

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.

Buck, Pearl S. "The Good Earth"

Buck, Pearl S. "The Good Earth" - 1931

The first volume in the "House of Earth Trilogy", the second one is "Sons", the third "A House Divided".

I absolutely love this book. Pearl S. Buck was my first "grown up" author, I read all the books our little village library had.

The description of all sorts of people in pre-revolutionary China is really interesting, Pearl S. Buck manages to describe every single person and event so vividly, you feel like you're almost there.

We lead a very different life today and I'm grateful for that. It was a hard life back then, especially for women who were considered a burden to their families and often sold when they didn't have enough money.

Wang Lung, the protagonist of the story, manages to get very rich through the land he buys. He owes all this to his wife who used to be a slave. But he doesn't really recognize this and leads a life any male would lead at the time. I cannot really judge him for that because he didn't know any better. I feel sorry for his wife, O-Lan, though for whom life was one big misery.

We discussed this in our international book club in October 2009.

From the back cover:

"This Pulitzer Prize-winning classic 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."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2022.

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" and the Pulitzer Prize for "The Good Earth" in 1932. 

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.