The Good Earth

I have read a great book about Chinese life, and families. It grabs you and makes you keep reading right from the start. As the time goes on in the book, people change mostly from better to worse. The story will make you want to keep reading all night. This is a story that many people will enjoy. The author grabs your attention right from the beginning. The author has almost no exposition, and has the action starting in the beginning of the story, as the setting is the only thing directly introduced. "It is spring..." (pg 1) and "The fields needed..." (pg 1) showing it is spring, and he lives on a farm, and cares for his land. The first sentence shows that the story starts with action. "It was Wang Lung's wedding day," (pg 1) and the author goes on to tell about his preparations, which shows there is no formal introduction to the multiple characters, that are mentioned. The author gets your attention with detail during the exciting events. When Wang Lung goes to "The great house,"(pg 54) to get his slave wife the author describes the interior of the house as "... a long narrow veranda they went, the roofs supported by delicate carved posts, and ..."(pg 15) The author uses metaphors to describe the scene in more detail. "With his burning face and his head bowed..."(pg 14) Clearly keeping the reader entertained is one of the author's main goals. The book takes place over a large period of time, allowing the characters to develop immensely. During the story Wang Lung changes from a man that was trying to keep money in his pocket to a man who has money, enough money to be considered "Wang the rich man"(pg 312) "When it was finished and the money counted into the barber's water soaked hand, Wang Lung had a moment of horror. So much money."(pg 11) This shows how frugal Wang Lung was. Later on his son had come to him many times for money, "I need a hundred pieces of silver here"(pg 312) or "There is a gate which needs an odd bit of silver..."(pg 312) This shows how rich he becomes versus the very little money he used to spend. O-lan developed from a hard working wife in the fields to a wife who rested much after she had a third child. As O-lan, Wang Lung's wife, worked with Wang Lung in the field, just after O-lan had given birth to their second son Wang lung thought "...I have suffered as much with my labors as she has with childbirth..."(pg 56-57) so neither took a rest, and worked the rest of the day in the field. "Ten moons had past since their second child was born, and a third was close upon her, and this time she was not so helpful for a handful of days and she had not come to the fields so Wang Lung worked alone."(pg 61) This shows O-lan going from a hardworking women, to a woman with not as much determination, and a woman with more physical stress. These details show how much the characters changed. The author keeps your attention throughout the middle and ending of the story. When Wang Lung's family raids the house of the rich, one of the climaxes, and moves back to his village, The author keeps your attention with more description when Wang Lung takes much gold from a rich man. "The fat man rose to his knee's sobbing and gibbering, and feeling for the pocket of the robe, and he brought forth his yellow hands dripping with gold and ..."(pg 138) This shows that the authors complex vocabulary added much more description. Also when Wang Lung hears the word money "It was this word `money' which suddenly brought to Wang Lung's mind a piercing clarity." (pg 138) Again, the author uses a different vocabulary to make the story more descriptive. This story has action throughout the book, even towards the very end of the story in the `falling action.' When Wang Lung's cousin comes back with his horde of army comrades "Every man had an implement of some sort of knife sticking out of the end."(pg 323) This keeps your interest because of the mentioning of a horde of men with knives. Then Wang Lung sees problems arising. "Ever since that day the young maid had been in disfavor with Lotus, and..."(pg 337) This shows all throughout the story problems are being created and resolved. This shows the author keeps your interest with her exciting and descriptive story. As you can see this is a story, anyone would enjoy reading. The author used interesting descriptions in the end of the story to keep you reading. All of the characters change and developed throughout the story. The author used details to make the exposition more interesting. Now join others in reading this amazing book.

Love the book!

1) Plot (3 stars) - A poor Chinese farmer battles environmental and social challenges to rise up, only to fall victim to the classic trappings of the rich. It's a big, sweeping arc of a story, following the full life of a man through all his ups and downs, and in the end I felt like I went on quite a journey. But for me any given moment of that journey felt slow. 2) Characters (3 stars) - Wang Lung is the poor farmer who dreams of being rich only to be unsettled once he gets there. O-Lan is his simple dutiful wife, bearing life's hardships with quite determination. There's also mooching relatives and spoiled kids. In all, it was a good cast, but I felt all of them did what I expected. There were no surprises of character, and for me, that meant the characters weren't especially deep. 3) Theme (3 stars) - There's a moral in here about being careful what you wish for because you just might get it. There's also something in here almost Marxist about the inevitable social cycles of rich and poor and how they all do the same things over and over and are never satisfied. And there's something in here about the eternal vs. the ephemeral, and how the grand march of history might not be center stage but merely a side plot in many people's lives. All these are interesting messages, but I wish they were explored in more depth. 4) Voice (3 stars) - Buck's writing frustrated me. Yes, it's easy to read, and almost felt "foreign" in its diction which enhanced the ambiance. But man did she repeat herself. 25% of the words could have been cut and no meaning or experience lost. 5) Setting (5 stars) - Now this is what kept me reading. Buck transports you to a completely different time and place. Rural China of the early 20th century certainly has some resemblance to ours, but the familial structure, toughness, simpleness, religions, societal views on gender and wealth and disabilities, were just so different and well captured. 6) Overall (4 stars) - This was a tough call between 3 and 4 stars. Take the story out of rural China and you have a 3, no question, as the plot and characters weren't especially riveting. But you can't take the story out of rural China. That is the story. And Buck transports you to that time and place so amazingly that I have to recommend it, and give it 4 stars.

You need to read it to find out

Pearl S. Buck prefaces The Good Earth with a lengthy epigraph from Proust; two authors who seemingly could not be more unalike. It tells of the power of a musical theme and how it can be recognized as true simply by the fact that had a lesser composer varied it in any way a listener with a good ear would have immediately known the variation to be false. And so The Good Earth begins. In terse and simple prose it narrates the story of a farmer, his wife and their family in early twentieth century China. As the epigram states, the prose’s style meets and matches the characters’ way of life. And it expresses the basic movement of the novel: we are from the earth, we return to the earth and inasmuch as we depart from its ways we cause ourselves and others to suffer. It reads then almost like a parable from the Bible or a fable from Aesop. Accessible even by teenagers, there’s something beautiful about the resonance between the prose, the theme and the major characters. Lauded in its day for providing a window into the people of China, I do not know whether its depiction of harsh rural life is approved or rejected by contemporary Chinese authorities. But as a work of art it is deserving of its acclaim. The kind of book that is worth reading at least once in your life. Highest recommendation.

The Good Earth, a timeless Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece by Pearl S. Buck, follows the life of Wang Lung in 1920s China. The book, first published in 1931, was the best-selling novel in the United States for both 1931 and 1932. The author grew up in China, a child of missionaries. Wang Lung is a farmer in a rural village and lives with his widowed father. The novel begins on the day of his marriage to O-Lan, a slave at the House of Hwang. He doesn’t really know his intended bride, but since his mother died, he needs someone to cook, care for the house, and see to his father’s comfort. Wang is a farmer, dedicated to his land. Although they are poor, it is a good marriage and O-Lan is a capable homemaker in their modest dwelling. Wang works hard on the land, often with O-Lan at his side. They begin to have children, births which O-Lan accomplishes without assistance. The story takes us into Wang Lung’s old age, through good times, droughts, famine, trials with family, land acquisitions, and wealth. Wang learns that although satisfying, wealth has its burdens, too. I first read The Good Earth when I was twelve years old. One Seattle summer day I walked to a nearby shopping district and, curious, went into a second-hand store. I discovered a bookcase full of old hardcover books. Among the books were Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and The Good Earth which I bought for twenty-five cents each. At that time I didn’t know what a “classic novel” was, nor had I ever heard of either book. I read both novels that summer. The Good Earth was an eye opener for me—the way of life in China those days, taking a second wife, class distinctions with the extreme poor and how they were treated, and with the extreme rich and their sense of entitlement. I treasured those books, and though I didn’t know they were “classics,” I knew they were special. Now, with this second reading, I am again impressed with the depth of The Good Earth. It is a masterpiece.

The book is light and the font is big. It is friendly to read

The Good Earth is first and foremost a Good Story--a rich tale with a strong cast of characters woven together with a simple but deep storytelling technique. The story will mean different things to different people, but to me it was above all about family function and dysfunction, the importance of keeping ones feet in the "good earth," and the tragedies that arise when the poor become too poor and the rich become too rich. Buck's mastery is in weaving these distinct themes into a coherent story, one with the power to reach across time and distance to remain important even now. The Good Earth is also an Improbable Story, as common sense would suggest that the first-person account of a male Chinese farmer told by an American woman "shouldn't work." Neither should the dialogue style, which defies description. To me it often read like a literal translation of a Chinese conversation filtered through Pennsylvania Dutch--or perhaps it is colonial English? Feudal English? It was English, yes, but an English unlike any actually spoken. Buck's knowledge of the Chinese language and culture makes it work, and it allows her to create a world truly her own. This frees her from the need to use limiting linguistic devices such as the insertion of "real" Chinese words or the equally disorienting use of colloquial English in a setting that is clearly not colloquial in an attempt to make the characters seem more authentic somehow. Buck takes a risk in creating characters who speak like this, but it pays off. A simple story, yet full of meaning and poignancy, The Good Earth is a timeless and universal story. Although there are many differences between pre-Revolutionary China and the current times, the family dynamics, human nature, triumphs, and tragedies portrayed in this book are no less relevant. A Pulitzer Prize winner written by a Nobel Prize winner, this book and author deserve the accolades they were given.