The Good Earth

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." [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

THIS BOOK IS ABOUT THE EARTH AND IT IS GOOD.

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 [...]

Treasure of the Rubbermaids 6: Made in ChinaThe 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 [...]

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 f [...]

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 [...]

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 understand [...]

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 des [...]

ملحمة روائية رائعة ذكرتنى برواية عبدالرحمن الشرقاوى " الأرض "و كأن معاناة الفلاح واحدة فى كل مكانرائعة و تستحق القراءة

شخص بلا أرض، شخص بلا جذورمن 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 أخيرا [...]

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 rea [...]

The Good Earth (House of Earth #1), Pearl S. BuckThe Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1932. The best-selling novel in the United States in both 1931 and 1932 was an influential factor in Buck's winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. It is the first book in a trilogy that includes Sons (1932) and A House Divided (1935). The story begins on Wang Lung's wedding day and follows the rise and fall of his fortunes. The Hou [...]

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 d [...]

‎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 [...]

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 h [...]

This is a very unsentimental look at life in rural, pre-revolutionary China. Though she is American, Pearl Buck maintains an objective stance regarding Chinese cultural practices from the time, including foot-binding and the enslavement of women. Yet one encounters the unspoken torment of countless generations of women. The wife O-Lan is particularly well-drawn; in her rough-hewn features and ox-like devotion to the earth, the reader intimately feels her tragic solitude. In Chinese society, she [...]

I noticed right away when I began the book that Pearl S. Buck's writing style was special. The language is simple and clear, but at the same time emotive. There isn't a wasted word. There is a quietness in the lines that fills you with emotion. You watch a traditional, hard-working family, one very much tied to the soil, struggling to make something of themselves. The historical details are diffuse; I would guess that the story is set in the first decades of the 1900s. The book was published in [...]

Pearl S Buck lived in China on several occasions and thus her story of Wang Lung feels real. The book is a sort of bildungsroman in which we see the life of Wang Lung from his mariage to the young slave O-Lan to his success and passing on of his legacy to his snickering sons. There is plenty of drama here and there are times that you want to slap Wang Lung for being an ass, but the story is very entertaining and one can easily see the talent of Buck in her writing. I wonder if the other two book [...]

Aunque me ha gustado mucho 'La buena tierra', he sufrido más que disfrutado con su lectura. Los personajes que aparecen en este libro son (practicamente todos) odiosos, mezquinos, crueles y egoístas, por lo que pasé casi toda la lectura enfadada.A pesar de todo, es un libro que se ha quedado conmigo, esta autora tiene una manera muy sencilla de narrar pero que consigue que te lleguen sus palabras Será difícil olvidar esa descripción de la pobreza más extrema, de la ingnoracia, la situaci� [...]

Nice touches on the struggles and resilience required of rural families in early 20th century China, but overall all this saga was too much of a morality tale for me. We follow a poor farmer, Wang Lung, as he is steered by his elderly father to buy a slave for a wife, O-Lan. She is a quiet saint and applies her hard work to help them make a success of their farm and delivery several children by herself. The following schematic plot summary can benefit the potential reader with an idea of the boo [...]

من الكتب التي يبقى اثرها طويلاً في الذهن و الروح بعد الانتهاء من قراءتها، و رغم طول الرواية إلا أني لم أشعر بالملل أطلاقاً في أي جزء منهارائعة و تستحق الخمس نجوم

I probably would never have picked this book up had it not been chosen by a friend for a group read. Honestly, I don't go for Chinese lit very much, but I agreed to read this one, even though I was prepared to be bored at least. But I downloaded the audio version, read by Anthony Heald, and listened to the book while doing some much needed organizational stuff, and it was surprisingly good. I enjoyed the reading so much that I would sometimes stop doing stuff to just listen. I think that had I r [...]

The first time I read this book I was thirteen years old. All I remembered about it was that it was about a Chinese farmer and I liked it. This second time through I could see how so much went past me when I read it as a youth with no life experience. Now, as a grown-up, I was able to appreciate the depth of the characters' feelings and the storytelling gifts of Pearl Buck. The book was first published in 1931, but it's written in what could almost be termed a classical style. The great beauty o [...]

Ι never imagined that a simple portrayal of a Chinese farmer's everyday life could be so riveting. Pearl Buck's writing is magical, hypnotic, utterly engrossing. I virtually devoured the book in two days. Amazingly enough, I, who live worlds (and ages) apart from the book's setting, could totally relate to this story about the cyclical nature of life, the passions and desires that motivate a human being, pain, suffering, ambition, agony, pride and all sorts of human emotions. It's the third boo [...]

How must you live your life?This is a novel with a plot replete with startling developments and a female character—the farmer’s wife O-lan—who stood out heroically even though she had spoken maybe less than a dozen words in the entire novel. One should live life treating what is unsaid as just as important as what has been said.

رغم الطول النسبي للرواية، لكني لم أستطع أن أتركها إلا بعد الأنتهاء منهارائعة و تستحق الخمس نجوم

While I did find this an interesting account of peasant life in China, I failed to understand the overall point of the story. Pearl S. Buck's parents were missionaries in China, and Pearl herself spent a good portion of her life there. I am certain that this first hand experience gave her an extraordinarily true glimpse of the every day life of these people which afforded her the opportunity of writing this book.I would most likely have rated this book higher if I had liked the characters. O-lan [...]

I have to start by saying that I'm glad that I didn't know anything about this book or read any of the reviews first. It's nice not to be influenced sometimes, especially as some of what I see as worthwhile qualities other people don't. For instance, I appreciated the pace of the book. I wouldn't have said that it was "too long and wordy" as I've read in other reviews, but then I know that literary styles and tastes change and this book was written nearly 100 years ago.I also had no problem with [...]