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." More...

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 More...

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 he is a very hardworking,strong,young and ambitious 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 f More...

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 More...

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 More...

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 More...

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 More...

من صفحتها الاولى تبدو لك كرواية مهمة من تلك الصفحة الاولى التى يغلى فيها "وانج لانج" الماء مخلوط بورق الشاى ل أب يسعل فى الصباح....تشعرك بانها عمل درامى له مكانته

لعل أجمل ما بها انها تمتع قارئها بكثير من الاحداث فلا تسكن احداثها كثيرة بل فى تنقل دائما من موقف لموقف و من مكان لمكان ربما .....و بما ان الفترة الزمنية للكتاب طويلة فكثير من الاحداث تشبع نهم القارئ

لعل شخصية "أون-لان" هى الاجمل و الاكثر اكتمالا فى رمها الدرامى...تلك الفتاة العادية الملامح الصامتة و ذات القدمين الكبيرتين , تعلم دائما اك More...

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 More...

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 More...

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 More...

Okay, after Anna Karenina, Oprah and her Book Club owed me (and most likely the rest of the Book Club members) big time. Perhaps that's why she chose The Good Earth as the next book for the infamous group to read. I can say that I am officially pardoning Oprah of any wrong-doing with Anna thanks to this new book. This book could easily have been a boring and uninteresting read, but Pearl S. Buck writes in such an amazingly simplistic manner that somehow you are immediately sucked in.

It helps to More...

I had forgotten most of the tale until I picked it up again to reread and I am overwhelmed by the hardship and futility of the lives of the characters. Their hopelessness coupled with their fortitude, that often goes unrewarded, is devasting. The writing appears almost simplistic but the message is so profound. As I read I am aware of the seeds that are being planted for the Cultural Revolution. The poverty and ignorance led to so much jealousy and greed.
Sometimes the book frightens me because More...

I've always wanted to read this book and really had no idea what it was about. Now I know. Some of it was difficult - the way they treat baby girls/women in China - but that was a learning experience for me. The book was really great at driving home the message that you have to appreciate what you have, no matter how big or how small, without getting prideful about it. It also reinforced the work ethic I was taught - that you work hard and enjoy the results.

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 More...

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 More...

2 1/2

I bounced between 2 and 3 stars, finally deciding to just meet it half-way.

As I said in the comments of one of my statuses, I found parts of the book interesting, but I didn't really enjoy it, per se. It wasn't as boring as I thought it might be, and that was good, but I also had a hard time connecting with the characters, especially because Wang Lung isn't particularly likable half the time, even if what he does is realistic and understandable from a 'human nature' perspective.

I did feel More...

I think I end up rating books by how strong a reaction they can draw from me -- and books that focus strongly on women and gender roles tend to do that. In the case of The Good Earth, I had to put the book down one evening because it made me furious. I couldn't stand how apathetic and scornful and ungrateful the main character was toward his wife, a wholly devoted servant to him. I was angry at the social mores in China when the book was written; I was angry at the idea of such a loveless marria More...

4.5 stars

Right, so the description of the book sounds boring enough, the chronicles of the life of your average Chinese farmer. I probably would have never even given it a second glance had not a friend of mine say it was one of his favorite books. This is a guy who gets bored extremely easy, so I definitely had to give it a read.

And now, after reading it, I still couldn't give a better description of the book. The language is bare and straightforward, the story moves at an average pace and the More...

A 12 mile walk round the icy lake with Vampyre Dawg.

The third time of starting this and the time must be of been right because the ponderous pacing did not grate; am even contemplating the second in the trilogy.

#76 TBR Busting 2013

This books was very Taoist in my opinion. It showed the waxing and waning of life. When things got really bad they started to get better. When things were good, there were always problems. It is a great look at not just Pre-Revolutionary China, but life in general.

The debate over the authenticity of Buck's portrayal of rural life in China of 100 years ago will never end. I don't believe it is essential to the books story.

This is a story of the rewards of hard work, strong ethics, common sense and conviction. It is the story of what happens when those rewards come. How wealth, even when gained honestly and through hard effort, corrupts and destroys families and values, when it is not placed in the proper context of life. It is the story of oppression of wo More...

I thought I would like this more than I did, but it was just ok for me. I wish I could give it 3 and 1/2 stars! So glad I wasn't a woman in pre-revolution China, in which the story takes place. Life for females was, to say the least, deadly to be born as such, and just plain hard! I know I wouldn't take well to another woman being introduced into my home, and I was disappointed that the main character did so. It seems he prided himself on being honest, hardworking, and above reproach in all thin More...

وتعود النجمات الخمس من جديد.
بداية قرأت هذه الرواية بداية السنه، ثم أعدتها لمكانها من جديد، ثم بعد عدة أشهر رفعتها لأقرأها، لأعيدها بعد عدة صفحات للمكتب مرة أخرى، حتى هذا الشهر حيث تضائلت كُتبي الورقية لأقرأها راغمة حتى النهاية! ويالها من تجربة جميلة ضيعتها على نفسي طوال هذا الوقت!!

القصة تتكلم بإختصار عن مزارع صيني فقير، يذهب لبيت أحد التجار ويطلب زوجة له، بعد أن يتزوج هذه الخادمة، نشاهد معه حياته لحظة بلحظة، ويوماً بعد يوم، من منظوره الخاص الذي لا يتغير أو يتبدل خلال الرواية - وهذه نقطة قوة لها More...

I have been rereading The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. For many years this well-known novel was an unexplained void in the inventory of books that I had read. Yet, in less than two years I find myself having read and reread this amazing novel. It is amazing for several reasons, not the least of which is the deceptive simplicity of its' style. The story begins on Wang Lung's wedding day and he remains in the fore of the novel presented to the reader by the narrator as the hero of the story. However, More...

You know, I've never lived on a farm - in fact I think I'd hate it - but I'm finding I love novels about farming and communing with land. They're very...(shudders) grounding. I really wish that weren't a pun, but it's the best word I know to describe it, and I suppose it helps explain the metaphor of spiritually settling things being described as grounding. The point is, I feel very settled at the moment.

Buck writes in a very stylized, almost awkward English that helps set the mood. It works, of More...

This is a gorgeously harsh novel. Or harshly gorgeous? I'm still reeling from the ending. It is a fictional account of the life of a pre-revolutionary man living in China. Beautifully and simply written, if occasionally a little bit colonialist in tone, it is basically a rags-to-riches story. But oh, what a story! It is so believable, so real life. Everything is here - marriage, gender politics, natural disasters, education, markets, incipient capitalism and globalization, revolution, sexual inf More...