The Good Earth (House of Earth, #1) in Who Doesn't Love a Classic?

Apr 13, 2013 Book Concierge rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: china, culture, pulitzer, classic, historical-fiction, movie, concierge, strong-women, women-writers, library

Audio book performed by Anthony Heald

This is an epic tale of the peasant farmer Wang Lung and his family. The novel opens on his wedding day. Living alone with aging widowed father, he is the only surviving son and they barely eke out a living on their small piece of land. But despite their poverty he finally asks, “Am I not to have a woman?” and so his marriage to O-Lan, a kitchen slave in a great house, is arranged. It’s a good union, despite the lack of an emotional attachment between them, a Audio book performed by Anthony Heald

This is an epic tale of the peasant farmer Wang Lung and his family. The novel opens on his wedding day. Living alone with aging widowed father, he is the only surviving son and they barely eke out a living on their small piece of land. But despite their poverty he finally asks, “Am I not to have a woman?” and so his marriage to O-Lan, a kitchen slave in a great house, is arranged. It’s a good union, despite the lack of an emotional attachment between them, and they share a determination and willingness to work hard. Their harvest is good in that first year, and their first child is a boy. When O-Lan returns to the great house to show the old mistress her first-born son, she notices signs of economic distress. She mentions this to Wang Lung and he takes advantage of the opportunity to buy more land. And so they begin to build their life of prosperity.

The novel spans about fifty years, and they were times of upheaval in China – the Boxer rebellion, the Russo-Japanese war, the end of the Qing dynasty, and the beginnings of the Chinese Nationalist Party. But Wang Lung, like many rural Chinese, remains largely unaware of these larger political events, and focused on his own personal struggles.

Buck’s characters are wonderfully drawn. She reveals the many facets of their character through their thoughts and actions over the years. They deal with the usual changes and trials in any life – aging parents, death of loved ones, raising children, teen rebellion, angry relatives, petty jealousies and major disappointments. They also endure famine, war, displacement, and plagues. The one constant for Wang Lung and O-Lan, however, is their firm belief in the land – that good earth which they faithfully tend and which, in turn, nourishes and sustains them.

Wang Lung is a complex man – simple and unassuming at the outset, tender and caring with his children, angry and spiteful with his enemies, brash and lashing out when he gives in to temptation, ashamed and quieted when he realizes what he may lose, and finally dignified and at peace as he looks back on his life and ponders his own end.

Buck writes in a very simple style, with few complex sentences, and only enough description to set the scene. The result is a story that feels current and immediate; the reader experiences the events along with Wang Lung, O-Lan and the other characters. It is very similar to an oral tradition of story-telling, where the plot is the most important element.

Anthony Heald does a fine job performing the audio. His voice is a little rough for the female characters, but I was impressed with how he “aged” Wang Lung through the course of the book – taking him from a 20-something young man to a man of 70.
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