The Good Earth

Rating:
Summary: Okay for required reading
Review: The Good Earth was a summer reading book for me. The story revolves around a Chinese farmer who goes from being a poor farmer to a rich gentleman. he goes through different joys and threats throughout his life...from famine to spoiling his children. The book was actually interesting. It kept me reading to the end. I would say it is a book for ages 14+ because it includes sexual situations and some of it was simply not meant for an elementary schooler.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book.
Review: This book is one of the finest books ever written. Be prepared to enter a emotional rollercoaster though. It tells the story of a poor Chinese farmer Wang Lung and the many ordeals he faces, and the many struggles he endures in his life. Wang Lung was a very simple man who knew nothing else except family, and his land. It also highlights the changes that were going on in China during the era it was set in, and it shows the ignorance of the westernized world when it comes to the east/far east. It also shows O-Lan, Wang Lung's wife who sort of is the "typical" simple, obedient wife that stands by him even though he does certain actions which would normally cause much strife between a husband and a wife. Among many other things, it also shows the corruption wealth can bring you. The last paragraph of the book was one of the saddest passages I have ever read as well...but I won't spoil it for you. Overall though, this is a fantastic book that definitely deserves a read.

Rating:
Summary: That Rare Book of Human Dignity in the Face of Great Odds
Review: Rarely does a novel bequeath to its readers such simple and constant examples of human dignity despite nearly insurmountable odds. Yet Pearl Buck has done as much with this, her second and best known novel. Like Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" it introduces us to timeless characters, though the particular setting has been considerably altered by time. The protagonists of this tale are essentially decent people striving to survive indecent circumstances. While O-lan personifies the best promise of the land, her husband represents the loftiest aspirations of an almost landless peasant. Together, they give us a glimpse into a bygone era of modern Chinese history and remind us that, to some extent, the virtues that make them resilient are still apt today for many of China's rural poor(still the majority of population). As one who has traveled in the Chinese countryside at length I can vouch for its authenticity of spirit and tone, if not people and place. The author, as the published reviews make clear, knew China better than nearly all Westerners and even most overseas Chinese of her day. That she possessed many of the same fine attributes of her characters only makes her writing all the more convincing. Buck single-handedly lifted the Oriental veil from China's face. For teachers of English, this is a must read and a book that should be on every recommended reading list, whether for the school year or summer break. As with Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath," it elevates the image of the farmer in the mind of young readers far removed from the earth. And it does something even more precious: its plain words ennoble the reader, expanding his or her humanity.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating Read
Review: I picked this book to read because it was only 1 of 3 books that my husband said that he had ever read in his life (I know, can you believe it?!). Anyway, what a soaring, captivating story. This book was very hard for me to put down. The characters were written with great detail and dimension. It was intriguing. Sad, than happy, than sad again. Very emotional. This book has made me desire to read many other classics.

Rating:
Summary: The Good Earth
Review: 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.


Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Story!
Review: I really loved this book! It's a great and easy read with great characters and a wonderful story. The thing I liked most was that the story really comes full circle: it starts when Wang Lung is a young man and is getting ready to be wed, and ends with him living out his last years with his sons and grandchildren and everything in between. I was also really moved by the struggle of this family as they are extremely poor when the novel starts, but with hard work and determination become a very wealthy family.


Rating:
Summary: Good serious novel
Review: I was reluctant to start the book which, tagged with the label of classic, seemed destined to be depressing. And you know what? It was depressing. But it was also good.
It traces the life of a Chinese farmer named Wang Lung from the day of his wedding to a faithful slave named Olan until his last days on earth. In the beginning of the book, Wang Lung is a hard working farmer, but poor and subject to the hardships that complete dependence on the land brings. His wife O-lan brings about a small measure of prosperity, as she joins him as a partner in the prospect of improving their finances through hard work. They are even able to buy a new piece of land from the great House of Hwang, where Olan lived as a slave throughout her maidenhood.
After they have their third child, a drought-induced famine strikes, driving Wang-Lung from the land which he loves and into the city in search of food. O-lan and the children and Wang Lung's father beg in the streets, while Wang Lung works carrying a ricksha. The life they live is hard, and they are barely able to subsist, living in a hut they have built of mats (following the example of the other poor).
War and rioting break out in the city, and Wang Lung is carried into a rich man's house by a throng of looters. By chance, he finds himself alone in a room with a rich man who is terrified for his life, and he extorts a large amount of gold from him before sending him away. At the same time, his wife has found a loose brick behind which is a store of jewels worth a fortune. They return back to the farming land of the north, and use the money to buy more land and sow the seeds of a farming empire.
The second half of the book deals with the troubles that beset Wang Lung as a rich man, and these are less compelling than his battles against starvation.
The book held my interest, and is most useful as a look into the social strata that made up China in the early 1900s. Themes that run throughout the book are the mistreatment of women without thought, the differences that money makes in social standing, and the corrupting influence of a life of ease.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Novel
Review: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck is definitely on my list of favorite books. The Good Earth takes you along the ups and downs of the life of a poor farmer, Wang Lung. It sounds kind of boring, but with the never ending ups and downs of his life it kept me interested until the very end. Of course, this was a superb novel, yet I was bothered by the treatment of women throughout the novel. I was also occasionally disgusted that Wang Lung, a very good man ends up with concubines. Of course this is old Chinese tradition and the matter can be easily excused. I was in love with this book, until the very last sentence. The last sentence is what makes this book a 4 instead of a 5. Of course, I won't ruin the ending for you, but after I read the last sentence, I was so unbeleivably disappointed. I'll just say the ending is depressing. Still, it's worth it to read it and until the last seconds it took me to read the last sentence, I enjoyed every minute of it.

Rating:
Summary: A PULITZER PRIZE WINNING CLASSIC...
Review: This 1932 Pulitzer Prize winning novel is still a standout today. Deceptive in its simplicity, it is a story built around a flawed human being and a teetering socio-economic system, as well as one that is layered with profound themes. The cadence of the author's writing is also of note, as it rhythmically lends itself to the telling of the story, giving it a very distinct voice. No doubt the author's writing style was influenced by her own immersion in Chinese culture, as she grew up and lived in China, the daughter of missionaries.

This is the story of the cyclical nature of life, of the passions and desires that motivate a human being, of good and evil, and of the desire to survive and thrive against great odds. It begins with the story of an illiterate, poor, peasant farmer, Wang Lung, who ventures from the rural countryside and goes to town to the great house of Hwang to obtain a bride from those among the rank of slave. There, he is given the slave O-lan as his bride.

Selfless, hardworking, and a bearer of sons, the plain-faced O-lan supports Wang Lung's veneration of the land and his desire to acquire more land. She stays with him through thick and thin, through famine and very lean times, working alongside him on the land, making great sacrifices, and raising his children. As a family, they weather the tumultuousness of pre-revolutionary China in the 1920s, only to find themselves the recipient of riches beyond their dreams. At the first opportunity, they buy land from the great house of Hwang, whose expenses appear to be exceeding their income.

With the passing of time, Wang Lung buys more and more land from the house of Hwang, until he owns it all, as his veneration of the land is always paramount. With O-lan at this side, his family continues to prosper. His life becomes more complicated, however, the richer he gets. Wang Lung then commits a life-changing act that pierces O-lan's heart in the most profoundly heartbreaking way.

As the years pass, his sons become educated and literate, and the family continues to prosper. With the great house of Hwang on the skids, an opportunity to buy their house, the very same house from where he had fetched O-lan many years ago, becomes available. Pressed upon to buy that house by his sons, who do not share Wang Lung's veneration for the land and rural life, he buys the house. The country mice now have become the city mice.

This is a potent story, brimming with irony, yet simply told against a framework of mounting social change. It is a story that stands as a parable in many ways and is one that certainly should be read. It illustrates the timeless dichotomy between the young and the old, the old and the new, and the rich and the poor. It is no wonder that this beautifully written book won a Pulitzer Prize and is considered a classic masterpiece. Bravo!


Rating:
Summary: A Remarkable Story
Review: This is a well thought out story with a certain balance and symmetry. In many ways it is a classic tale of rags to riches but in a turn of the century pre-revolutionary Chinese agrarian setting. Although the book is now over 70 years old, it remains fresh and is a compelling and surprisingly good read. No wonder the book brought fame and fortune to the author including a Nobel Prize.

I have recently attempted to fill in a few literary holes in my background and as such have read a number of the well known novels such as Kerouac's On the Road, Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, and A Clockwork Orange by the well known British writer Anthony Burgess, to name a few. Many of these books are interesting and of course they are all well written. Kerouac's book and Burgess's Clockwork Orange have certain novelty factors in the tempo and the sentence structures and the vocabulary. Steinbeck's writing gives a very detailed description of the smallest details and it is fascinating to read his works but at the same time depressing because the characters suffer without a hope for the future (at least in the Grapes of Wrath).

What is interesting here is the combination of rural Chinese customs with a universal story of man, his goals, determination in the face of adversity, and the common mistakes that men and women make generation after generation. The main character is a young but poor farmer Wang Lung who is working a family plot. He is poor but ambitious and he marries a young but unattrative and hard working wife O-lan who is equally ambitious. Together they develop and expand a small plot of land until they become a leading family and landowners in a small Chinese town. It is a one generation rags to riches story going from a couple that cannot afford to buy shoes to the family patriarch and his sons that can live off the rental income of many farms. The story remains focused on Wang Lung from his late teen years to his early seventies; it covers the death of O-lan and ends just before his death. Included are the details of how the other family members and relatives handle the finacial success. It is a beautifully written book with lots of local color and detail about timeless and universal problems of life.

It is a book that everyone should read and I am very pleased to have been reminded by other Amazon.com reviewers that it is an excellent book, and took their recommendations to read this classic. By the way, this printing contains a short 20 page biography of Pearl Buck, and has a collection of black and white photographs of Buck and sample period photographs of rural China. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a good novel.

Jack in Toronto