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  • Memorable

  • While I am not at all slow to admit that this book did have its fair share of dull bits with a lack of flair to the descriptiveness, overall, I really do have to say that this book is memorable.
    In fact, I am quite proud to say that though at some points I was tempted to give up, I am very gla ... Continue

    While I am not at all slow to admit that this book did have its fair share of dull bits with a lack of flair to the descriptiveness, overall, I really do have to say that this book is memorable.
    In fact, I am quite proud to say that though at some points I was tempted to give up, I am very glad that I didn't, for this book has enriched my life.

    Through reading the experiences of the Chinese man Wang Lung and his family, not only did I become more knowledgeable on old Chinese culture, but a certain lesson about life seems to have been implanted in me, that lesson which seems to be stated at both the beginning and the end of the book. It is that of how the Chinese man relied on his own soil to feed and supply him, and in the end, this is all he truly has that is his. Sure, this may not apply to everyone, but this lesson, I believe, can be easily related to other situations.
    So, overall, I would recommend this book as a definite read. Not only does it focus on the land, but on richness, poorness, good and evil, on relationships, hardships, devotion and lust. It deals with growing old and moving on. It deals even with betrayal. There are a few quotes that have been carved into my mind during the end of the story- and a closing that sent a chill down my spine.

    

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• ― Ahl(t)erior Mohti(v)es said on May 8, 2009 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • I liked it and was challenged by it, but it will not be on my favorites list. For reading these classics I think I enjoy them more or actually get through them when I listen to them.The main character Wang Lung was very frustrating to me. I wanted to shake him and say "You have such a good wife and ... Continue

    I liked it and was challenged by it, but it will not be on my favorites list. For reading these classics I think I enjoy them more or actually get through them when I listen to them.The main character Wang Lung was very frustrating to me. I wanted to shake him and say "You have such a good wife and family, why are you treating her this way?" It was interesting reading this novel after having my East Asian Civilizations class this summer.

    

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• ― SheReads said on Mar 5, 2007 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

Pearl S. Buck's epic Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of a China that was -- now in a Contemporary Classics edition.

Though more than sixty years have passed since this remarkable novel won the Pulitzer Prize, it has retained its popularity and become one of the great modern classics. "I can only write what I know, and I know nothing but China, having always lived there," wrote Pearl Buck. In The Good Earth she presents a graphic view of a China when the last emperor reigned and the vast political and social upheavals of the twentieth century were but distant rumblings for the ordinary people. This moving, classic story of the honest farmer Wang Lung and his selfless wife O-lan is must reading for those who would fully appreciate the sweeping changes that have occurred in the lives of the Chinese people during this century.

Nobel Prize winner Pearl S. Buck traces the whole cycle of life: its terrors, its passions, its ambitions and rewards. Her brilliant novel -- beloved by millions of readers -- is a universal tale of the destiny of man.

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