Review "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck

I just finished this book last night. I have to say, I did enjoy the story. I wasn't necessarily dazzled and awe inspired, but I did like it. I can definitely see why it's a classic, and I would encourage anyone to read it.

"The Good Earth" tells the story of Wang Lung, a poor farmer in 1900s China. He has simple goals for his simple life. He wants to farm the land, harvest a good crop, and maybe have a few pieces of copper to hold onto. In the opening, we find Wang Lung preparing to go get his bride from the home of a wealthy family; a woman who will cook and clean and see to his and his father's care. He's never seen her, as his father was the one who went to the house and struck a deal with the family for Wang to have one of the slave girls for a bride. Someone who isn't too pretty, who isn't too smart, but is a good, strong worker. This is exactly what he gets, and his life unravels in different, unforeseen roads after.

The story itself deals with the horrific poverty of the peasant class in China during those years. It also shows how women are little more than possessions, and how the traditions that were adhered to kept them as such. However, as it turns out, it is Wang Lung's wife, O-Lan, who ultimately seems to be the one to pull his family together during tragedy and keeps them from certain death time and again. However, he does not truly see, or even understand, just how much she's contributed to him, other than his sons. While he isn't cruel to her, and at times is even kind to her, he doesn't love her. But, true for the times, she understands this, and is happy to be in a place where she isn't subjected to abuse.

The book also shows the rise in Wang Lung's status, but the downfall of his strength and character. He begins to pull away from the driving force that had propelled him his whole life: the land. In doing so, you watch a proud man, who had been so happy just to wake and walk into his field in the morning, deteriorate into a listless creature who has forgotten certain promises he's made himself. He slowly begins to become what he had once hated but secretly envied: a wealthy man. It isn't until the end of his life that he realizes he needs to be on his land again, where he is most at peace.

Ultimately, for me, this story also showed how the things that are so important to one generation can become nothing to the next. What one man prizes above all, his son can so easily brush away and fill the void with his own desires.

The one thing that stood out to me was Buck's writing style. It flowed, very raw, sometimes in long sentence structures, in a way that made it all seem more real. After all, how many of us really think in proper structure, with all the niceties that we use when we write? I fell into the rhythm very easily, and was able to picture every place, every person, every blade of grass, without being jarred from the story.

I was also fascinated by the facts of the lives of poor farmers in that region at that time. The story does take place just before the revolution, and throughout there are rumblings of what's to come. But for Wang Lung, it wasn't something he had the time or luxury to really consider. He needed to provide, and he did the best he could. Later, when he was idle, he was too busy with his pride, worrying about how others perceived him, and mapping out the lives of his children, not to mention dealing with greedy relatives.

In the end, "The Good Earth" is a very good read about life in a time that most of us have never experienced. At its heart, for me, it also felt like a tale of the human condition, of how things can change, and how people change (and don't change) because of that.

This wasn't exactly an all time favorite read, I'll admit. But it was definitely a book that kept me interested, and it was one that made me feel and understand things that I hadn't really considered before. I would say pick it up and add it to your classic collection.