This is a book that I love. It was written in 1931 and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932. The Good Earth is the story of Wang Lung and his wife O-Lan. The book starts with their wedding day and Pearl Buck describes the preparations Wang Lung makes such as washing his whole body and freshly shaving his head, as well as the joy he feels at having a wife as they walk back to his home together. O-Lan had been a slave in a great house nearby and after her marriage to Wang Lung they both set to work at making a solid life for themselves. Wang Lung tends his fields and O-Lan cares for the home, family and helps in the fields as she can. She has two sons quickly and they feel that their fortune is coming to them. Wang Lung is able to save up some extra money and buy land from the great House of Hwang.
Soon after this a drought comes and the fields don’t produce. Many people are starving including Wang Lung’s family and he eventually decides that they need to move from the land and go south to the city where there are more opportunities. When they arrive in the city the family lives in great poverty begging, and working for next to nothing, but earning enough to eat. In a stroke of luck Wang Lung is able to take some gold from a rich man during a riot and he is able to return to his fields.
Back at home Wang Lung’s riches and land grow even greater. He seems to forget the things that were so important to him before as he frequents a tea house during a time of floods and falls deeply in love with a woman there. He ends up paying for her to leave that life style and live in his home as a second wife, which causes great turmoil in the home. It takes Wang Lung some time, but he is able to eventually remember what is truly important to him… both the land and his wife who worked so hard beside him over the many years.
There is a quote on the back of this book that says, “I can only write about what I know, and I know nothing about China, having always lived there.” Pearl Buck is able to share a part of China with us through this book and writes a story that is a true testament to the different ways of life that a person can live depending on their fortune.
11/11/2009 at 8:46 am Permalink
I read this back when Oprah had it for her book club and I’m so glad I did because it was a great book and I don’t know if I would have ever gotten around to it otherwise.