The Good Earth

The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl Buck published in the 1930s, but found a huge uptick in readership after “you know who” placed it in her “Book Club”… did you say Oprah?  You are right for 500 points!  Oh, by the way, it won a Pulitzer way back in the day!  The novel is about the life of a Chinese family living on their land in a village before WWII.  The story follows the life of the lead character, Wang Lung, from his wedding day to the end of his life.  Lung and his family fall upon tough times for sure.  First is the decline of Wang Lung’s family through the use of opium and spending their fortunes.  Wang Lung starts to turn his situation around and marries a slave of a local land owner, O-Lan, works hard and earns enough money to buy their own farm.  Then all goes downhill as the drought hits the land.  There is no other means to make money.  Wang Lung is offered to sell his land, at a reduced rate, refuses but does sell every other possession.  He takes the family (his children and his father) to the city.  When in the city the family must do whatever they can do to stay alive, the children beg on the street and steal from others while Wang Lung learns to carry a rickshaw throughout the city. We see a dichotomy between Wang Lung and the city populous that are doing well living in a sophisticated world, while his family struggles living in the city. O-Lan teaches the children to steal while her husband desires to live an honorable life, trying desperately to go back to the land he owns.   All his life Wang Lung desires to be back on the land, making a living for his family, while we see O-Lan, willing to sacrifice her own daughter to stay alive. Eventually they do go back, but they use the money that O-Lan has stolen, unbeknownst to Wang Lung.   Each character is rooted by the traditions of their own upbringing and have a major influence on the way their two sons will grow up.  I liked the story, it was simple but had a message about commitment, desire, upbringing, family, passion, and doing whatever it took to survive, though each character used a different means.  The characters were real and one can really see how difficult the time was right before the war.  A solid read.