by Pearl S. Buck, 1931, Pulitzer Prize winner
I miss my messed up Chinese family already! What a great book! Wang Lung’s father arranges marriage for him to O-Lan – kitchen slave in the Great House of Hwang. Wang Lung is a farmer. They work so hard they eventually become wealthy landowners. O’Lan is a Proverbs 31 woman. Because of her hard work, her family prospers. But Wang Lung takes a mistress after he is prosperous. Breaks O’Lan’s heart and causes all kinds of unhappiness in his home.
His sons grow up without a love of the land, the reason for all their wealth. O’Lan gets some kind of sickness and Wang Lung does nurse her sweetly at the end of her life. His father then dies. They are buried like royalty on his land. He continues long after – his mistress gets old and fat, his sons marry and have children – convince him to buy the Old Hwang Great House. They all move there – in the city – away from the land. At the end of his life, he asks to be moved back to the earthen house with his “Little Fool” and new mistress, Pear Blossom. There he lives until he dies, happy near the Good Earth. His 2 oldest sons come to visit him. He hears them talking about selling the land and he tells them to never sell the land. Last 2 sentences:
“Rest assured, our father, rest assured. The land is not to be sold.”
‘But over the old man’s head they looked at each other and smiled.’
Great picture of how wealth can lead to ruin – idleness, lust, jealousies, opium habits. His fool is his daughter who was born at the beginning of a drought that forced them to move to the south or starve. They lived in a hut made of mats. O’Lan begged, he drove a rickshaw – never made enough beyond their daily needs. One day the poor of the city erupted and broke into the rich man’s house. O’Lan was swept along with the tide – ended up in a room with a rich fat man who was terrified. O’Lan demanded his money and got enough to bring their family back to the land, purchase seed and ox and begin farming his land up north again. From there his wealth just increased as did his problems, mostly of his own making because he deserted his O’Lan and went to a teahouse and fell in love with Lotus Blossom and bought her and brought her home.
LOVED THIS BOOK!