The Good Earth
This time the great one(rather would call him The Old One as he is the oldest in our group of friends and also this term is used by the author of this book a lot many times) himself gave me this book from the mini library and asked me to read the same. When I first got the book and flipped over the pages, I was excited to see so many photographs in it. "Hiyah! It has so many snaps in it". Snaps of Chinese men and women of 19th century,snaps of the author:Pearl S. Buck herself and photographs related to the incidents Pearl S. Buck narrates in the novel. The novel as such is very good. I liked it a lot. Story was good, fast moving and captivating that I finished it in 5 days. When I went to the mini library again yesterday night,the Old One asked me: "Are you done with The Good Earth?". I said "Yes". "How was the book?". "It was good. Liked it a lot".
So, lemme give my review to this book through the two main characters of the novel: Wang Lung and O-lan
Wang Lung: The hero of the novel. The author takes us through his life journey from his youth till his old age. What I saw through this character was that:
"Man is happy when he pays attention to whats more important to him in his life. Whenever he deviates from this, he suffers and theres no peace in his life."
This I would say is the gist of the novel.
Wang Lung is a person who is happy when hes with his good earth and when hes poor. But once he starts becoming rich and once his family starts to grow and when he starts paying attention to unimportant things like social status: what others are gonna think of him etc and he is unhappy , he tries to find peace in life and eternally hes bothered by so many troubles in his life one after another and till his old age he suffers, suffers and suffers in some way or other.
O-lan: The heroine of the novel reminds me of certain breed of people who are fast extinguishing from the face of this earth. These are the kind of people for whom their personal life doesnt matter at all and forever in their life they live for others: right from their birth till death. And people dont pay any attention to these people, for them, these people are like non-existent and their imporatnce is felt only when they leave us forever. Then we realise, how silently, without making any fuss of what they are doing, these people have been working marvels for us, but we never cared about them, never bothered whether they are happy or not, never even wondered what their needs are!
O-lan is one such woman, whom Wang Lung completely ignores most of his life and later he realises what a blunder he has done all through his life, but then it becomes too late for him. This post is a tribute from me to women like O-lan who these days are really difficult to be spotted on this earth. I am stopping here. Nothing more on the story of the book. Read it for yourself and let me know how you felt.
I have also learnt a word in Chinese: Nung in chinese means one whose wealth is from that of earth. The good thing about this book was that the author never deviated from the title a lot. Whatever she has told, it all revolved around the same thing: Earth and how it influences this Chinese farmer's life.
So what next? Now, from a Nobel Winner, I have moved on to a Pulitzer Winner. This time its not an American author, but its an Indian author, but shes female too. Pearl S.Buck moved from USA to China and this woman I guess has moved from India to USA. My first novel of hers as well. More on that later: hopefully sometime early next week, if this novel is also that good and I finish it off this weekend.
So, lemme give my review to this book through the two main characters of the novel: Wang Lung and O-lan
Wang Lung: The hero of the novel. The author takes us through his life journey from his youth till his old age. What I saw through this character was that:
"Man is happy when he pays attention to whats more important to him in his life. Whenever he deviates from this, he suffers and theres no peace in his life."
This I would say is the gist of the novel.
Wang Lung is a person who is happy when hes with his good earth and when hes poor. But once he starts becoming rich and once his family starts to grow and when he starts paying attention to unimportant things like social status: what others are gonna think of him etc and he is unhappy , he tries to find peace in life and eternally hes bothered by so many troubles in his life one after another and till his old age he suffers, suffers and suffers in some way or other.
O-lan: The heroine of the novel reminds me of certain breed of people who are fast extinguishing from the face of this earth. These are the kind of people for whom their personal life doesnt matter at all and forever in their life they live for others: right from their birth till death. And people dont pay any attention to these people, for them, these people are like non-existent and their imporatnce is felt only when they leave us forever. Then we realise, how silently, without making any fuss of what they are doing, these people have been working marvels for us, but we never cared about them, never bothered whether they are happy or not, never even wondered what their needs are!
O-lan is one such woman, whom Wang Lung completely ignores most of his life and later he realises what a blunder he has done all through his life, but then it becomes too late for him. This post is a tribute from me to women like O-lan who these days are really difficult to be spotted on this earth. I am stopping here. Nothing more on the story of the book. Read it for yourself and let me know how you felt.
I have also learnt a word in Chinese: Nung in chinese means one whose wealth is from that of earth. The good thing about this book was that the author never deviated from the title a lot. Whatever she has told, it all revolved around the same thing: Earth and how it influences this Chinese farmer's life.
So what next? Now, from a Nobel Winner, I have moved on to a Pulitzer Winner. This time its not an American author, but its an Indian author, but shes female too. Pearl S.Buck moved from USA to China and this woman I guess has moved from India to USA. My first novel of hers as well. More on that later: hopefully sometime early next week, if this novel is also that good and I finish it off this weekend.
3 Comments:
That was a good read. Though i got tons of comments on the contents of the book. But i will leave u in peace now :)
Will catch hold of this book
Am really missing RSAS Headquarters !! Hope to be there soon !
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