Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth (1931) | Book Review and Analysis

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 1938 was awarded to Pearl S. Buck. This is a reflection on her literary masterpiece, The Good Earth, for which the author received the Pulitzer Prize. Contents:

00:00 – Introduction
01:07 – About Pearl S. Buck and The Good Earth, and the Nobel citation
02:27 – Plot
03:25 – Protagonist
04:18 – Style
05:23 – Theme: the dignity of work
06:32 – Theme: money and power
07:55 – Theme: rural vs. urban space
08:57 – Theme: gender and age gaps
10:48 – The film adaption (Sidney Franklin, 1937)
13:07 – Pearl S. Buck on The Good Earth (from My Several Worlds)
16:39 – 😂
17:10 – The graphic novel adaptation (Nick Bertozzi, 2017)
18:20 – Bottom line

[Paromita_M]

The Good Earth is a book I read loong ago, maybe over 15 years back. I remember borrowing it from my school library and being so moved by the story and the characters. Had no idea she won the Nobel Prize, learned of it much later.

Very nice discussion. I'm always scared to revisit these reads of which I have such a fond memory for fear of tainting them in some way with my more "critical" adult eye but this was so nice to listen to. Thank you. 🙏🏽

[BlorkTDork]

I listened to the good earth on audio when i was 10 or 12 with my father in his old pickup truck in the wilderness while we were on one of our month long hunting trips and it truly formed my lifelong view on property and money and im currently very poor but i own my home and land outright and have a wonderful garden that provides for me and lots of tools and assets which i will eat earthworms and dirt soup before i leverage for anything because id be under a bridge if i had or ever did. NEVER SELL THE LAND IT'LL BE YOUR RUIN!!!

[cyanez]

This is my favorite novel!! I’ve read it at least three times. I also highly recommend The Mother. It showcases Buck’s gift for writing powerful, complicated, and grounded female characters.

[J.N-hr]

I love Pearl Buck's novels, but it's My Several Worlds I get back to whenever I need some comfort reading or info about China. Generally, all Buck's books I read made me experience total immersion in a completely different world, a perfect refuge when real life gets tough, and this is my favorite category of books ;). This reminds me of another great book about China, also very immersive Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, and On Gold Mountain in which she explores the Chinese part of her family. Thank you for this review and have a beautiful day :)

[joeomalley]

Thank you for the thoughtful analysis and discussion here. I hope to get to this book soon, I've heard so many great things.

[amelmahmoud]

Thank you so much very useful and informative..

[HKM-fjfk]

Ohh man. Good earth had such an effrct in my reading journey. I should reread it now.

[Paromita_M]

The Body Of Her Work by Pearl S Buck, that was hilarious 🤣

[Paromita_M]

Recommendations...not really.
I read Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian recently (yes my own little Nobel Prize in Literature reading project going intermittently except I want to focus more on the non-English language authors 🤭) and it was a bit of a disappointment for me. Maybe you will like it if you haven't read it, not sure. 🤔

Haven't read anything by Mo Yan, seems like it might not be for me from what I read from Wikipedia entries.
The other author on my radar is Can Xue, she was one of the favourites for 2023 but Fosse won, fair enough. She might win this year (they alternate between male and female authors since 2013 I read somewhere probably to consciously or subconsciously account a little for the severe historic imbalance), then maybe I'll read something by her. Fragmentary storytelling is tough for me, why I haven't picked up her works yet.

One work you might like if you haven't already read it is Wild Swans by Jung Chang. It's more but it's a nice chronicle of women from three generations of a family- kind of like a family saga from a female perspective, somehow reminded me a little of The Makioka Sisters though they are very different books and I acknowledge that comparing two "Asian" books like that might sound very superficial. But I just meant that female perspective family saga aspect. Culturally and historically, the two books are very different. I liked both, I liked Wild Swans slightly more.

Happy reading!