Disappointing. ( )

China, principios del siglo XX. La historia de dos mujeres, una occidental y una oriental, cuya amistad inquebrantable superó pasiones, tragedias y la separación.

Inspirada en la vida de la premio Nobel de Literatura Pearl S. Buck.

La pequeña ciudad de Chinkiang, al sur de China, es el marco que verá florecer la amistad entre dos niñas de orígenes muy distintos: Sauce, perteneciente a una desahuciada familia china y Pearl, hija de misioneros cristianos, una niña decidida que ansía integrarse a toda costa. Con el paso de los años, esta amistad continuará fortaleciéndose a pesar de las difíciles circunstancias políticas y personales en las que se ven envueltas. La guerra civil entre los nacionalistas y los comunistas, y la ascensión de la Revolución Cultural y de Mao al poder, acabarán obligando a la familia de Pearl a regresar a Estados Unidos, pero ni siquiera esta circunstancia logrará debilitar una amistad que será capaz de superar todas las barreras.

Inspirada en la vida real de Pearl S. Buck, La perla de China retrata admirablemente la figura de esta mujer occidental apasionada y llena de coraje, que supo amar y retratar como nadie la China campesina y los grandes avatares históricos, desde la caída del último emperador hasta la de Mao.

Willow Lee is a girl growing up in a small Chinese village in the late 1800′s. Her family, consisting of her father and his mother, becomes increasingly poor as she grows older, and soon she is helping her father steal things to sell. Then she meets Pearl, the daughter of the white missionaries Absalom and Carie, and they soon become good friends. Pearl, who has lived in China since she was a baby, feels culturally Chinese but is set apart by her blonde hair and blue eyes. Willow’s father attaches himself to the church, and though he starts out as simply hoping to earn a little money, soon becomes a convert and a disciple of the preacher Absalom. The novel follows Willow and Pearl as they grow; Pearl leaving for America with her mother, and later returning with her husband, Lossing Buck, and Willow as she enters an unhappy marriage and gives birth to a disabled child. The historical setting is evident throughout as the foreign missionaries are under constant threat from the government and others.

Although the first half of the book moved quickly and was engaging, I felt that it slowed down quite a bit in the latter half. Perhaps this was because Pearl and Willow are separated and no longer have the interaction which drives the earlier chapters. The novel might be of more interest to someone who is reading Buck’s novels at the same time. It has been many years since I read any of them, and that might be contributing to my disengagement with this particular work. ( )

Review: Pearl of China by Anchee Min.

This book was well written and interesting. The first half of the book was more about a fictional childhood friend named Willow, who is also the narrator. The events and childhood stories seem close to reality episodes of two girls who live in rural China. The main character is the fictional Chinese girl named Willow who is the only child of a deprived family living in Chin-kiang at the end of the 19th century.

After childhood even though Pearl and Willow were best friends Willow harbored jealousy and criticized harshly about Pearl they remained friends. Pearl lives among the poor and learns native language in several Chinese dialects. Pearl Buck Sydenstricker and Willow did find companions and entered into marriages that did not last for either of them. They moved on and both fell in love with the same man and this is when there friendship struggled and they lived different lives.

Their friendship continued through the disruption of many events and through Pearls relationship with the poet they both loved. After he died Willow ended up with all of the poet’s written poems and books. The book touches on Pearls later life and why she was removed from China permanently and never could return in 1934. Pearl than went to United States for more education and kept up with her writing.

As the story moved through the major happenings of Chinese history and politics it ended with Pearl Bucks death, the opening of China again and with Willow visiting the grave site of Pearl back in the homeland of the United States. ( )

Disappointing. ( )