Come, My Beloved

After the death of his wife, David MacArd journeys through India with his son. Even though his view of life there is very sheltered, the country influences him once he is back in America to build an innovative school for missionaries in memory of his wife. His son is also changed by the trip and, against his father's wishes, returns to India to preach directly to the people. MacArd's grandson also feels called to be a missionary in India, although he leaves his wealthy father's comfortable compound to life in a poverty-stricken rural village, also against his father's wishes. The fourth generation of the family is more Indian than American, and young Livy falls in love with an Indian man (you guessed it) against her father's wishes.

In show more my opinion, Buck is at her best when she's writing about Eastern cultures, she's not so good when writing about Western cultures, and she's somewhere in between when writing about interactions between Eastern and Western cultures. I definitely liked this book, but I think that the four-generation span was too ambitious for a novel of less than 300 pages. I would have liked each generation to have been fleshed out a little more. However, Buck did do a very good job of illustrating the progress each generation made toward the ultimate goal of equality for everyone on earth. I also really liked how in each generation the children defied their fathers in order to fulfill themselves spiritually. I also have to give Buck credit for the way she handled the religious aspects of the story. Religion could very easily have become the focus of the novel, which would have taken away from a lot of other themes, and Buck managed to avoid making the religious aspects unpleasant. All in all, I don't think this is one of her best novels, but it is pretty high on my list. show less

Fyra generationer amerikaner bildar fond i denna roman om Indiens självständighetskamp och de brittiska protesterna om att "indierna ännu inte är mogna att regera över sitt land". Men huvudrollerna i "Kom, min älskade" innehas av amerikaner, som under tre generationer uppehåller sig till stor del i Indien. Först som kristna missionärer, senare som vita "välgörare", och till sist som "nästan" fullt integrerade indier. Buck visar oss historiska problem, politiska och kulturella likväl som religiösa, med dessa utlänningars förment välmenande gärningar.
Det blir intressant läsning - och, ja - det är inte lätt att vara överhöghet och anse att man alltid har facit i alla kulturrelaterade frågor. Ränderna går inte ur show more så lätt. Det tar generationer, men blir ändå inte alltid bra... show less

Pearl S. Buck beschreibt in diesem Buch mehrere Generationen Kolonialismus und Missionierung in Indien. Ich fand die Handlungsstränge zu knapp angelegt. Das Buch hat ein interessantes Thema. Dennoch fand ich, dass es ein schwächeres Buch der Autorin ist.