The Good Earth

This book has a huge emotional connection with me. This is the first book , I read along with my mother, discussing its nuances and progressing as the character progresses.

Why is it beautiful?
Cause it is extremely simple to read. It does not bombard you with difficult sentence structure or very uncommon word.
The story seeps into your thought process.
It shows two sides of the same coin and it mesmerized me as a little girl.

( )

I disliked this book a great deal when I read it for a high school English class. I read it again as an adult to see if life experience would improve the appeal of this book. Nope. Still loathed it. Perhaps it was a recent escape from an abusive relationship that tainted my perspective, but reading this twice in a lifetime was enough for me. ( )

This is another book for our work book club- and it was a really good read. I can see why it won the Pulitzer. I'm glad I read it. However, its not one I want to read again.

On the top, its a simple book about a farmer trying to survive with the bare minimum. The farmer seems satisfied, but on a deeper read, he wants more. With themes of family and cycles, doing whatever it takes for survival vs honor, its not so simple.

At times, its seems too simple. For example, its missing the larger community, and how Wang Lung and his family interact with them. The story also skips years, with only a mention of ages (eg the oldest son wants to marry). This is intentionally vague by the writer, but at times, a bit jarring for a reader.

And last, this is not an easy book to read. Its simply written, but it deals with themes of starvation, survival, and all that comes with this. ( )

I can see the objectively good literary technique in this, but I utterly hated reading it because it's so relentlessly bleak and the protagonist is so horrible. The only main characters I found bearable were O-Lan and Ching.

I loved it. Offers a complex, engaging portrait of a life not only away from the mainstream of history where I live, but away from the mainstream of its own country as well. ( )