Letter from Peking

Elizabeth MacLeod is American and her husband Gerald is half American and half Chinese. They live in China with their son Rennie until the communist uprising, when Gerald insists that Elizabeth and Rennie return to America. Gerald stays behind because he wants to help his students, but also because he loves his country so much. Elizabeth records her thoughts over the next six years in her journal, which makes up the book. During that time she struggles to live without the love of her life, and Rennie struggles to find his true identity among his mixed heritage.

This is the type of book that you want to read slowly to savor every word because the prose is so poetic. The focus of this novel is very narrow compared to some of Buck's other show more works, and it's interesting to see how she can get so completely into one woman's head. None of the characters are perfect; they all have flaws, but that's how Buck shows the challenges of mixing two very different cultures. show less

A story of how a family's lives are affected following the proclamation of the People's Republic. Told by the protagonist Elizabeth after returning to Vermont with her son while her husband Gerald, who is half Chinese, remains in Peking. An interesting read, although a bit slow in places.

This book is a bit of a find… a hardback first edition of a Nobel Prize winner, still in its original dust-jacket. And the Nobel Prize winner is none other than Pearl S. Buck. This is her Wikipedia entry (links removed):

"Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973; also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu; Chinese: 賽珍珠) was an American writer and novelist. As the daughter of missionaries, Buck spent most of her life before 1934 in Zhenjiang, China. Her novel The Good Earth was the best-selling fiction book in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her

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biographical masterpieces”. She was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature."

And also one of only fourteen women to win the prize.

My copy of The Good Earth is an old 1970s paperback so it was nice to see Letter from Peking with its quaint illustration. The artist, CWB, whoever he/she was, has captured not only the lovely autumn trees on a Vermont farm, but also the body language of a woman who can’t quite believe what she is reading in her letter. But, prompted by the blurb’s statement that the book is wholly without propagandist aim I think there may have also been another purpose to this illustration, and that may have been to reassure potential readers with the book’s American setting. It was 1957, during the Cold War, and the Communist Revolution in China had consolidated its grip on power. As we see in the book, amongst ordinary people there was a real fear of China and suspicion of anyone favourable to it. Even a writer as well-loved as Pearl Buck may have needed to be careful.

The contents of the letter are not fully revealed until the end of the book, but Gerald’s words haunt the story. This couple has been separated for five years now, Gerald staying in China after the Communists took power, while sending Elizabeth and their son Rennie back to safety in America. Letters have been intermittent, and always sent via clandestine means.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/07/30/letter-from-peking-by-pearl-s-buck-bookrevie... show less

Una novela más contándonos la idealizada imagen que esta escritora tenía de China y sus gentes y de algo tan de moda estos días como es la relación interracial. Elizabeth, joven norteamericana, se casa con Gerald, cuya madre es china, si bien pronto el marido tendrá que decidir entre si irse a Estados Unidos con su mujer o si quedarse en Pequín favoreciendo al comunismo. Elige la segunda opción, con lo cual acabará viendo como año tras año su hijo crecerá en un país lejano sin padre, al mismo tiempo que la distancia va extinguiendo la relación de la pareja.

En esta novela, Pearl S. Buck Premio Nobel de Literatura en 1938 aborda el tema de la confraternidad interracial.