March 2025: Pearl S. Buck

In March, we will spend some time with Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973). Born in USA to missionary parents, she grew up in China and had made her name as a writer with her novels about China and Chinese life.

She won the Pulitzer in 1932 for The Good Earth and became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1938) for "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces."

In addition to her novels, she also wrote many stories and quite a lot of non-fiction: a few memoirs/autobiographies, biographies of her parents and other assorted books and articles.

I had been aware of her for decades but I somehow never got around to reading any of her books. What do you plan to read in March?

I've head her Good Earth Trilogy and found it to be among some of the best lit I've read. I would advise to read the trilogy in order. I've also read: Pavilion of Women, Peony and Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China and found them all to be good, but not quite as engrossing as The Earth Trilogy. The only book I did not enjoy was The Living Reed: A Novel of Korea. After re-reading my review, I don't know why I didn't enjoy it as much!

All that being said, I think I will The Goddess Abides which is supposed to be a very unlike Buck book set in New England and involves romance.

I'm committed to reading off my shelf in 2025 and I have a copy of Peony that's been waiting patiently for years. I read The Good Earth even more years ago, and enjoyed it.

The only one I have read is Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China which was excellent. On the strength of that I have downloaded a few of her others, and will The Good Earth.