The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

My review

I don’t even know where to begin. While I don’t think I could give this book 5 stars as I would Monte Cristo or A Tale of Two Cities, I can say that my life has been changed by this book. So many lessons can be learned through the studying of Wang Lung’s life:

1. What we wish for one day becomes necessity the next.

Wang Lung goes through a period of famine in his lifetime, and while his wife and children and father resort to begging in the streets to purchase enough food for that evening, he works all day carting people around the city to earn his meal. While even one extra piece of silver in his hand is unheard of one day, silver runs from it the next after he finds a small fortune.

2. Ugly women are harder workers, and cause little upheavel in a home.

I have to laugh at me even listing this one, but it is so true. The book begins with Wang Lung praying for rain, and washing himself wholly for the first time in a long time in preparation for his new wife. He knows from his father that she is not attractive, but that one should hope for a wife that is not. She turns out to be the most selfless, hardworking woman out of all the women in Wang Lung’s life. I have to say that his wife, O-lan, could be now considered one of my heroes. If only I could be so selfless. I’m not saying that you have to be ugly to be selfless, but that sometimes beauty paves the way for vanity which just causes all sorts of problems.I won’t say any more so I don’t spoil it for anyone who is planning on reading it.

3. Land is the only completely secure place to invest your money.

I actually was talking to Blair yesterday about how all this stuff going on with our country’s economy makes me nervous to want to invest any of our money, for fear that all will be lost. I told him we might be safer just burying our money in a hole in our backyard. He said that the only thing that really is safe, since even cash in the backyard can lose its value, is land. It was fitting that I was reading this book at the time…

4. Giving in to lusts will not bring joy.

I’ll just leave it at that.

I could really go on and on, but I’ll go ahead and call that good. I highly recommend this book to anyone. It is relatively short (my copy is 357 pages) and an easy read.

What next? The Tao Teh Ching by Lao Tzu.

View all my reviews.