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kimball_hansen's review against another edition
2.0
This book was pretty slow and a disappointment to the trilogy. The only decent part was the last 30 minutes of the book. I was surprised that Wang the Tiger's son is the main character. He didn't get much character development in the previous book, [b:Sons|40776308|Sons (House of Earth, #2)|Pearl S. Buck|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1531243996l/40776308._SY75_.jpg|3258094]. It would have been better to have Wang the Merchant's son, the one that assisted Wang the Tiger, as the main character.
Is the whole point of the story just a return to the land? As if Yuan is Wang Lung's grandpa? So it begins another cycle of returning to the land, working hard, growing rich, then throwing it all away because the sons are idiots. I wanted Wang the Tiger to live out his prophecy that he stated in the previous book: Emperor of China. Now that would have been a neat, albeit somewhat unrealistic story.
I don't know why Wang the Tiger forced his son to get married, when he was so against love and marriage for most of his life.
I love how Yuan's step mom threw Yuan under the bus when Yuan was too gutless to ask for Meiling for marriage. Even though he acted like he was against the old ways and wanted to do it himself, he showed his true colors at the end. Also, he just moped around the whole book. Hated him.
Is the whole point of the story just a return to the land? As if Yuan is Wang Lung's grandpa? So it begins another cycle of returning to the land, working hard, growing rich, then throwing it all away because the sons are idiots. I wanted Wang the Tiger to live out his prophecy that he stated in the previous book: Emperor of China. Now that would have been a neat, albeit somewhat unrealistic story.
I don't know why Wang the Tiger forced his son to get married, when he was so against love and marriage for most of his life.
I love how Yuan's step mom threw Yuan under the bus when Yuan was too gutless to ask for Meiling for marriage. Even though he acted like he was against the old ways and wanted to do it himself, he showed his true colors at the end. Also, he just moped around the whole book. Hated him.
soniapage's review against another edition
3.0
Highlights the confusion experienced by Wang Lung's grandson as he chooses between the new and old ways. Revolutions, foreign travel, poverty and shameless waste of money are some of the challenges he faces before finding his place. The ending seems a little abrupt leaving so much unresolved.
annabp2067's review against another edition
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
sarah_speaks's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
socorrobaptista's review
4.0
Adorei o final desta trilogia maravilhosa, principalmente a forma como a narrativa entrelaça costumes tradicionais com os novos costumes do século XX que estavam, então, chegando à China. Excelente.
ajordan60's review against another edition
4.0
Every book of this trilogy I have enjoyed greatly. However, I can think of no better ending than what Buck imagined. There are many beautiful moments, but I don't think the writing lends itself to quotations. Each sentence is created by those that come before and dependent on the emotions of history--larger history, personal history, and history of the story.
paul_cornelius's review
3.0
I am not sure just how much readers will learn about China and Chinese culture from the Good Earth Trilogy. I do know you will learn a great deal about Pearl Buck, especially in this concluding volume, A House Divided. Buck does manage effectively to conclude the tale of the Wang family in a satisfying way, but she also indulges in her own ideological polemics. All her personal obsessions--mostly subsumed in the first two books--come to the fore in this final work. All the things Buck concerned herself with in private life are made public causes in A House Divided: women's rights, the cultural arrogance of foreign missionaries in China, the plight of foundlings, the intrusion of foreign ideologies, the issue of unbridgeable racial differences, and the impatience of 1930s youth with modernizing China. Little did she realize that this era, the 1920s and 1930s in China, was a Golden Age, in comparison with what was soon to follow: the murderous invasion of Japan in the "new city," Nanking, the civil war, Mao and communism that resulted in famines that would kill tens of millions, a Cultural Revolution that would suppress and seek to destroy independent thought, and a modern day China in the 21st century that has spoiled its land, left it polluted, and is engaging in a technological dystopia that seeks to encroach on free thought and personal independence.
All that would come after Buck's trilogy. For the readers engaged in the "present" of The Good Earth and its sequels, however, there are other changes. This last book displays an altered style of writing for Buck. One that is markedly inferior to the earlier volumes. The rhythm and the syntax of the earlier novels gives way to a shorter, clipped style. Perhaps this was inevitable as Buck moved her characters from an "archaic" age in the first two novels to a modernizing and revolutionary China in this last. Still, A House Divided often suffers in comparison.
At book's end, the final symbol of Mei-Ling and Yuan in the courtyard of the old earthen house probably gives us a last picture of what Buck wanted the new China to be. A place where people are rooted and belong to past traditions. But also a place willing to accept new ideas and seek to better their world through new ways of "seeing" that were dependent on their appropriateness to old China's ways.
All that would come after Buck's trilogy. For the readers engaged in the "present" of The Good Earth and its sequels, however, there are other changes. This last book displays an altered style of writing for Buck. One that is markedly inferior to the earlier volumes. The rhythm and the syntax of the earlier novels gives way to a shorter, clipped style. Perhaps this was inevitable as Buck moved her characters from an "archaic" age in the first two novels to a modernizing and revolutionary China in this last. Still, A House Divided often suffers in comparison.
At book's end, the final symbol of Mei-Ling and Yuan in the courtyard of the old earthen house probably gives us a last picture of what Buck wanted the new China to be. A place where people are rooted and belong to past traditions. But also a place willing to accept new ideas and seek to better their world through new ways of "seeing" that were dependent on their appropriateness to old China's ways.
daggerheart's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
disasterchick's review
3.0
I really did not like the character of Yuan on which the finale of the trilogy focuses. Yuan tends to let indecision make his choices as he really doesn't make anything happen in his life. The first two books of this series could have taken places 100 to 1,000 years prior because much had stayed this same. In this book is set more in the modern time with automobiles, trains, and women choosing not to marry and having careers. What really kept this book interesting for me was the indirect focus on the changing times - going from an agriculture society to an industrial society. The reflections made about the changes of society is what made this book interesting.