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A review by amarj33t_5ingh
A House Divided by Pearl S. Buck
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
A House Divided, the redemption of Wang Lung through his grandson Wang Yuang who straddles two inter-clashing worlds: his native China and the fast encroaching West.
Wang Yuan is the only son of the veteran warlord Wang the Tiger. But unlike the Tiger, he envisions beating his swords into ploughshares. This does not endear him to his father for whom war is a religion. The Tiger fled his own father's seemingly monotonous farming life, but it is this very life his own son craves.
Exiled by the Tiger, Yuan finds shelter with his sister but only to be entrapped in a world of fatal melodrama in which he is arraigned for revolutionary tendencies and then exiled once again to the USA.
America, the promised land holds no promise for Yuan who rejects its superficiality and forced empathy.
He returns to a changed China where men like his father are now oppressed by a new social dynamic and where the very essence of Chinese identity is itself under heavy attack from the powers of liberalism. But where the only unchanging element is the beloved land of his grandfather and it is upon this land he finds his salvation.
Once again, Buck paints a rich tapestry of Chinese life juxtaposed against the non-Chinese. Her elegant prose depicts a fast changing world which leaves the youth rootless but also makes them the masters of their own destiny.
Wang Yuan is the only son of the veteran warlord Wang the Tiger. But unlike the Tiger, he envisions beating his swords into ploughshares. This does not endear him to his father for whom war is a religion. The Tiger fled his own father's seemingly monotonous farming life, but it is this very life his own son craves.
Exiled by the Tiger, Yuan finds shelter with his sister but only to be entrapped in a world of fatal melodrama in which he is arraigned for revolutionary tendencies and then exiled once again to the USA.
America, the promised land holds no promise for Yuan who rejects its superficiality and forced empathy.
He returns to a changed China where men like his father are now oppressed by a new social dynamic and where the very essence of Chinese identity is itself under heavy attack from the powers of liberalism. But where the only unchanging element is the beloved land of his grandfather and it is upon this land he finds his salvation.
Once again, Buck paints a rich tapestry of Chinese life juxtaposed against the non-Chinese. Her elegant prose depicts a fast changing world which leaves the youth rootless but also makes them the masters of their own destiny.