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A review by corrieherman
Dragon Seed by Pearl S. Buck
4.0
I have pure devotion to Pearl Buck as a writer. Her characters are beautiful, flawed but simple. There is a tangible emotional pull in her placement of people in time and country. And I am completely enraptured by stories set in China where ritual and tradition exist and yet get upended. She does such an amazing job of telling those stories.
Dragon Seed is up near the top of my list of favorites from P. Buck to date. While the writing is not as poetic as that in The Good Earth and the pacing can seem a bit inconsistent, I found this story and cast of characters more compelling. I was easily absorbed into the lives of the Ling Tan family and the dramatic and evil turns that WWII and the Japanese invasion had on life in rural China. I also hated and loved the patriarchal traditions that they tried so hard to keep all along the way.
The women in Buck’s stories are oppressed by today’s standards and yet Buck does such a great job of showing you where their power lied even in those conditions. She doesn’t let you forget that they wielded power in their own way, through the only means left to them – their children, their bodies, and their cunning. They didn’t rule the world. They barely existed above property. They did their best when they had to. There is so much you can dissect from her characterization of the mothers and daughters in these families. An, ‘over a glass of wine’ discussion for sure.
I’m excited that Pearl Buck was such a prolific writer – I have so much more to explore. Recommendations for her novels that you think are great are highly encouraged.
Dragon Seed is up near the top of my list of favorites from P. Buck to date. While the writing is not as poetic as that in The Good Earth and the pacing can seem a bit inconsistent, I found this story and cast of characters more compelling. I was easily absorbed into the lives of the Ling Tan family and the dramatic and evil turns that WWII and the Japanese invasion had on life in rural China. I also hated and loved the patriarchal traditions that they tried so hard to keep all along the way.
The women in Buck’s stories are oppressed by today’s standards and yet Buck does such a great job of showing you where their power lied even in those conditions. She doesn’t let you forget that they wielded power in their own way, through the only means left to them – their children, their bodies, and their cunning. They didn’t rule the world. They barely existed above property. They did their best when they had to. There is so much you can dissect from her characterization of the mothers and daughters in these families. An, ‘over a glass of wine’ discussion for sure.
I’m excited that Pearl Buck was such a prolific writer – I have so much more to explore. Recommendations for her novels that you think are great are highly encouraged.