Tag: 2013 TBR Challenge

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

~ Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader ~ 44 Comments
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Published: 1931
Categories: Classic, China
Source: My own copy
Description:

Wang Lung, rising from humble Chinese farmer to wealthy landowner, gloried in the soil he worked. He held it above his family, even above his gods. But soon, between Wang Lung and the kindly soil that sustained him, came flood and drought, pestilence and revolution….

Through this one Chinese peasant and his children, Nobel Prize-winner Pearl S. Buck traces the whole cycle of life, its terrors, its passion, its persistent ambitions and its rewards. Her brilliant novel beloved by millions of readers throughout the world is a universal tale of the destiny of men.

My Thoughts:

There aren’t enough words to accurately describe my feelings about The Good Earth. Simply put, it is one of the best books ever penned.

The book begins on the morning of his wedding to a slave girl named O-Lan. As he prepares himself we get a sense of the simple, proud, and hardworking man that he is. He is fiercely attached to his land, devoted to his father, and eager to start a family. 

As the old saying goes, behind every great man is a great woman. O-Lan is crucial to Wang Lung’s success. Her skills and smarts make all the difference in the fortunes of their family. 

Captivating characters and irresistible prose have made The Good Earth one of my favorite books of all time.

“But Wang Lung thought of his land and pondered this way and that, with the sickened heart of deferred hope, how he could get back to it. he belonged, not to this scum which clung to the walls of a rich man’s house; nor did he belong to the rich man’s house. He belonged to the land and he could not live with any fullness until he felt the land under his feet and followed a plow in the springtime and bore a scythe in his hand at harvest.” 

“Then Wang Lung, without comprehending it, looked for an instant into the heart of this dull, and faithful creature, who had labored all her life at some task at which she won no reward.”
The Classics Club
2013 TBR Pile Challenge

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

~ Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader ~ 36 Comments

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Publisher: Harper & Brothers
Publication Date: 1943
Source: My own copy
Description:


The beloved American classic about a young girl’s coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness — in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.

My Thoughts:

I first read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn when I was a teenager. I loved the book with my whole heart. That hasn’t changed. I was swept away by the story and the characters all over again with this re-read.

I didn’t grow up in Brooklyn. I didn’t come of age in the early 1900’s. But there is something about this book that makes me feel as if I did. Betty Smith puts you in that time and place and makes it seem as if it’s happening to you. I felt the joys and the sorrows of the Nolan family as if they were my own. 

Francie Nolan is one of my favorite narrators of all time. While her family is ground down by alcoholism, poverty, and illiteracy she keeps striving to better herself. She knows that education is the key to having a better life and she is tenacious in her attempt to learn all that she can. Despite a hard life she finds comfort in the simple joys that come her way.

What brings Francie the most solace? Books! Ah, now there’s a girl after my own heart. 

“Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words.” 

“From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived.” 

“As she read, at peace with the world and happy as only a little girl could be with a fine book and a little bowl of candy, and all alone in the house, the leaf shadows shifted and the afternoon passed. ” 

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is exquisite. I count it among my very favorite books of all time. If you haven’t read this classic you should move it to the very top of your list.

2013 TBR Pile Challenge
The Classics Club