"I cannot cut it off without asking my father!" And the barber laughed and skirted the round spot of hair.
When it was finished and the money counted into the barber's wrinkled, water-soaked hand, Wang Lung had a moment of horror. So much money!
This is one of the instances how the farmer Wang Lung is introduced to us in this epic novel, on the day of his marriage.
A man with bouts of moments of shame at his own thoughts. Ashamed to say aloud that he wished the house to look neat on his marriage day. Ashamed to tell his father that he wished to clean his body for his wife. Ashamed when he desired for his wife to like him as a husband. Ashamed to realise his momentous curiosity of his wife's past as a slave in a great house. Dutiful and a traditional family man, he led his life on a foundational belief that the land was a source of all livelihoods and that the land would not fail him.
The Good Earth by Nobel winner Pearl S Buck is the life story of Wang Lung. Story of his tumultuous journey from a poor farmer to a desolate cart-puller to a rich lord. And once he is rich, it's about his spiritual journey from a status-conscious, lustful, selfish person back to a caring but remorseful old man. Through his dynamic transformations, the one thing that remains intact is his attachment to the land, physical and emotional.
While this journey is neither exemplar nor unique, what deserves praise is a rare narrative in mainstream literature of a part of old China (which is found to be today's Suzhou in Anhui province), more than a hundred years ago, about that section of people who relied on the age-old farming life for sustenance. For the first time, I read, in several instances, descriptions of bodily labor on fields: about hoeing and ploughing, threshing the grains, flailing the beans. I read about Wang Lung's feelings while working with earth, about his gratitude for the fruits of the earth. It is evocative of the power of mother nature. The story speaks of a life of people for whom rice was a staple, had spare means of entertainment (compared to today) like the storyteller's booth, who called trains as Firewagons, to whom having silver coins was a luxury. Story of the times when gambling was a sin and questioning elders was disrespectful.
Although filled with dramatic events, my favourite aspect of this saga is the character of O-lan and her relationship with Wang Lung through thick and thin. As hardworking as Wang, if not more, she buried all her desires and agonies under her empty, expressionless face yet showed unflinching courage in the face of adversity. In O-lan, Buck makes a case of loyalty against beauty. It's a shame that mainstream cinema needed to have a good-looking protagonist (mostly fair/white) when it came to matching physical descriptions.
I was intrigued and also glad about the use of a localised language here. Being an American, based on her public interviews, it seems she was well-versed with English as a native language despite her many years of stay in China; yet she chose to present it differently.
"Well, here is a thing!" he said in astonishment.
To me, it conveyed a fresh, unknown culture. The fact that she lived in Anhwei also shows throughout the novel, a prominent example being detailed perspectives of two opposite regions as experienced by Wang Lung and his family. Her respectful treatment of all her characters is notable.
This bestselling book won a Pulitzer prize but was surprisingly banned in China from 1947 to 1994 for surprising reasons. Another unfortunate fact was that though the book was adapted by Hollywood, it could not and did not cast the supposedly befitting Anna May Wong in the Oscar-winning role of O-lan. My detailed review was compelled by the Goodreads review by Celeste Ng, an author whose work I have admired. She gave the book 1-star for its general perception as a portrayal of China. I understand her angst and would like to clarify that my 4-stars are for the caring and modest portrayals, though not definitive, of agrarian life, an unusual language, and for the memorable O-lan.
