I could not believe the same author who wrote The Good Earth had penned this book. It concerns an ancient English castle with two elderly inhabitants, Lord Richard and his frail little wife, whose name i have already forgotten. Enter a dashing American Millionare who wants to take the castle apart, brick by brick, and take it back to America to house the wonderful art works his Mother purchased over the years. Of Course, Sir Richard is incensed and things go from bad to worse with murder being done toward the end. Who is the maid, Kate? Only the reader knows for sure. I hope somebody will read this and let me know how Pearl Buck could have penned this and TGE.

I recently bought this book at a "library sell out" were it just caught my eye. This is a rather unusual tale. Sir Richard and Lady Mary are out of money and need to sell their castle, with great regret. The castle is about 1,000 years old and had many royal people live in it or visit it. The State has offered to turn it into a prison. John Blayne, a wealthy American comes, wishing to buy, and them move the castle to Connecticut. There is a maid that Blayne it sure is not only a maid and an old man who claims to be her granddad. However, is he? This is a very nice book and fun to read.

As an Indian, I strongly feel that Pearl Buck has not done a good job of portraying a real Indian character. Her descriptive writing is great, however the characters she has, such as Jagat, are not portrayed as a proper Indian. Pearl Buck might have tried to intertwine East and West together in this book, but in the attempt, she strechted the "trueness" of the character, resulting in the characters to sound fake. For a traveller who has never gone to India or travelled in it, it will reveal the beauty of this country. However, if this book is to be read to know about the Indian culture, this is clearly not the book to read.

Mandala gives a fascinating view into the class structure of Indian society. Buck paints a wonderful portrait of the traditions, geography and people of India. The plot centers around Jagat, an aristocratic married man who unwillingly begins to fall in love with a younger American woman. By the end of the novel, the reader is engrossed by both the spirituality of the characters and the country.

Chief is gay. Oh yea horrible book notes because it did not mention details in the plot of the good earth.

From the moment you open this book and begin chapter one you are hooked. The way Pearl Buck describes the characters and setting you can perfectly picture them in your mind. When meeting the farmer Wang Lung, you see his love for the land from the beginning of the book. When Wang Lung goes to meet his chosen bride O-lan, Pearl Buck shows the thought process of men and what they feel is beautiful in a woman. From describing the binding of the feet and how Wang Lung is greatly disopointed with O-lan and her seemingly large feet. Pearl Buck shows how faithful O-lan is, being alone during birth and getting back in the feilds the same day to help Wang, even on her death bed O-lan is faithful to Wang. Pearl aslo disscusses the value of men and women children and how Wang took pride in his boys and shame in his girls.When there is a great famine in the village, you can feel how poor these people were and how they struggled to survive, even leaving thier land to go find food. The protagonist and antagonist are clearly dipicted, with Wang Lung struggling with himself and society. The most disturbing part of the book is when Wang Lung meets Lotus Blossm and she becomes his mistress. The luxeries he gives her over O-lan because she has small feet and hands is discusting. The way Pearl Buck shows how men felt about women and how they were just property and nothing else, and the way he breaks O-lan down and treats her like trash because of her feet. The way Pearl shows how he comes and fluants the affair in O-lan's face is absolutly heart wrenching. The way Wang Lung climbs the social ladder and eventually moves away from his land, shows how money changes everything but can never change the persons soul. Throughout the book Wang always returns to his land, even on his death bed he returns to the Good Earth, the land where he built his foundation, the land where he built himself. The ending isn't as satisfying as the rest of the book but, it gives good meaning to the title of the book. This is a extrodianary book, that dipicts social status in China, a woman's value in life, beauty and ugliness, money, religion, love and friendship. I don't know what more you could ask from a book.

I'm no expert on Korea or Korean history, though I did live there for six months some years ago. At that time, I learned enough about the country to realize that THE LIVING REED is a joke. If you like soap opera, uplifting prose about valiant people striving to overcome whatever, then this book could be for you. But, if you like reasonably authentic background and depiction of central characters who are not cardboard figures, then think twice before devoting too much of your time to such a book. Pearl Buck had a hit with 'The Good Earth', true. But she tried to capitalize on that and churned out more and more 'uplifting sagas' of this type. OK, so maybe she did it to increase understanding of Asia in the USA. It was for a good cause. But what we are doing here is reviewing books. This book is just not very good. Times have changed and it's out of fashion (happily) to regard individuals of any one nation as particularly charged with moral values, fighting spirit, special will power, etc. These traits are pretty well spread across the human race. You will not find this observation salient in THE LIVING REED. The Koreans are portrayed as a nation of heroes and heroines. That's bunk. They are people just like everyone else. However, it IS true that this is a second-rate novel just like a lot of Buck's others.

It's an OK story. Worth reading. As to its historical accuracy, it is a novel which is a work of fiction. Most historical novels are not accurate--the novelist just takes a place and point in time and uses it to tell his/her story. Whether or not it is historical accurate isn't an issue-it is fiction.

There are many different ways to review the writings of any kind.Here we have an old novel written by a woman who grew up in China and understood the cultural differences. It is by no means the most accurate description of Korean history or the way people lived of her time. However, I ended up admiring her attempt to know better and in the end to have understood the people and the way of their living and struggle. Nobody can understand the cultural differences and the values of the society unless we live on both sides of the world. That was what she did and used it for her writing. It was a good writing as a novel and described exactly the way of living of the Korean people during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Unbelievable? That is because you have no idea of the real core of different cultures.For example, my family maintains 1,000 years of written history of family geneology of my clan.It shows how we died during the struggle and how we maintain our family by a written code of conduct based on Humanism. That is the reason why Korean are nationalistic.That was accurately described in her writing.

Well, this book, though wonderfully written, is very boring for most young people of today. Some in the older generation may enjoy how the old Mrs. Wang is able to do so much in her old age, but there's no action or adventure that the youth of today long to read about.

Well, we (our class) had to read this story in Literature. It was ok, but it wasn't one of my favorites.
Setting:
by the banks of the Yellow River in China in 1937 when the Japanese were attacking the Chinese.
Conflict:
1. Will Mrs. Wang succeed in saving her village from the river? (main conflict)
2. Will Mrs. Wang succeed in saving her loved one from the Japanese? (secondary conflict)
Rising Action:
While checking the level of water Mrs. Wang's grandson tells her the Japanese are invading China.
During the night, Japanese planes drop bombs on the village
Mrs. Wang makes sure that all of the people she loves are safely out of the village
She helps a man in trouble because his plane crashed.
The Chinese soldiers tell her that the Japanese have killed everyone in a neighboring village, including her brother and that the Japanese are on their way to her village
She sees the Japanese soldiers approaching
Climax:
Mrs. Wang opens the flood gates

Resolution: the flood water kills the Japanese soldiers and saves the people that Mrs. Wang loves.
Falling Action:
Mrs. Wang drowns in the river

Characters:
Mrs. Wang (main)

It was neat, because of the way the grandma was, she didn't believe in things unless she saw it. It was cool when she killed the whole army, but I would have been better if she would have been rewarded and live to tell her story. I think this is a good book on the way that old people are and how they think of present day stuff.