Daughter of the Earth kept me bewildered, most of the time. A good novel, in the beginning, focusing on Marie's life, her trials as a child and later as a young woman. The character portrait of Marie, left me dreading to pick up the book. Marie turned everything positive into major problems. Smedley created a very dismal portrait of her character and her connection with the term "love" was very depressing. Not to mention "Marie" was a very self-centered person. From the middle to the end of the book I found the text very strange, almost robotic. It also seemed to change from the "story of Marie" to one of "politics in United States". I thus found the beginning of the book very misleading for the ending.

This is an interesting book because it is about a subject and time not otherwise written about (or at least known to me) much in American literature, from a woman's point of view. Lovers of Steinbeck would find much to admire and enjoy here. It is a very ideological work. Smedley, after all, was a champion of the Chinese revolution and friend of Mao Tse-tung.

It is beautifully and evocatively written, so it does not read like a treatise, but it is a fundamentally political work - feminist and socialist. It is about STRENGTH and politics.

If you are interested in rural poverty, and fighting against the odds and limitations in early 20th century America, you will find much in this book. Fans of Maya Angelou may like this too.

I read this book 30 years ago and have picked it up again. Ms. Smedley gives a first person account of her life as a revolutionary union organizer and feminist during a time when few women were allowed out alone! This book had a profound impact on how i understand feminism, economic tyranny, the right to organize, and solidarity among women!

The Mackinnons have done a great service in writing this book about a great American, as shown by their interviews which started on June 10, 1974 and ended on July 25, 1985. They also covered the world, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, New Delhi, Calcutta, Zurich and in all parts of the U.S. Their knowledge and fluency in Chinese contributed to their research in ways that other biographers will have difficult in overcoming. Their devotion and sacrifice to their subject is amply demonstrated.

It seems to this reviewer that two themes came together in Agnes Smedly's life and in the interests of the biographers, the feminist movement and China's attaining its status on the world political stage. Unfortunately during the time that it took to gather the material and write the book, both of the movements have changed substantially and the people interested in them have moved to other concepts and ideas. Another cross lays over the book- is it to be an academic treatise or a popular biography? The academic treatise seems to have won out and in large sections become a rote laying out of dates, times and movements.

Not coming from the academic world, I have to assume that in order to have a proper foundation and references, this is the way it has to be done. Unfortunately, Smedly does not come to life. I had no feeling of the person involved. The parts that have fire and verve are those quotations from Smedley's own writings. Nothing is presented that contradicts her own analysis of herself and her point of view, whether from her novelized form, her personal correspondence or her other writings. I got the feeling that more of her own writings would have given a better picture than what was written.

The book is well worth reading, but its greatest value may be in bringing together the material about Smedly in an organized form and its whereabouts for either the MacKinnons or others to write the biography that will bring her to life.

(The MacKinnons were the principle organizers of the US/China Peoples Friendship Association of Phoenix in 1975).

This review was written on August 15, 1988 by Frank Kadish. Jan MacKinnon died on Sunday, September 26, 1999 in Phoenix, Arizona.