This book tells the sweeping story of lowly farmer, Wang Lung, and the many changes he and his family experience in rural China during another era. The story opens as Wang Lung prepares to fetch a slave to marry from the house of the wealthiest family in town. Although this woman, O-Lan, is not much more than a slave in Wang Lung’s house, she dutifully and faithfully, serves her new husband in the house, and by his side out in the fields. After the birth of two sons and a time of good harvest and frugal living, a daughter’s birth signals a change in fortune for the family. Drought causes the family to flee to a large city in order to survive. After a time of living in urban poverty, a lucky turn of events, which O-Lan makes the most of, provides the means and opportunity for Wang Lung to take his family back home, back to his land. Good fortune once again smiles on the family. Wang Lung wisely invests in increasing his land and as his land grows, so does his fortune. He becomes so successful as a farmer, in fact, that he becomes too busy to do any farming, and must delegate work to paid laborers and staff. Ironically, as his fortune grows, so do his domestic troubles. He is no longer satisfied with his meek and selfless wife and takes on another, who is beautiful but useless. His sons, whom he has educated, are not satisfied with living and working on the land and want to move to town. His uncle, not interested in working himself, is demanding to be supported out of the riches Wang Lung has amassed through his own hard labor. It seems that the more that Wang Lung earns, the less peace he has at home. He begins to long for the simple life of his youth, eventually moving back to his old farmhouse in his old age.
I found this story, set in China over 100 years ago, to be completely relevant to our lives today. The irony of working so hard to be financially successful, only to realize the high price that is paid for that success, is such a contemporary theme, that I found it fascinating to realize that this story is so universal. In our current time and place, so many of us have experienced this to some degree. Our efforts to forge a better, easier life often result in a disconnect, in some way. The wistful longing for a simpler time that Wang Lung feels toward the end of his life is something that I think will hit home with many readers.
The Good Earth is a bit slow moving at times, but well worth sticking with. Some characters are very likable and sympathetic, others, not so much. One thing is true, though. There is someone in this story that nearly everyone will recognize.
I give this book 4 1/2 bookmarks.
Reviewed by: Anna
