Written by Pearl S. Buck, the story of Wang Lung and his family is so familiar despite the foreign setting. The Good Earth is one of my favorite books and the relationships and struggles between husband and wife, father and sons, man and nature is dynamic and touching.
It begins with Wang Lung, a niave young man off to get a bride from the great house in the village. From here we watch as he stumbles into adulthood and we can see how his life opens, develops and how his prosperity grows with his family. But does his prosperity and love of land begin to separate him from his family and his traditional ideals?
You don't have to read too much into it, you don't need to analyze what's going on. It's just a great read because it has pieces of things that we know and also a view of life in a place that we don't know. Probably why it won the Pulitzer Prize.
