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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN num: 9781559210348
ISBN number: 1559210346
Label: Moyer Bell
Manufacturer: Moyer Bell
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 348
Printing Date: 1994-04
Publishing house: Moyer Bell
Sale Popularity Level: 16065
Studio: Moyer Bell
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Product Description:
This is a portrayal of China in the midst of revolution.
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Rated by buyers 
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The best of the trilogy. Pearl S Buck creates a Tolstoyesque picture of Chinese agrarian life: harsh, simple, man vs nature. Important yesterday in understanding Chinese roots and how far that huge nation has come in the past few decades.
Rated by buyers 
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The final book in the House of Earth trilogy was my least favorite and most disconnected of the three. She jumps into the third generation and third book with not a whole lot of background or character development (except for Yuan), so I cared the least about the characters, their situations and trials. The story was interesting, but I found that I could not relate as well to the characters or understand their plight. But I think she did a marvelous job at showing the differences between the generations and how exposure to new ideas, cultures and technology can quickly change the traditions of a culture; sometimes the change is good and beneficial, sometimes it's detrimental. I also like how she juxtiposed Yuan, who tries to hold on to his tradition and country and resists change, to other family members who embraced the change with all their hearts. I think that The Good Earth is a brillant read, but if you missed the subsequent two in the trilogy it wouldn't be a tragedy.
Rated by buyers -
A HOUSE DIVIDED is the final book of Pearl S. Buck's trilogy about the family of Wang Lung, the protagonist of THE GOOD EARTH. This book finds his grandson, Wang Yuan, son of the warlord Wang the Tiger, graduating from the war college at the beginning of the very first Chinese Cultural Revolution. Yuan, a serious, thoughtful, but willful boy does not want to follow in his father's footsteps, but instead feels an affinity with the earth and growing things as his grandfather Wang Lung did.
Yuan defies his father and runs away to live in his grandfather's old mud farmhouse. This begins a chain of events which take Yuan across the world. He ends up in the coastal city where his half-sister and her mother live, as well as his uncle, Wang the Landlord, along with his spoiled family. Yuan gets exposed to, but never really embraces, the westernized party lifestyle of his half-sister and the revolutionary activities of his cousins Sheng and Meng.
After Yuan is arrested as a revolutionary, his family ransoms him and sends him to study in America, where he spends six years attaining an advanced degree in horticulture. Being a foreigner in a strange land causes Yuan to examine all his feelings, beliefs and prejudices. He is doubly introspective when he returns to China and sees his country anew through foreign eyes. Yuan is caught in a trap by his education, neither belonging wholly to either the old China or the new, his heart as divided as his family - half live in the modern coastal city and half live back in the country.
I thought this was the best of the trilogy because Yuan's introspection makes him the most well-developed and conflicted character in this multi-generational tale. However, Buck's plodding, biblical style is not for everyone and I will admit that every page seemed like as two or three (or more!) It took me several weeks to complete this novel.
Rated by buyers -
It looks like it has some really old stuff in it that's why i think that i will like it.
Rated by buyers -
I would say that this book could certainly stand alone simply because there was so much happening in this turbulent setting of the revolution. In many ways "A House Divided" was my favorite of the "House of Earth" trilogy, (still, The Good Earth was beautiful!) because it was an adventure that spanned the globe. Yet there was no lack in telling how the main character evolved emotionally and intellectually from the very first page to the last.
Many times throughout the book, Pearl Buck successfully showed how Yuan's world was filled with grey and white; no grey. For example, a person was expected to be 100% revolutionary, or a 100% traditionalist. Or one had to be 100% Chinese, or 100% foreign. Yuan was a very conflicted man from the start and struggled with these issues pretty much until the end. To me that was the most intriguing part.
I was fascinated with Yuan's six-year stay in America. He experienced racism first-hand, the confusion of living in another country, trying to assimilate, seeing and appreciating the beauty of the country and the friendliness and openness of some of its people, the freedom to pursue one's happiness and potential, but clearly his own traditions and culture prevented him from fully accepting the foreigners into his heart.
I think the author gave some real insight into the minds of people living during the revolution. Many people, like Yuan's cousin, Meng, were fevently passionate about it. It was clear that it took a certain kind of person, with a linear, unwavering focus in order to hasten a violent change. In this case, that meant one had to be filled with anger and hatred.
Also through Yuan, we were exposed to the hypocrisy of the revolution as well. While the ideology spoke for the common people, the revolutionists were frustrated and repulsed by the common people's ways of life, such as they were for centuries. Eventually, many gave up on the older generation, and focused on the youth of the poor, because they were more easily influenced. Of course, it touched on the fact that no one was permitted to question this new state. Those who followed the cause were expected to accept it blindly.
In keeping with his torn mental state, Yuan's hesitation to decide where he stood in terms of the cause was understandable. His experience gave him first-hand knowledge of how frustrating it was to live under the old filial rules, yet he'd also witnessed the softer moments with his father, and others who represented the old world. He at least was mature enough to realize that people were deeply complicated, which made it impossible for him to truly believe that "rich people are evil, poor people are good." At the same time, as much as he loved the land, and found peace of mind working among the common people, he was at times, disgusted by their surroundings, their "odor" permeating his space no matter where he went.
Pearl Buck eloquently described the same grey and white issues of the heart in Yuan. Time and time again, he wished to be emotionally open, yet didn't dare. Yuan was repulsed by the display of free behavior of the new generation of China and the young Americans. Again, his reaction to the American women who danced with his cousin Sheng was an interesting glimpse into his perception of himself. Although Yuan hated the white women who ignored or rejected Sheng because he was Chinese, he had no respect for the white women who did dance with Sheng. And he felt ashamed for Sheng for "lowering his standards" to such women.
Yes, perhaps the end was unrealistic, but as a hopeless romantic American, I can appreciate it. However, one can see the huge circle this book fills out with the trilogy. Yuan is ultimately the one who understands and respects his grandfather's efforts with the land, back in the very first novel. Yuan is the one who finally repairs the ties to his father and ends the cycle of broken relationships. The trilogy ends as his father, the Tiger, spends his final days in the earthen house where he was born.
When I read certain books, I sometimes imagine what they would be like on film, and I think it would be fantastic to see it done with the entire "House of Earth" trilogy. But then again, is it even possible to make a film that would do this epic justice?
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