Travel Tuesday: Pearl of China

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Masterfully written, Anchee Min pulls the reader into the story and transports them directly into a time and country full of people as rich in character as they are diverse. Pointedly and unapologetically, indeed at times even graphically, realistic in her depictions of both the incredible beauty as well as the tragic poverty and suffering of a people and country under transformation, she seems to flawlessly sew together a vast spectrum of flaws, virtues, and vulnerabilities into a remarkable tapestry of human nature.

Following the life story of author and humanitarian, Pearl S. Buck, Min gives us a peek into her life through the eyes of a fictional friend who serves as a compilation of several important women who loved and supported Buck. We get to know Buck and her family through the experiences of a native, who not only watches but lives through many changes and challenges including an abusive arranged marriage and the rise of communism.

This book made me fall in love with China and with Pearl Buck. It motivated me to track down a beautiful 1931 edition of her most famous work, The Good Earth. I am waiting for a kid free weekend to disappear into that one.

Considering that Ms. Min's work, in the same path as Mrs. Buck's herself, has been banned in the country depicted in both of their writing, it is my opinion that Min must have done a pretty good job telling not only Buck's story, but simultaneously that of many in such desperate conditions that they lack either the ability or freedom to share their own.

Rating: RD - Reader discretion advised due to some raw content and historical language.

AWBB Points: ! ! ! ! !   5/5

Get your own copy here!

                                                                   

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