Rating: 
Summary: Want to be depressed? Read this book!
Review: This book would only be 1 star if it weren't so well written. Other than that, it's incredibly depressing. Why can't Wang Lung be a happy farmer? Just when things start to go right in his life, something comes along and destroys it. Read it if you must, but if you have a choice, read About A Boy insted.
Rating: 
Summary: awesome
Review: best book i ever read. who could say it better than pearl with her twist at the ending
Rating:
Summary: Moving, humane, this book crosses barriers.
Review: The author herself described this book in her Nobel Lecture as one which arises from the tradition of the Chinese novel, whose styles and subjects were defined by the people, the master storytellers, rather than the scholars, who claimed poetry as their province of the intellect. _The Good Earth_ gives a widely misunderstood people a human face, with common dreams, lusts, frailties, and loves--however much concealed--as well as the courage to embark into the unknown for the sake of a better future.To the reader who summarized this book as "Idealization": I assure you that Ms. Buck was not personally responsible for the deaths of any Tibetans or guilty of other human-rights violations. Neither were the characters with whom the book sympathizes, due to their condition of being terminally fictional. As well, the "workers paradise" depicted in this novel (published 1932) exists in the beginning of the century, decades before the Communists took over in 1949, or the suppression of the Tibetan uprising ten years later. To imply that books dealing with Chinese culture are worthless, or that Chinese arts are disqualified from the consideration of merit as a consequence of history, is also to relegate Goethe and Bach to the flames because they originated from Germany, whence came the Holocaust centuries later. And the fact that Ms. Buck is sympathetic is not surprising: all novelists must be sympathetic to their subjects. Novels are meant to woo, not to castigate, the reader. Pearl Buck may be said to be a precursor of Salman Rushdie in that here, she attempts to tell the story of an entire nation. Praise and indictment are both absent: she is no mere propagandist (unless that sort of thing's to your preference), and she deals with elements of human nature in which strength/weakness are inseparable. The story addresses her concerns at the dual levels of language and humanity, and in immersing the reader in the details of individuals, she also exposes the common truths that hold for everyone. Ms. Buck beautifully upholds Wilde's dictum that art transcends morality. Good morals, good intents, do not make the good book. But there are morals here. The characters are beautiful in their triumph and their misery; they have souls. You and I, and people we know, may be found--somewhere--in these pages.
Rating:
Summary: Real
Review: One of the best books I ever read. The first time I was a freshman in highschool. I have read the book many times since and each time gets better. A book that will stay with you all your life.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites!
Review: I read this book last year as part of a summer reading assignment that i had to do for my freshman English Honors 1 class. I must say, that it was probably one of the best summer reading books that I read. The long descriptions, that I usually cannot stand, were very interesting and taught me alot. I really felt as if I was there. I not only learned about China and its culture, but the naked truth to human behavior.
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Summary: excellent to read
Review: wow is very interest and excellent novel
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Summary: Wonderful book, but a lure to "impractical" studies
Review: I first read this book when I was about 14 years old, loved it, and went on in high school to read every Pearl Buck novel I could get my hands on. However, I want to warn potential young readers that too many Pearl Buck novels read at an impressionable age can lead one to major in an "impractical" subject in college, like Chinese Literature, rather than a more lucrative field like computer programming or engineering! :) This advice comes from someone with a 1987 B.A. in East Asian Studies--a wonderful, fascinating discipline, but not the one I have stayed in to earn a living. Still, my life is richer for having encountered the works of Lu Xun (short stories, which I read in the originals) and Dai Hou Ying (Stones of the Wall, which I read in the translation by F. Wood), etc., works which I would recommend to readers who enjoy Pearl Buck novels.
Rating: 
Summary: A novel of greatest time in Chinese history.
Review: The Good Earth has a great deal of meaning involved. The importance of land and survival is expressed throughout the novel. Pearl Buck has written it so that the reader can feel and understand the real China, it's history, and it's civilization.
Rating:
Summary: The novel has a great overview of China's history.
Review: The Good Earth has a great deal of meaning involved. The importance of land and survival is expressed throughout the novel. Pearl Buck has written so that the reader can feel and understand the real China, it's history, and it's civilization.
Rating:
Summary: pretty good, but not worth reading if it isn't assigned
Review: I read this book for extra credit in my english class last year. I started it with high hopes, but as the chapters plodded along I got more and more annoyed with the unessesary descriptions and way-too-mellow scenes. Nothing really happened in this book. The most interesting part is when they move. ooh, fun. i would not reccomend this book at all. If it's on your summer reading, choose another book!
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