Letter from Peking, a Novel.

Rating:
Summary: A compelling international love story
Review: "Letter from Peking," a novel by Pearl S. Buck, is narrated in the first-person by its main character, Elizabeth MacLeod. Her narration begins from her home in rural Vermont in 1950. Elizabeth has been separated from her husband, Gerald, due to the poltical upheaval in China; he has remained in China to attend to his duties at a university. Gerald is the son of a Scottish-American and a Chinese woman.

As the novel unfolds, Elizabeth reflects on her past life with the absent Gerald. She also tells the story of her ongoing relationships with her and Gerald's son, Rennie; with Gerald's elderly father; and with other people in her life.

"Letter" is a fascinating look at how international political forces can act like a "tidal wave," affecting families profoundly. The book is also an intimate look at a marriage from a woman's perspective, and a compelling study of a biracial young man (Rennie) who is struggling with his dual heritage while making the passage to manhood. There is also an element of political intrigue and danger, although the focus of this book is family relationships and emotions.

Although the dialogue is occasionally a bit stiff, overall I was very impressed by the subtle artistry of Buck's prose. She has an eye for details: an old man's dragon-headed cane, the birth of a calf, "arching maple trees blazing with autumn fire," etc. At its best she attains a delicate, economical poetic prose. This is a fine novel by a writer who, in my opinion, deserves more attention.

Rating:
Summary: A compelling international love story
Review: "Letter from Peking," a novel by Pearl S. Buck, is narrated in the first-person by its main character, Elizabeth MacLeod. Her narration begins from her home in rural Vermont in 1950. Elizabeth has been separated from her husband, Gerald, due to the poltical upheaval in China; he has remained in China to attend to his duties at a university. Gerald is the son of a Scottish-American and a Chinese woman.

As the novel unfolds, Elizabeth reflects on her past life with the absent Gerald. She also tells the story of her ongoing relationships with her and Gerald's son, Rennie; with Gerald's elderly father; and with other people in her life.

"Letter" is a fascinating look at how international political forces can act like a "tidal wave," affecting families profoundly. The book is also an intimate look at a marriage from a woman's perspective, and a compelling study of a biracial young man (Rennie) who is struggling with his dual heritage while making the passage to manhood. There is also an element of political intrigue and danger, although the focus of this book is family relationships and emotions.

Although the dialogue is occasionally a bit stiff, overall I was very impressed by the subtle artistry of Buck's prose. She has an eye for details: an old man's dragon-headed cane, the birth of a calf, "arching maple trees blazing with autumn fire," etc. At its best she attains a delicate, economical poetic prose. This is a fine novel by a writer who, in my opinion, deserves more attention.

Rating:
Summary: Inter racial problems
Review: As a great fan of Pearl Bucks' stories, I was less pleased with this one. Elizabeth, a girl from Vermont, falls in love with Gerald, son of a Scottish college professor and his Chinese wife. Gerald never seems to be at all comfortable in his skin and seems to be constantly battling his two cultures. Elizabeth really forces marriage upon him, trying to overcome his initial reluctance with the strength of her love, and against the advice of her family, moves with him to Peking where they live happily and where their son Rennie is born.
When Communist forces begin the take over of China, Gerald sees no future for his wife and son under this regime and sends them back to America. It's really a sad book with Elizabeth never ceasing to miss Gerald and raising her son alone. M/s Bucks' prose is stilted in the extreme in this book and while this style reads well for conversation between Chinese people, I can't believe that any American woman would talk like this, even after spending 10 years in China.

Rating:
Summary: A Deeply Moving Love Story
Review: I was originally forced to read this novel in high school and didn't expect to like it as I hadn't liked The Good Earth. Letter from Peking turned out to be one of the most deeply moving love stories I've ever read and I still remember it after all these years. It goes deeply into both the joy of love and the high price you have to pay and, quietly in the background, the quiet miseryof life without love. At the beginning of the story, an American woman living with her teenage son in New England is waiting with a desperate grief and hope for a letter from her husband in Peking. She had had to leave for her own safety when the communists took over. Her Chinese husband could not bear to leave his homeland. He loves China too much to be separated from her even though that means separation from his beloved wife and son. The story then recalls their meeting and decision to marry despite the problems of an interracial marriage. It becomes a beautiful tribute to and description of a loving marriage that is eventually torn apart by the greater love of country. Meanwhile, the teenage son is growing up and falling in love with a shallow, pretty girl. The mother has to agonize over whether this marriage will be a tragedy. They love each other now, but is this a healthy love? Can it survive the pressures put on an interracial marriage when it seems more infatuation than love? This question haunts much of the novel as the mother agonizes over what to do. She makes a courageous and painful decision to intervene in a way that will resolve the relationship even at risk of alienating the son she adores. Meanwhile, the long-awaited letter from Peking has arrived. This book is a must read for anyone who likes a genuinely mature love story. I might add that, believe it or not, it has a happy ending. The happy ending is again based on the happiness that maturity, love, acceptance and wise choices can bring. It's a shame it's out of print for this is a book well-worth reading and rereading.

Rating:
Summary: Artificial and tiresome
Review: Pearl Buck attempts to set across several themes - ties to country and to family, wisdom somehow being passed down from the ancestors, some sort of odd idea of the sisterhood of women, and the beauty of first love that endures. Unfortunately, the result is a muddle, and, by the end of the book's first third, one may find oneself yawning at the 'voice' of a middle aged woman droning on and on about how wonderful her sex life has been.

Elizabeth, our heroine and narrator, extols the beauty of nature constantly - whether it is to Vermont or Peking to which she is referring - and there is some naturalness in her vivid descriptions of sunrises and ewe lambs chewing the grass. Otherwise, she seems unreal - a vague woman who seems to think herself hugely wise.

The situations and dialogue are sadly artificial. Elizabeth's sermons to her son make her sound more like an ancient sage than a mother; then, when she fears that Rennie cannot love a girl whose heart can 'only hold one cup' (this, apparently, was confirmed when Elizabeth met and judged her equally one-cup mother), she suddenly shifts loyalties and, with the sisterhood of women coming first, breaks her son's romance lest the girl not be 'protected.' Quite dramatic - and totally out of order for two teenagers having a brief romance while the girl is in Vermont for the summer.

The influence of ancestors is always appearing - and shifting. Rennie, Elizabeth's son, first looks like Gerald, then his mother, then has a Scots rather than a Chinese profile - and his perpetually changing is accompanied by an apparently inherited wisdom. At 17, he is an impeccable son and student, but still has some roughness around the edges. By the advanced age of 19, he is a mature sage, the immaturity vanished, whether through ancestral wisdom's penetration or the magic of his having found the woman whose heart's measure is on a par with his.

Though Elizabeth traces and retraces Gerald's reasons for needing to stay in Peking, it remained a total puzzle to me. No single idea was developed enough for the whole to make sense.

Rating:
Summary: A chaming and a page-turning love story
Review: People should really run to a nearby used books store. This is one of the most inspiring and touching book I have ever read. Even though I'm a Korean and of course, an oriental, 12 year old-boy, I think this is one love story that touches everyone. The author has done a very, very good job of taking one piece and placing somewhere else like rearranging the story. It has the memories of the speaker who was in China, which in this case Elizabeth MacLeod.Its a pity that it is out of print. But you should check every used bookstore. If you are successful of finding Letter From Peking, you have earned a prized treasure.

Rating:
Summary: A prized love story
Review: This book is chraming and inspiring. I highly recommend that you get your hands on this book. Very good book.