Pearl of China [Paperback]

 

 

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`One slip in tone and `Good morning' becomes `Let us go to bed together'.'

While this novel is constructed around the early life of Pearl S. Buck in China, she is only part of the unfolding story. The protagonist is a fictional Chinese girl named Willow, the only child of a destitute family living in Chin-kiang at the end of the 19th century. Pearl Sydenstricker was the elder daughter of zealous Christian missionaries from America stationed in China. Pearl and Willow become good friends, and this friendship is sustained through the disruption caused by the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 and Pearl's removal first to Shanghai and then to the USA for education.

Time moves on: both Willow and Pearl marry and live very different lives. The novel touches on Pearl's later life, but increasingly it becomes a story of Willow and a China in uproar - especially after the Nanking Incident in 1927. Pearl left China permanently in 1934, and was not allowed to return. China's 20th century history is woven into the novel and through Willow's eyes we experience the turmoil of the civil war, and the rise of Mao.

I have mixed feelings about this novel. I enjoyed the introduction to Pearl's early life and liked the character of Willow as a link to Pearl but also as a narrator of the changes in China. Pearl's role changed over the course of the novel: at the beginning she had a clear, vibrant role. By the end Pearl's influence, but not her presence was the defining force. But perhaps that is the key: this is a novel and those who want to know more about Pearl S.Buck will find other sources. Those who want to know more about `her' China need look no further than her novels.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Reason for Reading: I am a huge fan of Pearl S. Buck, having read almost all of her books.

The book purports to be the fictionalized story of Pearl Buck's life in China told through the eyes of a lifetime Chinese friend. Pearl's mother went to the US to give birth to Pearl after losing several babies but soon came back to China with the babe in arms and Pearl was to remain there well into her thirties, except for brief periods away while she sought higher eduction in the US. She even married and came back a missionary herself. Willow, her fictional friend, tells the story of her own life and how it intermingled with Pearl's and through this the reader gets glimpses into the great writer's life, who though she was white on the outside was Chinese on the inside.

The book is enjoyable and we are given a touching look inside the day-to-day life of a small Chinese village, Chin-kiang, from the early 1900s through the end of Mao's Cultural Revolution. The villagers themselves are eccentric and lovable and the reader falls in love with the people and way of life, though one must watch out for the war lords, in Chin-kiang before the terrible atrocities of the revolutions started.

I'm not sure I completely agree with the author's portrayal of Pearl's mother and father. She does have the personalities correct but it somehow feels overboard. It has been a long time since I read Buck's two biographies, that each tell the same story, one through her father's eyes, The Fighting Angel, the other through her mother's, The Exile, so I can't say anything concrete but I am left with an odd feeling here.

The same goes for Pearl actually. Since the author chose the rather strange narrative of telling Pearl's life through the eyes of a (non-existant) Chinese best friend from childhood, the reader can only experience those parts of Buck's life in which the friend is involved. Thus creating long passages of time where Pearl Buck is not present. I have only read Buck's first biography, My Several Worlds, but there is a large amount of information missing on Pearl's life and the topics that were close to heart. I'm rather dismayed that Anchee Min glosses over the atrocities of the Nanking Massacre so quickly, as it is a subject that Pearl writes about in much detail.

Now, rather than being the story of Pearl Buck, this novel is more the story of Willow a Chinese peasant who happened to know Pearl Buck. We are shown how her childhood is influenced as she becomes like a sister to Pearl and Carie (Pearl's mother) becomes like a mother to her for her entire life, as her own mother died when she was very young. Her father is converted to Christianity, fake on his part to start with, but eventually a true convert and the reader sees how being a Christian in Mao's China affects ones life. Actually, the most riveting part of this novel is the Mao years. I always find reading about the Cultural Revolution almost unbelievable and then terrifying when the reality sets in my mind.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I think it is a mistake to assume this is a book about Pearl Buck and will be better enjoyed with the understanding that it is the story of a peasant girl who knew Pearl for thirty-odd years. I certainly enjoyed the writing style and if I had known nothing about Pearl S. Buck to begin with, it would be a teaser of an introduction to this great woman and perhaps may make readers look up some of her lesser known work. This is the first Anchee Min book I've read and I see she has written several others; I will definitely be reading her backlist.

Willow Yee lived in Chin-kiang, a small town far away from the city of Peking, on the south side of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu province. She lived there with her father and grandmother, Nai Nai. Her mother had died after her father rented her out to pay his debts and she became pregnant. He had given her "magic root powder" from the local herbalist. It was meant to expel the fetus but also killed her!

Willow was seven-years-old in 1897 and she was terribly afraid she was going to lose her Nai Nai like she lost her mother. Grandma was receiving men in the back of the bungalow they lived in. While Nai Nai was busy entertaining her men, Willow and her father worked as seasonal farm hands, he planting rice, wheat and cotton and Willow planting soybeans. In the off season her father stole and Willow, now 8-years-old, was herself a seasoned thief. Hunger does terrible things to people.

One day they met a missionary named Absalom Sydenstricker who walked the streets holding a Bible and proclaiming God was people's best friend. He held his church services in an old store. Willow's father befriended him for the sole purpose of stealing from him. Absalom's wife, Carie, was beside herself and in tears when he even stole the churches doormat. After stealing his wallet, Willow hurried down a side street and out of town. She felt as though someone was watching and following her so she took off running as fast as she could toward the hills, after a couple of miles she stopped and sat down. As Willow began to open the wallet she heard a noise and knew someone was approaching her. Suddenly she heard: "...you stole my father's wallet"! It turned out to be Absalom and Carie's daughter, Pearl. Pearl would eventually become known as none other than Pearl S. Buck!

I have read all of Pearl's books but had never really read too much about her personal life. I assumed she was a happy, contented, well-educated woman and author all her life, but I was terribly mistaken. What I learned in this book about Pearl's "personal" life was truly sad and literally devastating. The book is rich in history, wars and revolutions, love of family and the importance of friendship. The friendship between Willow and Pearl is all consuming and will touch the very deepest parts of your heart. The scene near the end of the novel at the grave will have you weeping from the beautiful one woman service.

This was an extremely well-written novel. I was so taken in that I kept turning the pages faster and faster. It was one of those books you didn't want to put down. If you haven't read any of Pearl S. Buck's books, I highly recommend "The Good Earth", along with this one, of course.

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