The Good Earth

I understand why this won awards and all. I genuinely hated almost every character at some point and Buck delivered me there with such grace and subtlety, I was caught off-guard.

There are so many wonderful lessons of life woven into this story. The story is well written and was engaging. One of my librarian friends recommended this classic. I may try to find the two books that follow the same story. All gardeners and farmers should read this book. It teaches that with hard work, the earth will provide.
***I want to add something else here.
Celeste Ng gave this book one star based on other reviews. Oh, and she didn't just give it one star, she also actually said she “hated” the book. All based on other reviews. How is that a fair review?
I don't know about you, but when a book has a disclaimer “This is a work of fiction”, I know it is not factual. In my mind, it may have seemed real, but just because a few people thought the book “portrayed” a picture, doesn't mean the book wasn't good.
Celeste may be an author who needs to write all factual details, but if all fiction books were factual, they wouldn't be fiction. How dare she lower the overall score of a good book by basing her review on others reviews. Don't make your opinion of this book based on her review (or any others). Read it and be your own person and form your own opinion. Remember, it's fiction. One more thing, the author actually lived in the place and time where she set the book, but it is still fiction.

Ungrateful children
soon become selfish old men
but the land endures.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would, as it sat on my self a long time.
It is a simple story, told well. A story of China, told by an American - admittedly by one who has had long ties with China, and spent a long time there.
Set in pre-revolution Anhui Province, 1930s, this won a Pulitzer Prize for Novel 1932.
Wang Lung is a poor man, and a farmer on the small plot of land his father and grandfather owned. He marries a slave from the big house in the town - House of Hwang, and sets about bringing up a family. He works hard, as does his wife, and he invests his silver in land, which he buys from the House of Hwang.
The story progresses, with the success of Wang and his commitment to land. It is all about land, with Wang Lung - Land is forever. Land cannot be taken away.
As his children grow older, the become disconnected from the land, they become town people, not farming people.