And I'll reserve comments until you finish :)

Well, I finished it. I enjoyed it overall, but came away feeling glad it was over. Ready to move on to something else. After a while I got tired of all the complaining sons and women and relatives. Someone on the board had said it was an epic in a short book, and i agree. I feel I lived a lifetime as Wang Lung!

It was a favorite of mine in HS, read it a dozen times. Was always taken by the aging of Wang Lung and how the world seemed to change around him without his noticing. Also taken by the changes in luck of his family and other familys over time.

What was funny tho was in a college Chinese History class, we read the book. It was the first time I really saw what an absolute jerk Wang Lung was - and where I always thought his sons were ungrateful, I then realized that they had a darn good point. The one saving grace he had was his care for his disabled child, all the way to the end.

I read this when I was about 14. I thought it was the best book I had ever read. I don't think I will ever forget the way it made me feel. I have often thought about reading it again, but I don't want to find out that I might no longer enjoy it as much.

I enjoyed the book. I too re read it a few years ago and you do get a different perspective as you age, probably true of many books we've read if we were to re read them. My 38 year old daughter read it this summer for the first time and she called me every day saying she was so tired of hearing about ... the land....the land.....the land...and she was relieved to finish it.

The main reason this book is so famous is that it was the first book by a Western author to portray Chinese people as real people rather than stereotypes. Otherwise it's not a great book.

I didn't know that, alicia. And the strength of the book I think lies in her characters and the events that surround and overtake them. Her sense of history was pitch perfect. But I'd never put it in a list of top ten, or even top 100.

BTW - she wrote several books, and the fiction, for the most part, was much less than this one. What was interesting however is that in each book there is a mentally handicapped character. Her one and only child was severly mentally handicapped (simliar to Wang's daughter). She wrote about her daughter in a memoir; I remember it being very moving, tho I can't recall the name.

Cindy, I too agree that she possesses the ability to capture Chinese culture in the written form. I read the book last year and liked it.

I believe the memoir was titled The Child Who Never Grew.

Cindy,
I read The Time is Noon. Is that the one?

Oh, books4joy got it - Child That Never Grew

I remember that title tho, think I might have read it. Can you tell me more?

It was written in 1967. I just looked at it quickly after many years. It is about a young woman who desperately wants a child. A man comes along that wants to marry her and she does even though she considers him an oaf. She has a baby, but over a period of months realizes that he is very delayed in his development. I don't want to ruin it for you if you haven't read it.