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The Promise
A compelling historical novel about the tragic alliance between Chinese and English forces in Burma during World War II
Burma is under attack from the Japanese army, and a unit of Chinese soldiers is sent to aid endangered British forces trapped behind enemy lines. China’s assistance hinges on a In return, the Allies will supply China with airplanes and military equipment, much needed to protect their own civilian population. But the troops—including a young commander named Lao San, whom Buck fans will remember from Dragon Seed—are met with ingratitude on both sides. The Burmese deplore any friend of their abusive colonizers, and the prejudiced British soldiers can’t bring themselves to treat the Chinese as true allies. As the threat of disaster looms and the stakes grow higher, the relations between the British and Chinese troops become ever more fraught. A trenchant critique of colonialism and wartime betrayal, The Promise is Buck at her evocative best. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.
Burma is under attack from the Japanese army, and a unit of Chinese soldiers is sent to aid endangered British forces trapped behind enemy lines. China’s assistance hinges on a In return, the Allies will supply China with airplanes and military equipment, much needed to protect their own civilian population. But the troops—including a young commander named Lao San, whom Buck fans will remember from Dragon Seed—are met with ingratitude on both sides. The Burmese deplore any friend of their abusive colonizers, and the prejudiced British soldiers can’t bring themselves to treat the Chinese as true allies. As the threat of disaster looms and the stakes grow higher, the relations between the British and Chinese troops become ever more fraught. A trenchant critique of colonialism and wartime betrayal, The Promise is Buck at her evocative best. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.
339 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1943
473 people are currently reading
887 people want to read
About the author
Pearl S. Buck
783 books3,032 followersPearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for The Good Earth, the best-selling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and which won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China" and for her "masterpieces", two memoir-biographies of her missionary parents.
Buck was born in West Virginia, but in October 1892, her parents took their 4-month-old baby to China. As the daughter of missionaries and later as a missionary herself, Buck spent most of her life before 1934 in Zhenjiang, with her parents, and in Nanjing, with her first husband. She and her parents spent their summers in a villa in Kuling, Mount Lu, Jiujiang, and it was during this annual pilgrimage that the young girl decided to become a writer. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, then returned to China. From 1914 to 1932, after marrying John Lossing Buck she served as a Presbyterian missionary, but she came to doubt the need for foreign missions. Her views became controversial during the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy, leading to her resignation. After returning to the United States in 1935, she married the publisher Richard J. Walsh and continued writing prolifically. She became an activist and prominent advocate of the rights of women and racial equality, and wrote widely on Chinese and Asian cultures, becoming particularly well known for her efforts on behalf of Asian and mixed-race adoption.
Buck was born in West Virginia, but in October 1892, her parents took their 4-month-old baby to China. As the daughter of missionaries and later as a missionary herself, Buck spent most of her life before 1934 in Zhenjiang, with her parents, and in Nanjing, with her first husband. She and her parents spent their summers in a villa in Kuling, Mount Lu, Jiujiang, and it was during this annual pilgrimage that the young girl decided to become a writer. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, then returned to China. From 1914 to 1932, after marrying John Lossing Buck she served as a Presbyterian missionary, but she came to doubt the need for foreign missions. Her views became controversial during the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy, leading to her resignation. After returning to the United States in 1935, she married the publisher Richard J. Walsh and continued writing prolifically. She became an activist and prominent advocate of the rights of women and racial equality, and wrote widely on Chinese and Asian cultures, becoming particularly well known for her efforts on behalf of Asian and mixed-race adoption.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
July 26, 2017
Οταν ήμουν μικρη ηταν ενα πολυ αγαπημενο βιβλιο . Λατρεμένο θα έλεγα . Φιλια, έρωτας , περιπέτεια , ηρωισμός , ενας πολεμος και πολυ -οχι εύκολη - συγκίνηση .
July 15, 2017
Pearl Buck’s The Promise is worthy a read. The version of Chinese/English is used to convey that we are hearing the words and speech of a simple largely uneducated people. At times it can sound strained. I had not known it was book two of a series (book one is the Dragon Seed). It can help to read that one first, The Promise, after Chapter I stands on its own. The use of foreshadowing early in the book is heavy handed. Ms Buck was one of the first writers to introduce China to America and The Promise gives a uniquely Chinese point of View to World War II.
The Promise tells a fairly accurate version of the early months in China after Pearl Harbor. The Japanese were everywhere victorious, the Chinese were dependent on their allies and their allies were not making China their priority nor did they always understand the dignity due to a people in their own land. Chinese leadership and Chinese people had been lead to believe that England and America would be rushing huge amounts of the material needed to fight a war. The Chinese , if fully supported had the people and the will to rid themselves of the invading Japanese.
A few general observations.
The Chinese had not done well at stopping the Japanese or defeating them in the years before Pearl Harbor. There are several opinions about how much Chiang Kai-shek (here barely hidden behind the title the Chairman) prioritized the defeat of the Japanese compared with challenges of the competing Chines Warlords and the Chinese Communist Party.
Ms Buck is perhaps naïve about the Chinese soldier’s loyalty, discipline and fighting record.
Ms Buck is reasonably accurate about the war in the Burma Thailand area in early 1943.
The specifics of Chinese fighting ability and the details of the China Burma Theater are less important the interactions among the main characters and the many combinations of secondary characters.
The main topic from my point of view is that of racism. The main characters Mayli and Sheng are well developed and believable. They love each other with a mature awareness of the others weaknesses and the dominating fact of the war. However as the plot moves beyond these 2; there are always reasons to distrust or dislike others. China is a land of many variations of spoken Chinese and failure to speak what is to the listener the local version marks the speaker as suspect. Changes in skin color, religion and national home land bring about all manner of judgments. All tend to be based on stereotyping.
For all the casual disparagement of any one strange or any place not China, the essential struggle is over the relative evil of the Japanese and the white people, British and Americans. At times it is uncertain which is the most to be despised. The white characters tend to be well meaning and within limits helpful, but they are casually insensitive, presumptuous and ignorant of local dignity. The Japanese are violent. The one evil is overt and immediate the other in unintentional and insidious in its apparently innocent intention.
Perhaps What Pearl Buck hopes the white world will remember from reading The Promise is that racism exacts high cost on those who are just absent mindedly or innocently racist, or deliberately and violently racist.
The Promise tells a fairly accurate version of the early months in China after Pearl Harbor. The Japanese were everywhere victorious, the Chinese were dependent on their allies and their allies were not making China their priority nor did they always understand the dignity due to a people in their own land. Chinese leadership and Chinese people had been lead to believe that England and America would be rushing huge amounts of the material needed to fight a war. The Chinese , if fully supported had the people and the will to rid themselves of the invading Japanese.
A few general observations.
The Chinese had not done well at stopping the Japanese or defeating them in the years before Pearl Harbor. There are several opinions about how much Chiang Kai-shek (here barely hidden behind the title the Chairman) prioritized the defeat of the Japanese compared with challenges of the competing Chines Warlords and the Chinese Communist Party.
Ms Buck is perhaps naïve about the Chinese soldier’s loyalty, discipline and fighting record.
Ms Buck is reasonably accurate about the war in the Burma Thailand area in early 1943.
The specifics of Chinese fighting ability and the details of the China Burma Theater are less important the interactions among the main characters and the many combinations of secondary characters.
The main topic from my point of view is that of racism. The main characters Mayli and Sheng are well developed and believable. They love each other with a mature awareness of the others weaknesses and the dominating fact of the war. However as the plot moves beyond these 2; there are always reasons to distrust or dislike others. China is a land of many variations of spoken Chinese and failure to speak what is to the listener the local version marks the speaker as suspect. Changes in skin color, religion and national home land bring about all manner of judgments. All tend to be based on stereotyping.
For all the casual disparagement of any one strange or any place not China, the essential struggle is over the relative evil of the Japanese and the white people, British and Americans. At times it is uncertain which is the most to be despised. The white characters tend to be well meaning and within limits helpful, but they are casually insensitive, presumptuous and ignorant of local dignity. The Japanese are violent. The one evil is overt and immediate the other in unintentional and insidious in its apparently innocent intention.
Perhaps What Pearl Buck hopes the white world will remember from reading The Promise is that racism exacts high cost on those who are just absent mindedly or innocently racist, or deliberately and violently racist.
March 17, 2025
Suite de Fils de dragon.
✅ Les points que j'ai aimés :
- Le réalisme : j'ai appris beaucoup d'éléments dont je ne soupçonnait même pas l'existence sur la seconde guerre mondiale du point de vue des paysans chinois. C'était notamment super intéressant et passionnant de découvrir les relations compliquées entre les Chinois, les Anglais et les Birmans par les cultures variées et les visions très différentes de la situation de la guerre et de la colonisation. Le tout m'a semblé très complet et étudié.
❌ Les points qui m'ont gênés :
- La romance : en plus d'être extrêmement prévisible, je l'ai trouvé à lever les yeux au ciel, agaçante, niaise et irréaliste.
- Le rythme : j'ai ressenti un certain nombre de longueurs dans l'intrigue, même si je les ai trouvées moins présentes que dans le premier tome. J'aurais souvent apprécié un peu plus de dynamisme pour donner au récit un petit côté addictif.
📒Citation :
« Et les promesses ne sont rien d'autre que des mots, et les mots sont des bulles d'air qui tombent aisément des lèvres des hommes et qui disparaissent comme si elles n'avaient jamais existé. »
✅ Les points que j'ai aimés :
- Le réalisme : j'ai appris beaucoup d'éléments dont je ne soupçonnait même pas l'existence sur la seconde guerre mondiale du point de vue des paysans chinois. C'était notamment super intéressant et passionnant de découvrir les relations compliquées entre les Chinois, les Anglais et les Birmans par les cultures variées et les visions très différentes de la situation de la guerre et de la colonisation. Le tout m'a semblé très complet et étudié.
❌ Les points qui m'ont gênés :
- La romance : en plus d'être extrêmement prévisible, je l'ai trouvé à lever les yeux au ciel, agaçante, niaise et irréaliste.
- Le rythme : j'ai ressenti un certain nombre de longueurs dans l'intrigue, même si je les ai trouvées moins présentes que dans le premier tome. J'aurais souvent apprécié un peu plus de dynamisme pour donner au récit un petit côté addictif.
📒Citation :
« Et les promesses ne sont rien d'autre que des mots, et les mots sont des bulles d'air qui tombent aisément des lèvres des hommes et qui disparaissent comme si elles n'avaient jamais existé. »
June 3, 2017
Okay, I am confused, I have now read three books by Pearl Buck, including A Good Earth, and I am totally confused as to why she won a Nobel Prize...I actually thought her books were originally written in Chinese and I was reading a not very good English translation only to discover that she wrote in English...are books are not very well written and the characters are rather shallow, as if she was someone looking in from the outside without really understanding what she was seeing.....
June 27, 2010
This really was a very sad story. But hopeful at the same time. And I learned a lot - this book led me to looking up a lot of things to figure out people and places. Noting the title, this passage really hit me:
"And promises were nothing but words, and words were bubbles of air, falling easily from men's lips and broken and gone as though they had never been."
"And promises were nothing but words, and words were bubbles of air, falling easily from men's lips and broken and gone as though they had never been."
October 11, 2008
The more I read, the more I like Pearl Buck's books.
August 30, 2021
"Only Heaven can fulfill promises." That simple statement rather sums up the entire book for me. Again, Buck has taught me about a time and place in history of which I am woefully ignorant. The uneasy alliance between the English, Americans, and Chinese made for additional difficulties in trying to defeat the Japanese in WWII. I learned more about attitudes in all three of these groups that was damaging, particularly in this Burma campaign. We all still have much to learn that we should have learned then but we did not.
May 19, 2020
Fascinating tale of Burma during WWII. I was confused at first by who was on each side because of the way the author described them, but that passed. What a dreadful time for that country. They were at war the entire time of the war. I learned a lot.
November 15, 2025
Puedo incluir en el comentario de , La Estirpe del Dragon, está segunda novela.
La promesa añade nuevos personajes, nuevas vidas que te llevan, a una china
increíblemente dura, pero maravillosamente tratada, por está escritora, merecidamente premiada con el premio Nobel.
La promesa añade nuevos personajes, nuevas vidas que te llevan, a una china
increíblemente dura, pero maravillosamente tratada, por está escritora, merecidamente premiada con el premio Nobel.
May 9, 2020
4.5 stars. This is one of those books that leave one so disgusted with everyone and everything that breathes, you cannot possibly go on reading it.
The first few chapters of The Promise were not so good as most other Pearl S Buck's works, but the last are probably some of her most affecting. It shows the vileness of British imperialism and the lowly way they view those of a different skin to their own. It is impossible not to feel sickened as one reads of the ways they talk of, and to, the Chinese, Burmese, and Indians.
With all the books about the 'heroism' of white people during the war, this book was refreshing in that we get to see the Chinese army's fight against the Japanese, instead of the usual tales of Europeans and Americans.
Sheng was honestly a very awful character. The way he treated Mayli was just plain abusive, and I struggle to believe that we are meant to think them a good pair. They are thankfully rarely featured together for most of the book, but the few scenes that were leave one feeling greatly repulsed.
Trigger Warning: There is a lot of animal abuse (specifically against a dog) in the beginning, and some gruesome (but never graphic) details.
This is the sequel to Dragon Seed, and follows Ling Tan's youngest son and Mayli during the fighting against the Japanese soon after Nanjing. I wish there were a third book to continue the story of Ling Tan and his family, showing how their lives changed once the war had ended and Japanese has left.
Pearl S Buck is wonderful at bringing the reader close to Asia and never depicts just one topic or era in the history of some of the world's oldest cultures when choosing the settings of her novels.
The first few chapters of The Promise were not so good as most other Pearl S Buck's works, but the last are probably some of her most affecting. It shows the vileness of British imperialism and the lowly way they view those of a different skin to their own. It is impossible not to feel sickened as one reads of the ways they talk of, and to, the Chinese, Burmese, and Indians.
With all the books about the 'heroism' of white people during the war, this book was refreshing in that we get to see the Chinese army's fight against the Japanese, instead of the usual tales of Europeans and Americans.
Sheng was honestly a very awful character. The way he treated Mayli was just plain abusive, and I struggle to believe that we are meant to think them a good pair. They are thankfully rarely featured together for most of the book, but the few scenes that were leave one feeling greatly repulsed.
Trigger Warning: There is a lot of animal abuse (specifically against a dog) in the beginning, and some gruesome (but never graphic) details.
This is the sequel to Dragon Seed, and follows Ling Tan's youngest son and Mayli during the fighting against the Japanese soon after Nanjing. I wish there were a third book to continue the story of Ling Tan and his family, showing how their lives changed once the war had ended and Japanese has left.
Pearl S Buck is wonderful at bringing the reader close to Asia and never depicts just one topic or era in the history of some of the world's oldest cultures when choosing the settings of her novels.
May 8, 2018
This story follows Mayli and Sheng and the roles they each play in an ill-fated attempt to rescue British and American soldiers pinned down by the Japanese in Burma.
Pearl S Buck is one of my favorite authors because of the ability she has to portray her literary characters in such a way that the reader feels a close connection with them and an understanding of them. She offers a glimpse of a culture and people that I for one would otherwise have no other insight on. She is unique in that she was an American child emmersed in the Chinese culture due to her parents being missionaries there. So she wrote of what she knew. All of her books offer such an intimate perspective of the Chinese culture.
While this is a book about war, Ms. Buck leaves out heavy politics and focuses on the individuals and their day to day survival. The writing of this book is smooth and easily read. It would be appropriate for younger readers interested in historical fiction. I feel that it is a timeless story that not surpisingly still endures.
"And promises were nothing but words, and words were bubbles of air, falling easily from men's lips and broken and gone as though they had never been."
Pearl S Buck is one of my favorite authors because of the ability she has to portray her literary characters in such a way that the reader feels a close connection with them and an understanding of them. She offers a glimpse of a culture and people that I for one would otherwise have no other insight on. She is unique in that she was an American child emmersed in the Chinese culture due to her parents being missionaries there. So she wrote of what she knew. All of her books offer such an intimate perspective of the Chinese culture.
While this is a book about war, Ms. Buck leaves out heavy politics and focuses on the individuals and their day to day survival. The writing of this book is smooth and easily read. It would be appropriate for younger readers interested in historical fiction. I feel that it is a timeless story that not surpisingly still endures.
"And promises were nothing but words, and words were bubbles of air, falling easily from men's lips and broken and gone as though they had never been."
November 7, 2014
Note: Sequel or continuation of "Dragon Seed." Though it can stand on its own it makes more sense with that background. It also begs for its own continuation and I kept searching and searching Buck's book summaries for one. If anyone knows of one please let me know!
This is listed as Buck's "book on Burma" when listing her diversity in writing about Asian countries, not only her main subject of China. That is completely misleading if as I do you consider her strength to be in her characters and how their cultures and the changes in their countries affect people. This is a book about Chinese people in Burma, not s book of the Burmese people. There are some great landscape descriptions but I've never found those to be the most interesting part of her work.
Good character development if you accept the types, maybe even stereotypes, being used.
This is listed as Buck's "book on Burma" when listing her diversity in writing about Asian countries, not only her main subject of China. That is completely misleading if as I do you consider her strength to be in her characters and how their cultures and the changes in their countries affect people. This is a book about Chinese people in Burma, not s book of the Burmese people. There are some great landscape descriptions but I've never found those to be the most interesting part of her work.
Good character development if you accept the types, maybe even stereotypes, being used.
March 16, 2010
I really enjoyed this book. Although it was set during the war, and had scenes of fighting - it really was about the people and how they related to each other. Great for getting a perspective of why we (Americans/westerners) aren't successful when we step in to "liberate" people.
November 9, 2025
There is a brief, passing reference to "New Women" in this Pearl Buck wartime novel about the ill fated Chinese army's expedition into Burma in 1942. The Chinese general, upon encountering Mayli, the heroine of this story, remarks that he will never understand these "New Women," who cut their hair, take on Western ways, attain education, and a certain degree of independence. I believe this is a direct reference to a landmark Chinese film of the same name. New Women premiered in Shanghai in 1935, the year Buck left China never to return. It is famous not only for its depiction of modern Chinese women taking up new roles and challenges (just as Mayli works to accompany the Chinese army into Burma in charge of other Chinese women serving as nurses), but for the scandal it depicted and the one it later created. The story is of Ai Xia, a Chinese actress who committed suicide because of the pressure from the press following her role in A Modern Woman. Ruan Lingyu took up the character of Ai Xia, only to follow in Ai Xia's footsteps and commit suicide because of the "scandalous" nature of the film and the pressure from the press once again. Buck's Mayli incorporates many of these same qualities, even speculating on her own death because of the truths of war she encounters as well as the self-awareness her position as a "new woman" gives her to observe colonial, racial, and sexual injustices.
There is some evidence in Buck's letters that she was indeed thinking along these lines when she published this work, which is a sequel to a much inferior earlier wartime propaganda novel, Dragon Seed, published a year earlier. This earlier work I find to be hamfisted and tedious in its savoring of revenge. The Promise, on the other hand, addresses bigger issues and comments on these larger themes mentioned above. It's also an accurate portrayal, in its way, of true events. The bumbling of the British and the smug sense of superiority General Joseph Stilwell (the "American" of the novel) exhibited towards the Chinese did indeed take place. Both British and Americans ignored Chiang Kai-shek's (the Chairman in The Promise) experience and warnings and disastrously launched offensives against superior trained and equipped Japanese forces. Chiang knew from at least five years of fighting the Japanese in China that fighting "in-depth" was the most effective strategy. And Chiang would forever begrudge the "Allies" for destroying his best army in Burma, a force that might have changed the course of the Chinese Civil War against the Communists after the war.
Otherwise, I think Buck also returns to a much more resonate writing style, one she had tended to abandon in later years. That is, the tone of her writing sounds Biblical. Specifically, King James Version Biblical. It's present in the cadence, the rhythm, the syntax, and even the idioms Buck employs. When people complain of her repetition, they should realize it's on purpose, employing the incantatory style of Walt Whitman's free verse. This is quite a good novel.
There is some evidence in Buck's letters that she was indeed thinking along these lines when she published this work, which is a sequel to a much inferior earlier wartime propaganda novel, Dragon Seed, published a year earlier. This earlier work I find to be hamfisted and tedious in its savoring of revenge. The Promise, on the other hand, addresses bigger issues and comments on these larger themes mentioned above. It's also an accurate portrayal, in its way, of true events. The bumbling of the British and the smug sense of superiority General Joseph Stilwell (the "American" of the novel) exhibited towards the Chinese did indeed take place. Both British and Americans ignored Chiang Kai-shek's (the Chairman in The Promise) experience and warnings and disastrously launched offensives against superior trained and equipped Japanese forces. Chiang knew from at least five years of fighting the Japanese in China that fighting "in-depth" was the most effective strategy. And Chiang would forever begrudge the "Allies" for destroying his best army in Burma, a force that might have changed the course of the Chinese Civil War against the Communists after the war.
Otherwise, I think Buck also returns to a much more resonate writing style, one she had tended to abandon in later years. That is, the tone of her writing sounds Biblical. Specifically, King James Version Biblical. It's present in the cadence, the rhythm, the syntax, and even the idioms Buck employs. When people complain of her repetition, they should realize it's on purpose, employing the incantatory style of Walt Whitman's free verse. This is quite a good novel.
October 5, 2019
A Classic by a Nobel Prize Winner
Why the romance about the forbidding jungles of Burma? After Chamal’s NEVER SO FEW, I began to understand a little of how it might be. So, when I happened across this book by Pearl S. Buck I was prompted to read it for more than one reason. Firstly, to my chagrin, I’d never read Buck before. I’ve driven past her family home in W. VA, and I’d seen the Hollywood version of the GOOD EARTH, but that was it. I actually thought of her as some sort of Grandma Moses of literature. But, boy was I wrong.
THE PROMISE is a great book. The prose is what caught me first of all. Without paying attention, while reading, I found myself propelled through her story on the wings of her simple and natural prose. And then there was the perspective, her perceptive, almost instinctive, understanding of the Chinese culture and of Asia itself. In particular, her dressing down of colonial and brutish British (and American) attitudes toward ‘others’: “We could be free if you did not think it your duty to save us.” This is a timeless book: “Now what is there to tell of a journey such as theirs” she asks. No one could tell it better than Pearl S. Buck.
Why the romance about the forbidding jungles of Burma? After Chamal’s NEVER SO FEW, I began to understand a little of how it might be. So, when I happened across this book by Pearl S. Buck I was prompted to read it for more than one reason. Firstly, to my chagrin, I’d never read Buck before. I’ve driven past her family home in W. VA, and I’d seen the Hollywood version of the GOOD EARTH, but that was it. I actually thought of her as some sort of Grandma Moses of literature. But, boy was I wrong.
THE PROMISE is a great book. The prose is what caught me first of all. Without paying attention, while reading, I found myself propelled through her story on the wings of her simple and natural prose. And then there was the perspective, her perceptive, almost instinctive, understanding of the Chinese culture and of Asia itself. In particular, her dressing down of colonial and brutish British (and American) attitudes toward ‘others’: “We could be free if you did not think it your duty to save us.” This is a timeless book: “Now what is there to tell of a journey such as theirs” she asks. No one could tell it better than Pearl S. Buck.
July 19, 2018
I can guarantee that while I enjoyed the Good Earth, Sons and A House Divided, I will not spend any more money on any Pearl S. Buck novels. This one really didn't have the grab or feel of legitimacy that her other books had and I feel like she made the male protagonist too hard headed to be believable. Every time he was in the vicinity of the female protagonist, he assumed that she was being a lush just because there were other men around. Which I think doesn't fit with his nationalist beliefs that he showed elsewhere in the book. It was just to cheap romance novel to me.
That being said, I know that during the era, whites did treat other races like lesser people. Especially considering the history of the British Empire in a lot of Asia at the time. But there are some points of the story where she went well out of her way to make Americans and the British look bad.
That being said, I know that during the era, whites did treat other races like lesser people. Especially considering the history of the British Empire in a lot of Asia at the time. But there are some points of the story where she went well out of her way to make Americans and the British look bad.
April 19, 2023
Even though this is about the China/English/US war "alliance" in Burma, it is very definitely about prejudice, particularly with the British colonization of Burma (and India). Very well written and very historically accurate. I think I need to read Buck's biography. She understood so much and accomplished so much.
Loved how Buck said this. When trying to explain their prejudices to those who are prejudiced... "The words went into his ears but they beat against a wall in him somewhere and came back again without entering or leaving an echo."... "And promises were nothing but words, and words were bubbles of air, falling easily from men’s lips and broken and gone as though they had never been."
Loved how Buck said this. When trying to explain their prejudices to those who are prejudiced... "The words went into his ears but they beat against a wall in him somewhere and came back again without entering or leaving an echo."... "And promises were nothing but words, and words were bubbles of air, falling easily from men’s lips and broken and gone as though they had never been."
June 11, 2024
Pearl S. Buck writes authentically about China, having lived there for many years.
This book is beautifully and honestly written about war. After Japan invaded China, it then went on to invade surrounding countries including Burma.
This story about what happened when China sent crack troops to help the English who were in Burma,
is a typical war story of confusion and lack of communication and the dreadful results.
The descriptions of life at that time, in the Burmese jungles, is so well expressed, I felt like I was actually there.
I have read most of Pearl S. Buck's and this is one of her best. She understands what she is writing about. The background romance between two very different Chinese adds more poignancy to the events.
This book is beautifully and honestly written about war. After Japan invaded China, it then went on to invade surrounding countries including Burma.
This story about what happened when China sent crack troops to help the English who were in Burma,
is a typical war story of confusion and lack of communication and the dreadful results.
The descriptions of life at that time, in the Burmese jungles, is so well expressed, I felt like I was actually there.
I have read most of Pearl S. Buck's and this is one of her best. She understands what she is writing about. The background romance between two very different Chinese adds more poignancy to the events.
September 12, 2024
Pearl je jedna od mojih omiljenih autorica još od djetinjstva. Toplina njenog pisanja uspijeva pobijediti godine udaljenosti od tema, geografske i kulturalne razlike izmedju čitaoca i likova i probuditi emocije koje nismo osjetili u životu.
Ipak, ove dvije knjige, koje čine cjelinu, više su dokumentarnog karaktera nego ostala njena djela. Činjenica da je tematika rat i da je pisala skoro istovremeno kada su se masakri dešavali, objašnjava dosta. Bez obzira na ovo, njeni likovi uvijek ostaju snažno prikazani i živi. Poruka koju Pearl šalje je snažna.
Kina nam još uvijek predstavlja misteriju u odredjenim aspektima, čak i u ovo doba. Zato je ova knjiga preporuka za vremena znatiželje o drugom i drugačijem, kada smo spremni otvoriti um i srce i zaviriti u druga vremena i druge ljude.
Ipak, ove dvije knjige, koje čine cjelinu, više su dokumentarnog karaktera nego ostala njena djela. Činjenica da je tematika rat i da je pisala skoro istovremeno kada su se masakri dešavali, objašnjava dosta. Bez obzira na ovo, njeni likovi uvijek ostaju snažno prikazani i živi. Poruka koju Pearl šalje je snažna.
Kina nam još uvijek predstavlja misteriju u odredjenim aspektima, čak i u ovo doba. Zato je ova knjiga preporuka za vremena znatiželje o drugom i drugačijem, kada smo spremni otvoriti um i srce i zaviriti u druga vremena i druge ljude.
July 28, 2020
This book was on my “to read” list for eight years. I do not know why I waited so long to explore this thoughtful novel. the story starts off a little slowly as Buck describes Chinese peasants fighting a war in Burma for English soldiers who consider themselves superior and who have no respect for the Chinese or for any Asian. Duty to country, to family, to relationship, and to personal honor are all discussed. The discussion between Mylei and the English soldier when she asks him why they can’t just leave her people alone and he explains that this is the English responsibility to protect their empire was priceless.
February 16, 2025
I was enjoying the book and then all of a sudden my favourite characters started dying and then it ended. The plot didn't finish, a lot of loose ends were just left and there were plenty of plot holes. A lot of the characters were underdeveloped, or unlikeable. A lot of the names of the main characters were very similar, leading to me getting confused frequently. I really struggled with this one, but I believe if a good author redid the book with a proper ending, better character progression and new names that aren't so samey it would be a good read.
July 23, 2024
I enjoyed reading Pearl S. Buck's body of work, but this novel was not my favorite. In a little over two hundred pages, the author attempts to tell a story of young love, the Chinese response to aiding American and English allies, the effect of the Japanese invasion on Chinese families, the colonization of India by the British, and the personal danger in war. It was too much and over-relied on incredulity to advance the plot.
May 31, 2025
I enjoyed this historical fiction story. Even got out my World Atlas to see where Burma was and to find the location of the Chinese cities. Pearl Buck is such a good writer. I felt like I was right in the jungle with Mayli and Sheng, felt the fears of the enemy and jungle creatures! Have several other books in this series which I will read soon. War is hell on earth, but all continue to do it!
July 4, 2018
A book of war
This book like all Pearl Buck books, was hard to put down. Although it is a book about war, the stories of the people were interesting. I’m always impressed with how deeply she understood the Chinese people, and the way they thought of other ethnic groups.
This book like all Pearl Buck books, was hard to put down. Although it is a book about war, the stories of the people were interesting. I’m always impressed with how deeply she understood the Chinese people, and the way they thought of other ethnic groups.
June 6, 2021
The experience of British and American racism in Burma, where white men couldn't tell friend (Chinese) from foe (Japanese), could understand no language but his own, and even in defeat could not help acting imperiously with those come to rescue them from massacre. Really bad allies.
December 21, 2023
Kada bih znala da pišem volela bih da pišem tačno kao što je ona. Nisam znala da je ovo deo trilogije ali knjiga lako može da se čita nezavisno. Ovo je savršeni miks ljubavi i istorije. Retko koja knjiga ima toliko informacija a čita se sa tolikom lakoćom.
January 29, 2019
Sequel to Dragon Seed
March 20, 2021
Her usual brilliantly written book. However, I did not like the ending. It was ok but not what I expected!
November 16, 2022
A story of love and war. Neither of which I am interested in, whatsoever.
December 26, 2023
The sequal to Dragon Seed. Buck is without qualification, the best author to read for learning to understand people who are different than yourself.
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