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Cielo cinese
Sullo sfondo del conflitto cino-giapponese, si svolge la vicenda
avventurosa e patetica di due indimenticabili figure di occidentali
che, attraverso le fiamme della guerra, trovano in se stessi il
conforto di un amore sublime. Mentre la popolazione di Chen-li, una
piccola città situata nel cuore della Cina, resiste impavida ai
bombardamenti giapponesi, due giovani medici americani, Gray Thomison e Sara Durand, si battono, con un senso inflessibile del dovere, contro la povertà e le malattie. E quando una serie di circostanze minaccia questa pietosa missione, i nodi si sciolgono, la verità si fa luce e con essa l'amore. Dalle pagine di Cielo cinese che, con ritmo serrato, narra una storia estremamente avvincente, balzano creature luminose, studiate con profonda intuizione psicologica, a simboleggiare le più alte qualità umane, il coraggio, la lealtà, il sacrificio, la dedizione al dovere, l'amore che non conosce compromessi.
294 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1941
45 people are currently reading
248 people want to read
About the author
Pearl S. Buck
789 books3,051 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 - 22 of 22 reviews
November 22, 2024
Onderhoudende psychologische thriller tegen de achtergrond van de Japanse aanvallen op China. Dokters in een ziekenhuis raken betrokken bij de strijd door de behandeling van een gewonde Japanse militair, die handig gebruik weet te maken van de romantische verwikkelingen tussen de personages.
September 26, 2018
Wonderful!
Pearl Buck has been one of my favorite authors for 50 years. I thought I had read all of her books until her whole library of work became available on Amazon. How great it is to find more books like China Sky. Buck's understanding of the Chinese people and culture during her lifetime makes every book feel like a biography of the characters. Her stories are so real and compelling that I simply cannot put them down. I would recommend China Sky to anyone.
Pearl Buck has been one of my favorite authors for 50 years. I thought I had read all of her books until her whole library of work became available on Amazon. How great it is to find more books like China Sky. Buck's understanding of the Chinese people and culture during her lifetime makes every book feel like a biography of the characters. Her stories are so real and compelling that I simply cannot put them down. I would recommend China Sky to anyone.
March 11, 2016
I’ve Got This Nagging Feeling, Doc
China Sky is not Pearl Buck at her best. It has a perfunctory feel ─ hey, with my knowledge of China and her people, especially the peasants, I can dash off a pretty good yarn, and without much effort. Well, she has. A pretty good yarn despite containing one giant-size, potentially fatal flaw, as well as some smaller flaws.
Our hero, an American doctor, Gray Thomison, is saintly, altruistic and sensitive, and handsome too, the whole package. He’s established a hospital in the Chinese hinterland sometime during the 1930s. The U.S. isn’t into the war yet with Japan but the Japanese have invaded China and every night, Japanese bombers come flying in to hit the city where the hospital is located. It’s become routine, everyone in the city tramping into the hillsides, to wait out the bombardment in caves, and coming back afterward to survey the damage, which is often significant.
Here’s the flaw:
Gray goes away to America, to raise money for his hospital, and while he’s there, he falls in love with Louise, courts her, marries her, and brings her back to China with him. Say what? Louise is a catch. She’s drop-dead gorgeous and seductive, so we’re told, a lot, and shown, occasionally. Louise’s daddy is filthy rich. Louise is a debutante, a self-centered society girl who revels in her lifestyle. So why does she give it all up, pack her bags and go trotting off to help her new husband with his hospital? Because she loves him, of course, and if she doesn’t go, there’s no story.
Opposites may attract, but this is ridiculous.
That all happens in the first fifteen or so pages, and for the rest of the book, we’re scratching our heads. Girl, what were you thinking? You should have talked the good doctor out of going back, or told him to go without you, and to look you up when he was done saving the peasants and was ready to come home. If you hadn’t in the meantime married one of those lawyers or bankers who were so ardently pursuing you, maybe you’d take a fresh look at him.
But love conquers all, and off Louise goes, to China, and surprise, surprise, she hates it, and didn’t Thomison warn her about the bombs? And about spending long nights in damp caves with smelly peasants?
What else Louise doesn’t like about her new life in backwater China, and it’s maybe something else Doc neglected to tell her, is Doctor Sara, a female version of Doctor Gray. She’s selfless too, and beautiful, and the two doctors are in love … with one another. How did they manage to work together for so long at the hospital, and not speak about their feelings, until it was too late? (Too late because both Gray and Sara are too saintly to ever acquiesce to an affair.) And if Doc loves Sara, why’d he bring Louise back with him?
Then, the story takes over and we forgive Miss Buck’s contrivances, or overlook them, because China Sky is a pretty good yarn, as wartime romances go.
There’s the peasants and the war and a nefarious doctor and a Japanese officer who’s not the stereotypical, cunning “Nip” of World War Two paperbacks and 1950s and 60s comic books. There’s a Chinese guerrilla chief, the Eagle, probably the most interesting character in the book (and played in the movie by Anthony Quinn, who must hold the record for number of ethnics played, or does Rita Moreno hold the record?)
It does all sort of get convoluted but never so much that we don’t know what’s going on, and even overlooking Louise’s inexplicable choice, we still have to deal with those other, nagging flaws. The folks in the story, we’re told, are pretty bright, so why can’t they figure out why the hospital, once the target of those bombing raids, is suddenly off-limits to the Japanese planes? And those fortuitous deaths, people dying (or not) at just the right moments, to move things along.
Pearl Buck spent a good part of her life in China, the daughter of missionaries, then a missionary herself, and she certainly knows the lay of the land, and puts it to good use here, same as she does in all of her books. She loves the peasants and shows them to us without getting overly maudlin about it, and she’s more than fair to the Japanese officer, straining to assure us how his being on the wrong side of history doesn’t necessarily make him a bad guy.
It all plays out in just under 250 pages, an easy read, and compelling enough. Buck is a marvelous writer and keeps things interesting, and even if we pretty much figure it all out before we get to the end, it’s still a fun ride, a pleasant afternoon or two on the couch.
China Sky is not Pearl Buck at her best. It has a perfunctory feel ─ hey, with my knowledge of China and her people, especially the peasants, I can dash off a pretty good yarn, and without much effort. Well, she has. A pretty good yarn despite containing one giant-size, potentially fatal flaw, as well as some smaller flaws.
Our hero, an American doctor, Gray Thomison, is saintly, altruistic and sensitive, and handsome too, the whole package. He’s established a hospital in the Chinese hinterland sometime during the 1930s. The U.S. isn’t into the war yet with Japan but the Japanese have invaded China and every night, Japanese bombers come flying in to hit the city where the hospital is located. It’s become routine, everyone in the city tramping into the hillsides, to wait out the bombardment in caves, and coming back afterward to survey the damage, which is often significant.
Here’s the flaw:
Gray goes away to America, to raise money for his hospital, and while he’s there, he falls in love with Louise, courts her, marries her, and brings her back to China with him. Say what? Louise is a catch. She’s drop-dead gorgeous and seductive, so we’re told, a lot, and shown, occasionally. Louise’s daddy is filthy rich. Louise is a debutante, a self-centered society girl who revels in her lifestyle. So why does she give it all up, pack her bags and go trotting off to help her new husband with his hospital? Because she loves him, of course, and if she doesn’t go, there’s no story.
Opposites may attract, but this is ridiculous.
That all happens in the first fifteen or so pages, and for the rest of the book, we’re scratching our heads. Girl, what were you thinking? You should have talked the good doctor out of going back, or told him to go without you, and to look you up when he was done saving the peasants and was ready to come home. If you hadn’t in the meantime married one of those lawyers or bankers who were so ardently pursuing you, maybe you’d take a fresh look at him.
But love conquers all, and off Louise goes, to China, and surprise, surprise, she hates it, and didn’t Thomison warn her about the bombs? And about spending long nights in damp caves with smelly peasants?
What else Louise doesn’t like about her new life in backwater China, and it’s maybe something else Doc neglected to tell her, is Doctor Sara, a female version of Doctor Gray. She’s selfless too, and beautiful, and the two doctors are in love … with one another. How did they manage to work together for so long at the hospital, and not speak about their feelings, until it was too late? (Too late because both Gray and Sara are too saintly to ever acquiesce to an affair.) And if Doc loves Sara, why’d he bring Louise back with him?
Then, the story takes over and we forgive Miss Buck’s contrivances, or overlook them, because China Sky is a pretty good yarn, as wartime romances go.
There’s the peasants and the war and a nefarious doctor and a Japanese officer who’s not the stereotypical, cunning “Nip” of World War Two paperbacks and 1950s and 60s comic books. There’s a Chinese guerrilla chief, the Eagle, probably the most interesting character in the book (and played in the movie by Anthony Quinn, who must hold the record for number of ethnics played, or does Rita Moreno hold the record?)
It does all sort of get convoluted but never so much that we don’t know what’s going on, and even overlooking Louise’s inexplicable choice, we still have to deal with those other, nagging flaws. The folks in the story, we’re told, are pretty bright, so why can’t they figure out why the hospital, once the target of those bombing raids, is suddenly off-limits to the Japanese planes? And those fortuitous deaths, people dying (or not) at just the right moments, to move things along.
Pearl Buck spent a good part of her life in China, the daughter of missionaries, then a missionary herself, and she certainly knows the lay of the land, and puts it to good use here, same as she does in all of her books. She loves the peasants and shows them to us without getting overly maudlin about it, and she’s more than fair to the Japanese officer, straining to assure us how his being on the wrong side of history doesn’t necessarily make him a bad guy.
It all plays out in just under 250 pages, an easy read, and compelling enough. Buck is a marvelous writer and keeps things interesting, and even if we pretty much figure it all out before we get to the end, it’s still a fun ride, a pleasant afternoon or two on the couch.
January 7, 2023
Non conoscevo questo romanzo, Cielo Cinese, né la sua autrice, Pearl S. Buck. Solo curiosando tra i libri usati di una bancarella napoletana, ho potuto imbattermici – attirato dal titolo e – soprattutto dall’edizione. Questo libro appartiene, infatti, ad una vecchia collana di Mondadori, che risale agli anni ’60 e ’70, e alla quale apparteneva anche Il Diavolo al Pontelungo di Riccardo Bacchelli, che lessi sotto consiglio di un prof., durante il periodo universitario (oggi il libro di Bacchelli è nuovamente edito da Mondadori… ed auguro alla Buck la medesima “riscoperta”).
Come dicevo, dunque, non conoscevo questa scrittrice… ed è un peccato, poiché – facendo le dovute ricerche – ho scoperto che fu insignita del Premio Nobel per la Letteratura nel 1938. Me ne dolgo, ma non si può conoscere tutto e forse è vero che più una cosa è lontana da noi nel tempo e più se ne perde la memoria… o forse no, chissà (ci sarà un motivo per il quale alcuni vengono dimenticati e altri no?).
Ad ogni modo, la Buck, figlia di missionari americani in Cina, spese gran parte della propria gioventù in quel lontano paese, amandone sempre più la lingua, la cultura, la gente. E ciò si evince facilmente da Cielo Cinese, romanzo in cui questo amato luogo viene visto con gli occhi dell’amore e raccontato con grande rispetto.
Il libro è ambientato durante la seconda guerra mondiale e ci mostra il fronte orientale. Questa è forse la cosa più interessante. Siamo inondati da lavori sull’avanzata tedesca in Europa e/o sulla risposta statunitense e russa sia ad Hitler che al Giappone. Ma molto di meno si è scritto – almeno nei romanzi, per quanto mi risulta – dell’invasione giapponese in Cina.
Pearl S. Buck ci racconta – qui – le vicissitudini di un’ospedale gestito da americani, (con personale cinese) in una città interna della Cina, vessata da continui bombardamenti aerei, che radono al suolo palazzi, catapecchie, capanne e vite. Ciò che viene descritto bene ed emerge da queste pagine è la forza di un popolo resiliente e nobile, che riesce a ricostruirsi una speranza giorno per giorno, rimettendo incessantemente insieme i frammenti delle proprie fragili vite. L’autrice è, inoltre, brava a raccontare la routine del bombardamento, le sue fasi e come questo viene vissuto a livello fisico, psichico e spirituale dalle persone, che con diligenza e dignità sopportano questa difficile prova, senza mai mettere in dubbio la vittoria finale.
Da questo punto di vista il racconto è anche disincantato. Non ci viene nascosto che il senso di comunità che unisce i cinesi è forte, sì, ma minato, come in ogni guerra, da collaborazionisti e traditori, pronti a vedere in ogni cosa la possibilità di un profitto personale. E nel costruire la trama Pearl S. Buck non ha molta pietà per loro, non esitando a punirli tutti quanti, chi più chi meno.
Il romanzo è permeato di idealismo e romanticismo nobili e semplici che, di per sé, non mi dispiacciono, ma che ad un occhio più severo forse sembreranno un po’ riduttivi, poiché non vi sono grandi ragionamenti a sostenerli e vengono presentati al lettore in maniera un po’ troppo didascalica. Ne risulta una lettura sicuramente agevole, ma forse con meno spessore di quanto ci si aspetterebbe da una scrittrice, giornalista e saggista, vincitrice di Pulitzer e Nobel.
Va detto, però, che a quanto mi risulta non è questo il miglior romanzo della Buck. Le sue opere più importanti e famose sono altre e anche chi la apprezza pare essere concorde col definire questo un libro piacevole, ma nulla di più.
E’ un sentito panegirico del popolo cinese e dei buoni sentimenti. Personalmente, non la definirò una lettura fondamentale, ma sicuramente posso dire che se questa è la sufficienza, per quanto riguarda questa scrittrice, allora le sue opere migliori varranno sicuramente la pena di essere lette. E credo che almeno un altro suo libro lo leggerò, avendone la possibilità.
Come dicevo, dunque, non conoscevo questa scrittrice… ed è un peccato, poiché – facendo le dovute ricerche – ho scoperto che fu insignita del Premio Nobel per la Letteratura nel 1938. Me ne dolgo, ma non si può conoscere tutto e forse è vero che più una cosa è lontana da noi nel tempo e più se ne perde la memoria… o forse no, chissà (ci sarà un motivo per il quale alcuni vengono dimenticati e altri no?).
Ad ogni modo, la Buck, figlia di missionari americani in Cina, spese gran parte della propria gioventù in quel lontano paese, amandone sempre più la lingua, la cultura, la gente. E ciò si evince facilmente da Cielo Cinese, romanzo in cui questo amato luogo viene visto con gli occhi dell’amore e raccontato con grande rispetto.
Il libro è ambientato durante la seconda guerra mondiale e ci mostra il fronte orientale. Questa è forse la cosa più interessante. Siamo inondati da lavori sull’avanzata tedesca in Europa e/o sulla risposta statunitense e russa sia ad Hitler che al Giappone. Ma molto di meno si è scritto – almeno nei romanzi, per quanto mi risulta – dell’invasione giapponese in Cina.
Pearl S. Buck ci racconta – qui – le vicissitudini di un’ospedale gestito da americani, (con personale cinese) in una città interna della Cina, vessata da continui bombardamenti aerei, che radono al suolo palazzi, catapecchie, capanne e vite. Ciò che viene descritto bene ed emerge da queste pagine è la forza di un popolo resiliente e nobile, che riesce a ricostruirsi una speranza giorno per giorno, rimettendo incessantemente insieme i frammenti delle proprie fragili vite. L’autrice è, inoltre, brava a raccontare la routine del bombardamento, le sue fasi e come questo viene vissuto a livello fisico, psichico e spirituale dalle persone, che con diligenza e dignità sopportano questa difficile prova, senza mai mettere in dubbio la vittoria finale.
Da questo punto di vista il racconto è anche disincantato. Non ci viene nascosto che il senso di comunità che unisce i cinesi è forte, sì, ma minato, come in ogni guerra, da collaborazionisti e traditori, pronti a vedere in ogni cosa la possibilità di un profitto personale. E nel costruire la trama Pearl S. Buck non ha molta pietà per loro, non esitando a punirli tutti quanti, chi più chi meno.
Il romanzo è permeato di idealismo e romanticismo nobili e semplici che, di per sé, non mi dispiacciono, ma che ad un occhio più severo forse sembreranno un po’ riduttivi, poiché non vi sono grandi ragionamenti a sostenerli e vengono presentati al lettore in maniera un po’ troppo didascalica. Ne risulta una lettura sicuramente agevole, ma forse con meno spessore di quanto ci si aspetterebbe da una scrittrice, giornalista e saggista, vincitrice di Pulitzer e Nobel.
Va detto, però, che a quanto mi risulta non è questo il miglior romanzo della Buck. Le sue opere più importanti e famose sono altre e anche chi la apprezza pare essere concorde col definire questo un libro piacevole, ma nulla di più.
E’ un sentito panegirico del popolo cinese e dei buoni sentimenti. Personalmente, non la definirò una lettura fondamentale, ma sicuramente posso dire che se questa è la sufficienza, per quanto riguarda questa scrittrice, allora le sue opere migliori varranno sicuramente la pena di essere lette. E credo che almeno un altro suo libro lo leggerò, avendone la possibilità.
August 27, 2023
"Cielo cinese" S. Buck: 3
Beautiful cino/americano durante la guerra di occupazione nipponica.
E vissero tutti felici (bombardati) e contenti!
Chen-li, Cina 1930 circa?
Sara e Gray sono due medici americani, gentili, stacanovisti, onesti, coraggiosi e fighissimi che lavorano in un ospedale in una cittadina cinese sotto attacco da parte dei giapponesi. Ogni giorno gli aerei giapponesi bombardano l'intera zona, ma loro (e tutti i cinesi indigeni) resistono stoicamente e mandano avanti l'ospedale, curano i superstiti e ricostruiscono la città dalle sue macerie. Sara è follemente innamorata di Gray, ma lui è sposato con una donnetta americana civetta, insulsa e viziata il cui unico pregio è la sua bellezza.
Un giorno giunge all'ospedale l'Aquila, il capo della resistenza cinese (che manco a dirlo è onesto, coraggioso e fighissimo anch'esso) con un suo prigioniero giapponese ferito, Yasuda. Lo consegna alle abili mani dei medici perchè venga guarito e riconsegnato perchè possa essere utilizzato in qualche piano.
Dopo essersi parzialmente ristabilito, Yasuda riesce a corrompere un venale medico cinese, Chung (fidanzato con Sui Mei, una dottoressa cinese), il fratello minore di lui e la stupida moglie di Gray, Louise, per far arrivare comunicazioni tattiche all'esercito giapponese sugli attacchi a sorpresa e gli spostamenti dell'Aquila. Scoperto il tradimento Sui Mei sfancula Chung (che peraltro viene ucciso a mani nude da Yasuda sentendosi tradito) e si innamora dell'Aquila, Gray sfancula Louise e inizia una relazione con Sara e Yasuda viene riconsegnato all'Aquila.
Beautiful cino/americano durante la guerra di occupazione nipponica.
E vissero tutti felici (bombardati) e contenti!
Chen-li, Cina 1930 circa?
Sara e Gray sono due medici americani, gentili, stacanovisti, onesti, coraggiosi e fighissimi che lavorano in un ospedale in una cittadina cinese sotto attacco da parte dei giapponesi. Ogni giorno gli aerei giapponesi bombardano l'intera zona, ma loro (e tutti i cinesi indigeni) resistono stoicamente e mandano avanti l'ospedale, curano i superstiti e ricostruiscono la città dalle sue macerie. Sara è follemente innamorata di Gray, ma lui è sposato con una donnetta americana civetta, insulsa e viziata il cui unico pregio è la sua bellezza.
Un giorno giunge all'ospedale l'Aquila, il capo della resistenza cinese (che manco a dirlo è onesto, coraggioso e fighissimo anch'esso) con un suo prigioniero giapponese ferito, Yasuda. Lo consegna alle abili mani dei medici perchè venga guarito e riconsegnato perchè possa essere utilizzato in qualche piano.
Dopo essersi parzialmente ristabilito, Yasuda riesce a corrompere un venale medico cinese, Chung (fidanzato con Sui Mei, una dottoressa cinese), il fratello minore di lui e la stupida moglie di Gray, Louise, per far arrivare comunicazioni tattiche all'esercito giapponese sugli attacchi a sorpresa e gli spostamenti dell'Aquila. Scoperto il tradimento Sui Mei sfancula Chung (che peraltro viene ucciso a mani nude da Yasuda sentendosi tradito) e si innamora dell'Aquila, Gray sfancula Louise e inizia una relazione con Sara e Yasuda viene riconsegnato all'Aquila.
November 7, 2019
I’m really just not a fan of historical fiction that focuses more on romance than plot. There are certainly other elements going on in this story, but the wartime intrigue really all takes a backseat to the dynamic between Sara and Gray. It wasn’t a bad book, exactly. It just didn’t really surprise or wow me at all.
I also found it to be a disappointing Buck book to experience after Good Earth. I was hoping for something with a little more depth to it. It was fine. It was light and easy to read. I didn’t feel the urge to chuck it in a bin halfway through, I just wanted more cultural and historical themes than this book provided. Good read for fans of historical romance when you want something light and easy to burn through.
I also found it to be a disappointing Buck book to experience after Good Earth. I was hoping for something with a little more depth to it. It was fine. It was light and easy to read. I didn’t feel the urge to chuck it in a bin halfway through, I just wanted more cultural and historical themes than this book provided. Good read for fans of historical romance when you want something light and easy to burn through.
January 10, 2018
Simple story but interesting
Again Pearl Buck opens up the eastern mind and way of thinking to the western reader. Her years of living in China are so apparent in her writing. The love story is fairly simple, but the story of the people surrounding it , is what makes it interesting .you can tell she understands the common people , her characters are so true to life.
Again Pearl Buck opens up the eastern mind and way of thinking to the western reader. Her years of living in China are so apparent in her writing. The love story is fairly simple, but the story of the people surrounding it , is what makes it interesting .you can tell she understands the common people , her characters are so true to life.
June 25, 2018
This is another excellent book by Pearl S. Buck although not nearly as good as Dragon Seed which I read right before this. Like Dragon Seed, this one takes place during the Japanese occupation of China in the late 1930s. It is set at a hospital which is headed by an American doctor and his second in command, a female American doctor. A male and a female Chinese doctor round out the medical staff.
Sarah, the American M.D. had never realized that she was in love with Grey until he returned with his new wife, Louise from a trip back home. What follows is a nice love story (actually two love stories) accompanied by a subplot of treason and intrigue.
Sarah, the American M.D. had never realized that she was in love with Grey until he returned with his new wife, Louise from a trip back home. What follows is a nice love story (actually two love stories) accompanied by a subplot of treason and intrigue.
December 28, 2017
I haven't read a book by Pearl S. Buck since my college days. I saw this one on Amazon/Kindle & had to get it. I started reading & couldn't put it down. Now I'm on a quest to read & reread the rest of Pearl S. Buck's books.
April 4, 2019
Some might call China Sky a soap opera but it kept me engrossed. There is intrigue. There is a love story. There is peril. And there is bravery and self-sacrifice in the face of peril. All are set against the backdrop of World War II China being bombed by the Japanese. The plot was engaging but the characters were stereotypes of the Chinese, the Japanese, and Americans.
July 11, 2017
Great read!
As always Pearl S. Buck brings her characters to life, felt as if I was there with them. Love the way she describes the scenery; makes you see the beauty as she did.
As always Pearl S. Buck brings her characters to life, felt as if I was there with them. Love the way she describes the scenery; makes you see the beauty as she did.
January 21, 2021
I think this was my first war centered novel for school when I was younger.
July 29, 2022
La scrittrice di romanzi bellissimi ed epocali come La buona terra oppure Stirpe di drago che si cimenta in un harmony con sfondo cinese e personaggi di carta velina.
March 28, 2023
Carino ma non mi è rimasto troppo impresso: sorry Buck!
April 18, 2012
This book looks, reads, and sounds like a Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew story, right down to not-subtle racism, a plot with as many twists and turns as a mop handle, forced, formal-sounding adverbs modifying "said" or its synonyms . . .
I really don't have it in me to point out everything that's wrong with this book.
Imagine if Nancy Drew were a missionary doctor in a love triangle (with an American, of course) in China, and everything that could be terrible about that book was, in fact, terrible.
I really don't have it in me to point out everything that's wrong with this book.
Imagine if Nancy Drew were a missionary doctor in a love triangle (with an American, of course) in China, and everything that could be terrible about that book was, in fact, terrible.
July 19, 2015
With a predictable plot and one-dimensional characters, this isn't Buck's best. Still, even with its flaws, I enjoyed the suspense. If you want a fairy tale romance and spies in the midst of war, you could do worse than this book. However, overall I missed Buck's complex female characters; in this novel, their desires mostly revolve around men, unfortunately. This definitely wouldn't pass the Bechdel test, even with a female doctor in China at a time when there were very few femal doctors. Oh well, I still love anything Buck wrote, so more like 2.5 stars out of pure sentimentality.
August 24, 2016
I have read this author's books when I was a little kid (and I still remember the terror and the awe for this so exotic and mysterious world!) and she's one of my favorites. Her best novel, for me, it's the Pavillion of Women. This one isn't of her best books and to be honest, it seemed like a typical romance with unreal characters. Anyway, even this, had the magic of Pearl Buck showing the China before Mao Zedong. I think I will re-read her novels again in English, to see if the original text has the same sense as its greek translation.
March 13, 2012
Ho-hum. Is this meant to be a romance that includes a mystery complete with villains and heroes (but that can't be, since we know whodunit), or a thriller with romantic subplots (but that's lame, too, since we know early on that the heroes and heroines will end up together)? Either way, this was weak.
September 30, 2010
As usual Pearl S. Buck does not disappoint. Although this is the first Buck novel, I've read that has had American's as the central charaters. Great, surprisingly easy read from Buck.
July 7, 2016
I liked it.
August 9, 2016
This book is different than other Pearl S. Buck books I've read, but I enjoyed it thoroughly and read it very quickly.
November 24, 2008
I like the insight that Pearl S. Buck has on the different cultures.
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