L'esilio

by Pearl S. Buck

Quello di Pearl Buck è ormai uno dei nomi più noti della letteratura mondiale e uno dei più amati anche in Italia: non occorrono dunque "presentazioni". Una parola però va detta - onde il lettore sia subito "ambientato" - per questo libro, «L'esilio», che occupa un posto unico nell'opera dell'autrice de «La buona terra». In una forma originalissima, che sta fra il romanzo e l'autobiografia, Pearl Buck rievoca qui la vita di sua madre: l'avventurosa, eroica vita di una donna che seguendo il marito missionario in Cina, passa sorridente, energica, serena, attraverso le più incredibili vicende. Pagine pittoresche, pagine tragiche, pagine gaie, pagine - a volte - terribili si alternano in questo bellissimo libro che per il commosso ardore che lo anima (e ben si capisce, dato il tema) alcuni ritengono il più vivo ed elevato della scrittrice. Certo, è un'opera che si legge con un'avidità quasi dolorosa, e che è, oltre tutto, indispensabile per comprendere appieno i grandi romanzi cinesi di Pearl Buck.

Genres: Biography, China, Nonfiction, Asia, Nobel Prize, Memoir, Literature

290 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

Pearl 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.

Reviews

[Susana · Rating 3 out of 5]

(review in English below)

2,5*

Quando comprei este livro (em 1988!) não fazia ideia de que era uma biografia da mãe de Pearl Buck.
E, mesmo agora, só descobri depois de ter começado a lê-lo e ter estranhado a forma de narrativa.

É um pouco repetitivo nas descrições de Carie (sendo evidente a admiração da autora pela mãe) e também na exaltação da América em contraste com a China. No entanto, nunca me aborreci e a experiência de leitura foi agradável.

Valerá a pena sobretudo para admiradores de Pearl Buck (Consolação no livro).

2.5 stars

When I bought this book (in 1988!) I had no idea it was a biography of Pearl Buck's mother. And even now I only found out after I started reading and thinking that the type of narrative was different.

It's a bit repetitive when describing Carie (the admiration of the author for her mother being very evident) and also when glorifying America in contrast with China. However, I was never bored and the reading experience ended up being a pleasant one.

I think it's worth it especially for Pearl Buck fans.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Exile" is Pearl Buck's biography of her mother, and it serves as a companion to "Fighting Angel," her biography of her father. "Companion," probably isn't the best word because Pearl Buck's mother and father were anything but companions to one another. Perhaps it would be more accurate to state that their biographies, like themselves, are more like two sides of the same coin.

While "Fighting Angel" focused on Andrew (Absalom) Sydenstricker's pioneering missionary career, it rarely mentioned his wife, Carie, or children, except when describing their almost complete alienation from him. By contrast, "The Exile" is almost entirely about the family. Pearl Buck's greatest success in these paired biographies is her ability to tell two drastically different stories of two drastically different lives, only to have the reader realize that this is essentially the same story of the same joint life -- just experienced completely differently.

This difference in experience is certainly due to the difference in characters. While Andrew is driven by a maddening goal to bring the gospel to all the world, Carie is motivated by a desire to "be good," to serve others and care for her children. She is frequently described in "The Exile" as a lover of beauty, be it nature or music, while Andrew is portrayed in "Fighting Angel" as being almost completely oblivious to such "frivolities," as he would no doubt deem them.

But the difference is also in the gender of the protagonists. As a man, Andrew's world -- both physical and metaphorical -- opened up to him, while Carie's gave her only limited possibilities. As a result, I regret to say that while I absolutely abhorred Andrew as a person, I was more moved by his narrative because he was constantly engaging with the outside world, while in Carie's biography, every attempt to find voice and purpose seems to be thwarted by gender, illness, loneliness, or theological doubt. Both biographies could be viewed as tragedies, as both of Buck's parents seemed mired in the helplessness of wanting to do more than one was capable or doing. Even so, there are some powerful revelations of the human struggle that make this pair of biographies an important read.

My main critique of "The Exile" is that it was written with too heavy a hand in regard to nationalism. Perhaps it is my postcolonial worldview coming through, but I found Pearl Buck's obsession with America as the paragon of morality and cleanliness wreaked of unearned superiority, and I'm not sure why it appears in this work at all. In Buck's other works, she seems more critical of the United States, endearing readers to her beautiful, albeit complex, homeland of China, but in this work, "America, the Beautiful" is one of her central themes.

I found myself wanting Buck to write more about her parents' unspoken theological and existential conflicts. For instance, one of my favorite passages appears almost at the end of the book:

"To [Andrew] she was only a woman. Since those days when I saw all her nature dimmed I have hated Saint Paul with all my heart and so must all true women hate him, I think, because of what he has done in the past to women like Carie, proud free-born women, yet damned by their very womanhood. I rejoice for her sake that his power is gone in these new days" (283).

Yet there is very little reflection on gender, theology, or marital conflict in this biography. Instead, there seem to be one too many mentions of Carie's love of beautiful cloth or the flowers she grew in her garden.

So this book gets three stars from me for a fascinating other-side-of-the-coin perspective of the same subject matter as expressed in "Fighting Angel," but it just misses the four and five star marks because of an unearned obsession with America and the underdeveloped character of Carie.

[Nancy Welbourn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is by my grandmother, from her "Books I Have Read" diary, started in 1938. It is on page 7.

This book is laid in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is the story of an American woman who felt that she had to go to China to be a missionary. She married an American man who had the same idea, and they went immediately to China.

It is a very sad and pitiful story, and there are some descriptions of China that are really hard to believe, and yet they are beautiful. This woman is very pious and she is always waiting for a sign from God. She is of a very rebellious nature, really too much so to be called a saint. She has seven children, and she thinks that God punishes her for her wickedness, because 4 of them die.

The book gives you a very vivid description of the life the missionaries had to live. They get a furlough only every 8 years! It is, though a very good book.

Additional details
Publisher: Triangle Books
Recommended by: Mary C. Wheeler School, Providence, R.D.
Borrowed from: Study Hall

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This biography of Carie Sydenstricker, mother of Pearl S. Buck, reads more like a novel. The product of Dutch and French Huguenot immigrant parents, she was raised in a deeply religious Presbyterian community in West Virginia. From her pioneer parents and grandparents, Carie inherited a strong character, courageous and lively spirit, a love for music and the beauty of nature, and a keen sense of humor. After two years in seminary she married a stiff, rather remote scholarly minister and joined him on the missions field in China where she spent her life in service to others.

Pearl tells her mother's remarkable life story with deep affection and insight. At times the book can be difficult to read; the hardship and heartache Carie endured seem too much to bear. Pearl is candid about her mother's struggle to reconcile her strict religious upbringing that seemed to frown on all things fun and lighthearted. There's a lot to be learned from the reading of this book; would be an excellent book club read.

[Edith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Pearl Buck's biography of her mother. It is a companion book to "Fighting Angel". Can't wait to get started.

I found this book so interesting and such a pleasure to read that I didn't want it to end. I generally read in short spurts anyway, but I found it really necessary with this book because there were parts I found so heavy that I had to take a break just to digest them. Pearl obviously loved her mother intensely and she writes of a woman I would love to have known. This creative, spunky, courageous, uncomplaining mother, who forged a life for herself and her children in a culture radically different from hers, just astounded me with her energy and spirit. All this with a husband who had such a one-track mind (winning Chinese souls for Christ) that he hardly existed on the same plane as regular people. I can't think when I've read of a woman that I admire more that this brave, feisty mother of Pearl Buck's. I simply fell in love with her.

[Ash H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written book, I liked it better than the "The Good Earth", though comparison is not justified since this is a biography of her mother and the other is a work of fiction.
She brings home what late 19th and early 20th century China was like. And her mother's anguished despair on losing children, to trying to keep faith in God and how husband and wife, two human beings, so physically close but in reality miles apart..........it is if she paints a collage with words, you feel it all.
And the worst, maybe for her as a child of that marriage, but unbelievable as written word is how her mother and father drift apart. You can almost feel the smouldering anger eventually crystallising into absolute tearing of emotion till nothing is left behind, nothing you can even talk about. It is gut wrenching to read becasue Pearl Buck, their child is writing it, she understood it so well. I am amazed how this work is not as well known as it should be.

[Kirstie · Rating 5 out of 5]

No other author ever made me feel so much. Pearl S. Buck has no trace of sentimentality. She is grieved, biased, and insightful in this memoir, telling her mother’s story in a way that could move people who have no experience on the mission field and bring to tears and memories those who have.

[Lisa Tangen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was much better than the other book about her father. So many passages brought me to tears. Her mother sounded like quite the character...and quite the polar opposite of the father/husband. Several passages are interesting in concept. The style of writing was somewhat awkward at times so I'd have to re read a sentence to get the point. But the concept of the passage was usually very moving.

Here are a few of my favorites

Carie's quick ear and remarkably natural pronunciation remained assets to her. andrew was a little shy at practicing what he knew lest he seem ridiculous in his mistakes, but Carie had no such pride or self consciousness. she used every word she learned on anybody who a talk with her--the old man gate man who was always ready for a laugh, on the cook, on the maid servervant in the house. When she made a mistake she could laugh as heartily as any one with as keen an enjoyment. she was far too fun loving for dignity and with her quick smile and bright dark eyes soon became a great favorite with the Chinese ladies.

She came early to see the land of China for what it was and is to this day--a great country of contradictions where the most beautiful in nature and conceived in the magination of man is inextricably mingled with the saddest to be seen on earth. This compound of beauty and sorrow was to bind her to this land of her adoption most strangely at times, but sometimes it sent her to her room in a terror of repulsion and longing for her home in her own country.

Carie was the gayest mother. She picked up here and there from her few books and magazines and out of her own head little rhymes and songs and she filled her children's lives with merriment so that later when they looked back and realized with maturity how lonely and narrow and environment was about them they were conscious of no loss because they had her rich companionship.

All through the years she had looked for a sign from God a definite sign of approval and none had come she cannot be sure at any time that the swift emotions of her own heart came from any other source than our own heart and desire. God never came down to her with visible sound or movement. But it seemed to her after a while that her little children taught her much about the God she hoped--in their dependence on her, their little faces turned to catch her mood, they're clinging hands--to the end of her life she would say "how much more they taught me than I could ever teach them." she had fallen to meditation and say at last "I suppose we understand God's purposes as little as those babies knew mine even my purposes for them, they trust me for all their lives, confident of my love and because of that willing to believe that I knew best I knew must be the way we ought to see God simply trust that he is there and care."

Stronger message than her words was a swift and native sympathy of her nature when she listened to their sad stories. Her instant impulse was always to do something about it. They learned to call her the American of Good Works and many women came to her at her home, women whom she'd never seen but who had heard of her. and when their stories were told the end was always wistfully said "they tell me you always can do something that she always think of a way." This was her great service that she was always ready to stop and listen to their sorrows I remember her sitting many a day at the window of her living room, her mobile face twisted with sympathy listening earnestly to a broken voice that went on and on many of these women were among the most downtrodden of their kind and had never in all their lives had the comfort of having one set down to hear the burden of their poor hearts and it seemed they must tell her over and over again for the relief it gave to speak to listening a ear. once I heard a woman say to her "tell me what to do and I will do it tell me what to believe and I will believe there is never been 1 in all my life long who cared the heed 1 word I might say or 1 tear that fell from my eyes my father did not love me for I was a girl I has been in not care for me my son despises me I have been despised all my life because I am a woman ignorant and ugly yet you an American and stranger he heed to me therefore what you believe I will believe or it must be true to make you this like this kind even to me."

Carie whose cheerful humorous running conversation wasn't a light to so many others found that to Andrew her racy comments on what she saw rough and only a weariness and unwarranted audacities his somewhat pedantic speech is slow rare humor his complete absorption in his task is inability to face or to understand the practical difficulties in human lives his own ascetic and rigorous life which held no place for beauty or pleasure came to repel her even while she admired his self control and is exaltation of spirit she had had visions once of working with them side-by-side in a comradeship fall and invincible... Now that the children were grown she could she thought go with him into everything. They would read together, she planned, talk together, work together, and he would teach her how to improve yourself and how to deepen our spiritual life, and he could explain to her the things she did not understand in the scriptures. And she surely there were ways she could help him, compliment him she could help with music now more than ever in the church she could help him to choose the really lovely hands instead of the usual grave ones that nobody liked very well and with her gift clever and forceful expression can light in a little perhaps is somewhat dry preaching she plunged with all her old gay vigor into this new period of her life, joyously, never questioning whether Andrew wanted her help or not its into her that these were the the years for which she had really left her own country these were the years which were to make that sacrifice worthwhile she said to herself that surely Andrew gladly use her strength she could use his it supplementing the other but she was wrong Andrew preferred not to have his sermons aided in any way he was quite satisfied with them an extremely doubtful that she added anything to them by her suggestions and as for the hymns she liked he thought them strange and meaningless and too lively for religious decency it was not meet to sing of gladness and under the beauty of this world one behind it how yawned... When Carie perceived his mind, all her swift, rebel blood boiled. It seemed to her that for the 1st time she saw this Saint of hers that she had married for his goodness, as he really was for all his goodness toward her he was narrow and selfish and arrogant heard what was she not to go to God direct because she was born a woman? Was not her brains swifter, keener comic cleaner than the brain's most men? Why would God like that Andrews God? it was as though she had come bearing in her 2 hands her rich gifts of brain and body giving them freely and as touchingly sure of appreciation as a child and her gifts had been thrown back at her as useless it was her 1st real contact with Andrew's mind.

This is about her last trip back to America, which she dearly loved and taught her children to love:

There is no home for her now in her own country anymore, no place where she belonged.... Never once when she had come back to America did she decide the question of her return to China, for each time it seemed to her that surely this time she could not bear to leave her own country again. But now she turned her face toward the exile and steadily she turned, for all of American now, her America, was in her heart in her memory memories... She was in her heart bidding farewell to all the beauty of America... She watched with affection the homes common the quiet, cleanly, contented people, a little churches fill decorously of a Sunday with families, fathers and mothers and children. Best of all in America to her were the people, the fortunate happy people who may all their lives live in America. It seemed to her sometimes that she must make them see how happy was their lot, to live in a land such as was not elsewhere in the world. But she could not speak easily of deep things. She can only smile a little and painfully when people wondered and asked her if she really wanted to "go back to that heathen country." I think to the very end of her life she was homesick for the America she had known. What this year meant to her I scarcely knew myself until one morning when I stood beside her in church as a hymn was being sung, the one which begins"o beautiful for spacious skies." Her voice had been ringing out joyously but suddenly she was silent and I looked at her to see what was wrong. her face was broken with weeping and I heard her whispering over and over "O America, America."

It's no wonder Pearl S Buck wrote for a living. Her mother was an incredible treasure and guide...with so many dramatic life events to retell with a rich multilayered understanding of people, cultures, faith and more.

[Stefano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peripezie di una donna americana di origine olandese che seguì suo marito, pastore presbiteriano nella missione di introdurre la religione cristiana in Cina. Quello che più ho ammirato è stata la sua umana religiosità fatta di cure ai poveri e di continue domande di un segno divino, visto che 4 dei suoi bambini sono morti per l'inadeguatezza della vita in Cina ai primi del novecento. Storia vera scritta dalla figlia che vide la durezza di comportamento del padre, che pieno di cultura formale ricordava solo un lato delle lettere di San Paolo dove la donna doveva essere sottomessa all'uomo!
Mi è piaciuto molto nonostante un linguaggio a volte arcaico.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is now one of my favorite all time books. Pearl Buck has portrayed her mother in a totally complete way that makes you want her for your best friend and weep for all the heartaches and trials she endured so well. This would be a perfect book club book.

[Sandy Carmichael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! A bio about her mother who was an amazing mother, woman, Christian and American. The way P.S.Buck has with words is magical---her word/writings sooth my soul. She learned well from her mother.

[Ben Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A passionate and profound testimony to the life of a remarkable woman. Heartbreaking, defiant, and triumphant, The Exile instantiates its protagonist with clear-hearted insight.

[Mary JL · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is Pearl S. Buck's biography of her mother. It shows a lot about life in China before the Second World War and how her missionary parents fit in.

It is not quite as good as the biography she worte of her father--which was "Fighting Angel"--but still a fairly decent book.

Recommended for fans of Pearl s. Buck; fans of biographies or anyone interested in life in China in the 1920s.
















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[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gripping, heart-rending, extraordinary. This is Pearl Buck's biography of her mother - what an amazing woman, what an amazing book, written with such tenderness, sensitivity and skill.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a life, which she deemed a failure, not so, as she was the mother of Pearl Buck.

[Robert Sternberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book extremely well written, deeply emotionally engaging and filled with facts about China during this period, some of which I found so disturbing I had to actually do some research on my own to ascertain their truth. This book needs to be seen as a period piece, written at a specific period of time much prior to the real advent of the Women's Rights movement-- a period of time actually that preceded women being given the right to vote. It certainly painfully illustrates the way women were both viewed and treated by chauvinistic men during this period of time (and it is important to never forget that never were all men chauvinistic towards women....). I was also bothered by the sharp contrast the author created between the social values of America and those of China, especially the uncritically laudatory words presented about the wholesomeness of life in America contrasted with that of China when I knew for a fact that these laudatory platitudes certainly were not a reality for people of color in our country, including Asians, nor were they reality for non-English speaking immigrants like my own family, who immigrated to this country prior to WWI or between WWI and WWII. Nonetheless, these perceptions of America were very much a part of the belief of the average American born person who was not a member of a minority community as well as for those who came to this country from elsewhere and were able to fully assimilate into America's "melting pot". This is, thankfully, much less the reality of how we Americans think about our country today. So reading this work and understanding it as a period piece, knowing that it reflects the values and beliefs of a much earlier generation that my own is, I think, tantamount to fully appreciating this work's true value. Pearl Buck is, in all her works, a consummate writer and her ability to capture feelings and situations in masterfully crafted words makes this book well worth reading and discussing. It is equally interesting to me how much Pearl Buck herself was an early feminist, an early advocate for women's rights and an early advocate for addressing the prejudices that were so popular against Asians, especially Chinese people in our country. She was, proudly, so much her mother's daughter in so many ways!

[Antonella Moretti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Immaginate la Cina del 1880. Immaginate come doveva essere per uno straniero vivere nelle campagne dello Jiangsu in quei tempi lontani. Niente WeChat, niente grattacieli di acciaio e specchi, niente treni proiettile. Povertà, sporcizia e malattie. E il soprannome di “diavolo bianco” sempre appiccicato addosso.

“L’esilio” è stato scritto nel 1936 da Pearl S. Buck e racconta la storia di sua madre, Caroline, che fu missionaria in Cina a cavallo tra il dicianovesimo e ventesimo secolo. Biografia che traccia con realismo le tappe della vita di Caroline, il libro è anche un appassionante romanzo.

Caroline parte per la Cina seguendo il marito Andrew (il padre della Buck, il cui vero nome era Absalom), un missionario totalmente immerso nel suo proselitismo, al quale si lega nella speranza che un giorno Dio le dia un segno, parlando alla sua anima. Questo segno da parte di Dio non arriverà mai, arriveranno anzi momenti bui, numerosi terribili lutti (perderà quattro dei suoi sette figli in Cina) e tanta solitudine, in quanto il marito sarà sempre in giro nelle campagne cinesi a cercare di convertire fedeli, cieco ai bisogni della famiglia e totalmente assorbito dalla sua missione. La protagonista si dibatte tra la sua educazione presbiteriana severa e puritana e il carattere vivace ed allegro, che ama la bellezza. I suoi dubbi religiosi la tormenteranno durante tutto il corso della storia, e questo contrasto la rende un personaggio vivo, umano, attualissimo.

Quello che più mi ha stupefatto nel libro sono i punti di contatto che ho trovato tra la moglie del missionario, una sorta di sposa accompagnante ante litteram, e la mia storia di expat moderna nel Celeste Impero. Non certo le difficoltà della vita quotidiana (leggete questo libro se pensate che vivere nella Cina oggi sia difficile!), ma le sensazioni, i dubbi e le nostalgie che accompagnano la scelta di trascorrere la propria esistenza in un paese così diverso da quello di origine.

Peccato che il libro non sia più in stampa! Ma sicuro si potrà trovare in qualche fornita biblioteca.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a biography of Pearl S. Buck's mother. It's the sixth book I've read by Pearl S. Buck. I've also read Conn's biography of her, which I recommend to interested readers. What a fascinating figure! There's a strong shift in point of view here from the novels of hers that I've read. If you are used to Buck's sympathetic if sometimes harshly naturalistic novels of China, The Exile introduces America as a character, so to speak - an almost perfect idealized character. Is this a sly literary device or "Comfort's" or "Carie's" unvarnished personal view? It's probably a mixture of all these things. For the concept of Exile to have traction, the writer has to establish what Home is. There are some jarring notes of racism and nationalism, but also a fierce streak of feminism, and a rejection of the religion that drew "Carie" into the missionary movement in the first place. "Carie" is a remarkable character. This is a heart-wrenching read and deserves a wider audience. I felt a similarity to Willa Cather. Like Cather, The Exile ponders the life of the immigrant/exile, and how one copes with now-immutable life choices made long ago.

[Valerija · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 3.5
I think a huge part in my rating played the fact that I related to the main character so much; from home sickness over the love for simple earthly things to the religious conflict within oneself (tho I wish that was dug into further). I also don't know much about China (hence why I picked up a book from Pearl Buck, not the best choice for a starter but it's the one I had) so it's pre-world-war descriptions were quite interesting for me too. Furthermore I am right now reading Fighting Angel which this book is a companion to and love the way the same story got told from 2 very different perspectives.
However, I have to say it was repetitive at times in it's descriptions and discussions/conclusions. Also, the patriotism/nationalism in the book and constant, in my post colonial views, unreasonable uplifting of America as the peak of morality and pure, perfect behavior was putting me off.

Overall, I'm very pleased I got to hear this story but it could have been told better in a couple of ways.

[Rasmus Tillander · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Tämä nainen on Amerikka"

Buckin elämäkerta äidistää Carolinesta on vetävää luettavaa. Caroline ei henkilönä ollut niin eksentrisen kiinnostava kuin Buckin isä Absalom, mutta periyhdysvaltaisen naisen melko yksinäinen kamppailu lähetystyöntekijän vaimona oli siitä huolimatta iskevä. Samoin kuin isänsä elämäkerrassa myös tässä Buck pääsee lähelle romaanimaista ilmaisua ja Maanpaossa sillä onkin ehkä enemmän väliä, juuri siksi että Carolinen elämäntarina ei ole ihan niiin kiinnostava.

Buck kuitenkin tuo kirjan sivuille elävän kuvan naisesta, joka rakasti kaikkea kaunista, välitti hirvittävästi läheisistään ja selvisi jotenkin pystypäin murskaavista kokemuksista. Yhdessä Herran soturin kanssa tämä muodosti syvällisen ja aidonoloisen kuvan kulmikkaasta perhe-elämästä, yhdysvaltalaisesta hengestä Kiinan sydämessä.

[Hellen Siemens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite liked the book. It was interesting to know that this was a story of the authors mother. I personally found it fascinating to read about the main character’s longing for America and her gradual alienation from her home country and a stronger identification with China. My own mother was a missionary child, and I could sense similar struggles in her through my growing up years. Also I moved to Canada from Norway almost 40 years ago and have felt tension in my own sense of belonging over the years. I could very much identify with that gradual feeling of alienation as the years go by.

[Simon Guerlava · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un roman émouvant, mais pas triste, sur la vie d'une expatriée américaine en Chine à la fin du 19e siècle.

Le livre est écrit par Pearl Buck, prix Nobel américaine de 1938. L'histoire racontée est celle de sa mère, ainsi que la sienne dans une moindre mesure (ayant vécu en Chine une grande partie de sa vie, à l'enfance puis à l'âge adulte, apres avoir fait ses etudes aux États-Unis).

Il s'agit d'un livre athée et féministe (donc humaniste), qui fait voyager et traverser le climat politique instable en Chine à cette époque.

[Barbara White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well told story of a mother by her daughter

Pearl S Buck honored her mother in the telling of her life story. Her mother was multifaceted. She could not be anyone but herself. She was at constant war with her inner self her entire life. She wanted so much to be good and godly but who is to say what that is. She was a kind, generous, compassionate woman with a love of life, beauty, nature, music and joy. She shared this with her children and anyone else that she could. She devoted herself to her family and all those in need. She was a wonder!!!

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buck’s writing, as ever, is so beautiful it paints the landscape of this novel as intricately as if you were seeing it yourself.
Whether intended or not, there is so much irony in the portrait of this “American Woman.” She is a daughter of immigrants, a woman of failed faith, a broken yet determined soul. While was never able to attain her own ideal of what an American woman should be, she was a better human for it.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating true story of the author's mother. I was completely drawn into the place and time. I'm saddened by her struggle to find God which was made more difficult by the prevailing doctrines of the time. I greatly enjoy Buck's writing but feel her being torn between love and bitterness towards the foreign places and people she writes about.

[Lili Aurelie · Rating 4 out of 5]

J’ai beaucoup aimé le portrait de cette missionnaire, et surtout son tiraillement vis à vis de la religion, que Pearl Buck raconte très bien, avec beaucoup de sensibilité (ce signe attendu de Dieu qui ne viendra jamais). En revanche, le flou entretenu sur l’identité de la narratrice est un choix un peu étrange…

[Carol Houston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book about Pearl Buck’s mother. She writes differently, warmly, about her mother-as opposed to The Fighting Angel autobiographical story of her father. She was with her mother daily and ‘knew’ her mother in ways she would never know her father.

[Sharon Matayoshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful and lovely woman

What a hard and joyful life this amazing woman led. She touched many more lives than her strict spouse did, due to the love of humanity that swelled in her heart.

[Leona · Rating 2 out of 5]

I lost interest in this book part way through, and stopped reading.

[Yasmina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plutôt 2,5.
Il faut remettre le texte dans son contexte mais certains mots choisis et la pensée de l’autrice me paraissent tout de même outrageant.