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The Time Is Noon
The Time is Noon is the richly hued portrait of a woman as daughter, sister, wife and mother. It is the story of Joan Richards in quest of herself as she grows into womanhood in an American town, between the two world wars.
314 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
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About the author
Pearl S. Buck
786 books3,040 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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March 2, 2017
Trata.se de um romance adoravelmente comovente, este “Há sempre um Amanhã” – tradução portuguesa do título original “The Time is Noon” – escrito pela americana Pearl S. Buck, agraciada com o Prémio Nobel da Literatura em 1938 e que nos remete para uma narrativa onde as questões sociais e morais como o casamento, a comunidade religiosa de uma pequena aldeia no interior dos EUA, como lidamos com a morte de entes queridos, com a frustração de um amor perdido, com o nascimento de filhos com deficiências profundas, ou seja como resistimos e tentamos superar todas as dores, desgostos e angústias que a vida, na sua implacabilidade, nos atinge.
Mas é também uma história de resiliência, de otimismo e tolerância que nos recorda a solidez e a força do caráter no momento em que mais precisamos. Pese embora o facto de a autora ter colocado o desenvolvimento da ação nos anos 60 do século XX, num meio pequeno, tem ainda, fortes ligações com situações idênticas mas nossas contemporâneas pelo que a história possui um sinal de intemporalidade bastante evidente. Joan Richards, a personagem principal, tinha, à partida, tudo para que a vida lhe sorrisse: uma infância feliz, uma família unida, composta pelos progenitores e dois irmãos mais novos (Francis e Rose), uma experiência universitária de quatro anos e sonhos, muitos sonhos próprios das jovens americanas, e não só, coevas, que viam num matrimónio, nos filhos e numa casa os objetivos a alcançar, todos eles sinónimos de uma necessária, urgente e definitiva felicidade. Confesso que, como nunca partilhei de objetivos semelhantes, me senti algo irritadiça mas também não me deixei influenciar pela minha perspetiva e entendi que a história se centrava numa época em que os desejos seriam no mínimo e a meu ver, ingénuos e questionáveis, mas sinceros, viáveis traduzindo o que seria expectável de uma mulher naquela época. Mas Joan não se revelaria como uma mulher protótipo que assimilaria com docilidade a tradição. Muito embora ter casado com um homem cujo temperamento, formação, condição social características essas que se encontravam nos antípodas daquilo que talvez merecesse apenas para sentir a segurança de um lar, para combater o receio da solidão, ter alguém com quem constituísse família por mais repugnante que esse alguém pudesse parecer como, de facto, se viria a mostrar – e aqui outra vez sentia-me separada das intenções da autora até e de certo modo ofendida, tendo mais uma vez que me reposicionar na época -, Joan Richards revelara-se aquilo que sempre fora: uma força da natureza!
Não irei alongar-me muito mais pois tudo o que possa dizer daqui para a frente poderá retirar o véu desta bela história, o que não desejaria, cuja mensagem é maravilhosa! Apenas, poderei reforçar a ideia de como os desgostos, a dor, o sofrimento podem metamorfosear-nos, transformarmo-nos e até mesmo reestruturamo-nos. Mas também não quero concluir esta review sem antes abordar uma ou duas ideias que também me pareceram importantes e que exemplificam a profunda atualidade desta obra: a primeira, prende-se com o facto de mulheres fortes serem constantemente ostracizadas quando comparadas com outras possuidoras de uma maior fragilidade. “”Que pena – disse secamente – que pena as mulheres não nascerem todas pequenas, bonitas e fracas! As mulheres não precisavam de mais nada senão de mãoszinhas e caras bonitas, de corpos delicados e esguios”. São essas mulheres que a autora designa por gazelas. Mas também existem aquelas que, portadoras de uma força incomensurável, que se veem obrigadas a um maior compadecimento. “E deve o leão sofrer porque é leão? – perguntou irada a Roger – Sofre mais porque é mais forte também para sofrer … “ Depois a constatação, algo absolutamente próprio de quem se resigna mas que não evita a sua própria sensibilidade. “Estou muito habituada aos desgostos mas nem por isso deixarei de sofrer”. É verdade, posso assegurar!! Este livro, falou-me particularmente à alma pois muitos dos constrangimentos vividos por Joan também eles me atingiram. E talvez por isso, naquilo que está de acordo com o meu modo de ser, identifique-me com ela, com a sua determinação, com a sua resiliência e o seu otimismo. Pois, para quem tudo perdeu mas que continua a viver carregada de esperança e objetivos que dão razão à existência “… não precisava de se apressar. Era apenas meio-dia”.
A prosa, simples e direta, não é nada exuberante … mas também não precisaria de ser.
Recomendo! Pela mensagem que nos transmite!
Mas é também uma história de resiliência, de otimismo e tolerância que nos recorda a solidez e a força do caráter no momento em que mais precisamos. Pese embora o facto de a autora ter colocado o desenvolvimento da ação nos anos 60 do século XX, num meio pequeno, tem ainda, fortes ligações com situações idênticas mas nossas contemporâneas pelo que a história possui um sinal de intemporalidade bastante evidente. Joan Richards, a personagem principal, tinha, à partida, tudo para que a vida lhe sorrisse: uma infância feliz, uma família unida, composta pelos progenitores e dois irmãos mais novos (Francis e Rose), uma experiência universitária de quatro anos e sonhos, muitos sonhos próprios das jovens americanas, e não só, coevas, que viam num matrimónio, nos filhos e numa casa os objetivos a alcançar, todos eles sinónimos de uma necessária, urgente e definitiva felicidade. Confesso que, como nunca partilhei de objetivos semelhantes, me senti algo irritadiça mas também não me deixei influenciar pela minha perspetiva e entendi que a história se centrava numa época em que os desejos seriam no mínimo e a meu ver, ingénuos e questionáveis, mas sinceros, viáveis traduzindo o que seria expectável de uma mulher naquela época. Mas Joan não se revelaria como uma mulher protótipo que assimilaria com docilidade a tradição. Muito embora ter casado com um homem cujo temperamento, formação, condição social características essas que se encontravam nos antípodas daquilo que talvez merecesse apenas para sentir a segurança de um lar, para combater o receio da solidão, ter alguém com quem constituísse família por mais repugnante que esse alguém pudesse parecer como, de facto, se viria a mostrar – e aqui outra vez sentia-me separada das intenções da autora até e de certo modo ofendida, tendo mais uma vez que me reposicionar na época -, Joan Richards revelara-se aquilo que sempre fora: uma força da natureza!
Não irei alongar-me muito mais pois tudo o que possa dizer daqui para a frente poderá retirar o véu desta bela história, o que não desejaria, cuja mensagem é maravilhosa! Apenas, poderei reforçar a ideia de como os desgostos, a dor, o sofrimento podem metamorfosear-nos, transformarmo-nos e até mesmo reestruturamo-nos. Mas também não quero concluir esta review sem antes abordar uma ou duas ideias que também me pareceram importantes e que exemplificam a profunda atualidade desta obra: a primeira, prende-se com o facto de mulheres fortes serem constantemente ostracizadas quando comparadas com outras possuidoras de uma maior fragilidade. “”Que pena – disse secamente – que pena as mulheres não nascerem todas pequenas, bonitas e fracas! As mulheres não precisavam de mais nada senão de mãoszinhas e caras bonitas, de corpos delicados e esguios”. São essas mulheres que a autora designa por gazelas. Mas também existem aquelas que, portadoras de uma força incomensurável, que se veem obrigadas a um maior compadecimento. “E deve o leão sofrer porque é leão? – perguntou irada a Roger – Sofre mais porque é mais forte também para sofrer … “ Depois a constatação, algo absolutamente próprio de quem se resigna mas que não evita a sua própria sensibilidade. “Estou muito habituada aos desgostos mas nem por isso deixarei de sofrer”. É verdade, posso assegurar!! Este livro, falou-me particularmente à alma pois muitos dos constrangimentos vividos por Joan também eles me atingiram. E talvez por isso, naquilo que está de acordo com o meu modo de ser, identifique-me com ela, com a sua determinação, com a sua resiliência e o seu otimismo. Pois, para quem tudo perdeu mas que continua a viver carregada de esperança e objetivos que dão razão à existência “… não precisava de se apressar. Era apenas meio-dia”.
A prosa, simples e direta, não é nada exuberante … mas também não precisaria de ser.
Recomendo! Pela mensagem que nos transmite!
August 7, 2020
The problem I had trouble getting my head around was the cover art and the book. The copy I had was put out in the 1960s and showed a picture of a woman, a man, and a boy, dressed in 1960s attire. The book takes place in 1920s and 1930s.
Other than that, the writing is solid and so many topics are covered. Especially prominent are the subjects of race, religion, sex, and class. Also, the independence of the individual and women. The theme of this book might be: "to thine own self be true".
Other than that, the writing is solid and so many topics are covered. Especially prominent are the subjects of race, religion, sex, and class. Also, the independence of the individual and women. The theme of this book might be: "to thine own self be true".
February 1, 2014
I couldn't put it down. Being a Christian, I did feel uneasy about some of the decisions the main character made (especially since the book sets the reader up to agree with her on those issues). But all in all, this is a woman living in an imperfect world, and she herself would never claim to be perfect. Great writing, wonderful characterization, but be strong in the faith while reading it because the book is not spiritually edifying.
February 4, 2008
It's a great title to me. It represents expansion, a lack of pressure, a timelessness if you will, a feeling of breeze, of wide open spaces. And in the book--by Pearl S. Buck--the same feeling of openness, of possibilities, presents itself.
Joan Richards is just home from college. It's Middlehope, Pennsylvania in the 1920s. She has nothing on her schedule at all. She luxuriates in her bed, stretching in the early morning, eventually going downstairs to greet her family at the breakfast table: her father, the town's pastor, an "otherworldy" man entirely focused on his business, hardly noticing his family, diffident, aloof, yet not purposefully so--it's just not in his nature to commingle gaily; her mother, Mary, the rock of the family, the dutiful, gay, busy seamstress, cook, planner, family conscience; her sister, Rose, a few years younger, quiet, following more in her father's footsteps, the "religious" offspring; and Francis, her younger brother, a distant teenager whose rebellion is held in check by the overwhelmingly close bond he has with his mother.
What to do with the rest of her life? Well, Joan had nothing but time on her hands, and a lot of thinking to do.
But events would change that.
Her mother was, we soon learn, getting to be quite ill. Inoperable tumor in her stomach. But she never saw a doctor until quite late. Out there in the country, in that setting, one lived with one's problems. There was a town doctor, a straight-talking affable seen-it-all type, Dr. Crabbe, who was eventually summoned, then brought a specialist, and things soon became apparent: there wasn't much time.
The household would be sent into turmoil. Soon enough, Joan's future, as she saw it, became clear: she would step in and take over the role of Mary, of take-charge mother.
After her mother's death, things began unraveling. Not that Joan failed in her tasks, just that events kept steamrollering: her sister Rose married and went to China to become a missionary; Francis, caught up in a romantic entanglement with a local woman of color, was immediately disatched to New York to quell that mess; the father, Paul, by then a bit doddering, amidst rumors he was soon to be replaced as pastor, suddenly died of a stroke.
And all the while Joan, still young and strong, large and big-boned and full of life, carried on and bore the suffering, yet grew isolated and alone in the big house, which she eventually had to give up for the new pastor and his family.
Throughout these months of turmoil, Joan would grow quite restless. Near the end, when it was just her father and herself in the house, she would take to going out, say for a long walk in the rain, just to do something. Before all this trouble, she'd briefly steal away to meet in the woods to kiss and grope with an older man, the church organist, but that fizzled out when she realized he'd never change, he wasn't interested in any kind of real relationship.
While alone with her father, she was being visited regularly by a man she ended up marrying in her lonely desperation after all had fallen apart--a country bumpkin named Bart Pounder. He "was dumb" but decent enough. They lived at his farm with his family, an extraordinarily non-talking group who would sit around all evening, hardly saying a word, and having no values that could be considered modern or expressive in any way. It was stultifying. Joan took refuge in her expecting.
A beatiful baby was born. Joan doted on him constantly. She moved up to the attic, closed her life--physically--to her husband from that point on, and stayed constantly with baby Paul. Problem is, he "wasn't right." Turns out Dr. Crabbe--and a New York specialist--confirmed, the baby was born "witout a mind." He "did not know" his mother. He could not talk. Joan yearned for a child with whom she could communicate, but also knew her life--taking care of Paul--was quite set.
During a previous trip to New York--to visit her brother--she was introduced to the man who would help look out for him, help get him a job, etc., a Roger Bair. Joan fell for him, and when with her son she was in her deepest need, she wrote to him about what work she might do to help make ends meet. (It turned out Joan, one day upon coming home to the farm, heard a great argument in progress. Actually a fistfight was underway, between her husband his father, who'd caught her husband in the haystacks with a local whore. "If you'd done your duty by your husband, this never would have happened!" her mother-in-law exclaimed. She decided to move out then and there. She'd definitely contributed to the troubles, and just wanted to be through with them. While there was still a lot of hubbub in the kitchen, Joan went to the attic, got Paul's things, and they hit the road. She ended up at the house of a Mrs. Mack, a neighbor woman she was helping out in her own last days; upon her death, Mrs. Mack gave her house and some cash to Joan.)
Roger Bair wrote back and got Joan some work transcribing music for a New York company. They began a regular, if circumspect, communication. Her feelings for him grew, in her loneliness with Paul, she had little but time in which to have such feelings spread out.
Around this time, tragedy struck further, giving her more need of the likes of Roger. She'd received a post that her sister Rose and her husband Rob were killed in an attack on the town they were proselytizing in, somewhere in China. Their two children, David and Mary, would be brought back to Middlehope, where, Joan decided, she would be the one to take charge, to raise them. Children who would show feelings! Who would be fully alive to all possibilities! She was thrilled and overwhelmed, with mingling sorrow...
And then the shocking news that Francis, who'd finally been realizing his dreams of flying a plane, had died in a fiery crash. The circumstances? The colored whore who had tracked him down--and duly informed him that she had bore him a son--Frankie, whom by now Joan was also taking care of, because the mother, Fanny, went missing (off to find Francis)--freaked him out and he ran to the plane, threw to the side the pilot who had been intending to take it up, and flew it...onto his fiery death.
Well this was all too much to take, except that in addition to reading a little about the incident in the paper, Roger himself had appeared at her farmhouse door to break the news in person, and while she was terribly aggrieved, she couldn't help but notice his wonderful eyes, his expressive hands. "There will be time to mourn Francis. Now I will allow this indulgence..." But Roger was married, to a frail, simple woman he could not stop taking care of, and Joan--who'd dealt with frailty and understanding her whole life--could not help but understand here again. It was not to be...
The book ends, though, with Roger expressing his love to Joan...and his promise of "somehow, someway" eventually making things work out.
Joan, thrilled in her everyday parenting to such a fine brood, would live with that. The time, after all, "was noon."
Joan Richards is just home from college. It's Middlehope, Pennsylvania in the 1920s. She has nothing on her schedule at all. She luxuriates in her bed, stretching in the early morning, eventually going downstairs to greet her family at the breakfast table: her father, the town's pastor, an "otherworldy" man entirely focused on his business, hardly noticing his family, diffident, aloof, yet not purposefully so--it's just not in his nature to commingle gaily; her mother, Mary, the rock of the family, the dutiful, gay, busy seamstress, cook, planner, family conscience; her sister, Rose, a few years younger, quiet, following more in her father's footsteps, the "religious" offspring; and Francis, her younger brother, a distant teenager whose rebellion is held in check by the overwhelmingly close bond he has with his mother.
What to do with the rest of her life? Well, Joan had nothing but time on her hands, and a lot of thinking to do.
But events would change that.
Her mother was, we soon learn, getting to be quite ill. Inoperable tumor in her stomach. But she never saw a doctor until quite late. Out there in the country, in that setting, one lived with one's problems. There was a town doctor, a straight-talking affable seen-it-all type, Dr. Crabbe, who was eventually summoned, then brought a specialist, and things soon became apparent: there wasn't much time.
The household would be sent into turmoil. Soon enough, Joan's future, as she saw it, became clear: she would step in and take over the role of Mary, of take-charge mother.
After her mother's death, things began unraveling. Not that Joan failed in her tasks, just that events kept steamrollering: her sister Rose married and went to China to become a missionary; Francis, caught up in a romantic entanglement with a local woman of color, was immediately disatched to New York to quell that mess; the father, Paul, by then a bit doddering, amidst rumors he was soon to be replaced as pastor, suddenly died of a stroke.
And all the while Joan, still young and strong, large and big-boned and full of life, carried on and bore the suffering, yet grew isolated and alone in the big house, which she eventually had to give up for the new pastor and his family.
Throughout these months of turmoil, Joan would grow quite restless. Near the end, when it was just her father and herself in the house, she would take to going out, say for a long walk in the rain, just to do something. Before all this trouble, she'd briefly steal away to meet in the woods to kiss and grope with an older man, the church organist, but that fizzled out when she realized he'd never change, he wasn't interested in any kind of real relationship.
While alone with her father, she was being visited regularly by a man she ended up marrying in her lonely desperation after all had fallen apart--a country bumpkin named Bart Pounder. He "was dumb" but decent enough. They lived at his farm with his family, an extraordinarily non-talking group who would sit around all evening, hardly saying a word, and having no values that could be considered modern or expressive in any way. It was stultifying. Joan took refuge in her expecting.
A beatiful baby was born. Joan doted on him constantly. She moved up to the attic, closed her life--physically--to her husband from that point on, and stayed constantly with baby Paul. Problem is, he "wasn't right." Turns out Dr. Crabbe--and a New York specialist--confirmed, the baby was born "witout a mind." He "did not know" his mother. He could not talk. Joan yearned for a child with whom she could communicate, but also knew her life--taking care of Paul--was quite set.
During a previous trip to New York--to visit her brother--she was introduced to the man who would help look out for him, help get him a job, etc., a Roger Bair. Joan fell for him, and when with her son she was in her deepest need, she wrote to him about what work she might do to help make ends meet. (It turned out Joan, one day upon coming home to the farm, heard a great argument in progress. Actually a fistfight was underway, between her husband his father, who'd caught her husband in the haystacks with a local whore. "If you'd done your duty by your husband, this never would have happened!" her mother-in-law exclaimed. She decided to move out then and there. She'd definitely contributed to the troubles, and just wanted to be through with them. While there was still a lot of hubbub in the kitchen, Joan went to the attic, got Paul's things, and they hit the road. She ended up at the house of a Mrs. Mack, a neighbor woman she was helping out in her own last days; upon her death, Mrs. Mack gave her house and some cash to Joan.)
Roger Bair wrote back and got Joan some work transcribing music for a New York company. They began a regular, if circumspect, communication. Her feelings for him grew, in her loneliness with Paul, she had little but time in which to have such feelings spread out.
Around this time, tragedy struck further, giving her more need of the likes of Roger. She'd received a post that her sister Rose and her husband Rob were killed in an attack on the town they were proselytizing in, somewhere in China. Their two children, David and Mary, would be brought back to Middlehope, where, Joan decided, she would be the one to take charge, to raise them. Children who would show feelings! Who would be fully alive to all possibilities! She was thrilled and overwhelmed, with mingling sorrow...
And then the shocking news that Francis, who'd finally been realizing his dreams of flying a plane, had died in a fiery crash. The circumstances? The colored whore who had tracked him down--and duly informed him that she had bore him a son--Frankie, whom by now Joan was also taking care of, because the mother, Fanny, went missing (off to find Francis)--freaked him out and he ran to the plane, threw to the side the pilot who had been intending to take it up, and flew it...onto his fiery death.
Well this was all too much to take, except that in addition to reading a little about the incident in the paper, Roger himself had appeared at her farmhouse door to break the news in person, and while she was terribly aggrieved, she couldn't help but notice his wonderful eyes, his expressive hands. "There will be time to mourn Francis. Now I will allow this indulgence..." But Roger was married, to a frail, simple woman he could not stop taking care of, and Joan--who'd dealt with frailty and understanding her whole life--could not help but understand here again. It was not to be...
The book ends, though, with Roger expressing his love to Joan...and his promise of "somehow, someway" eventually making things work out.
Joan, thrilled in her everyday parenting to such a fine brood, would live with that. The time, after all, "was noon."
November 25, 2017
From the Heart
I was impressed with Pearl Buck's ability to hold the reader's attention and increase the desire to keep reading from the very first page. The main character Joan Richards comes alive and I couldn't wait to see what would happen next in her life. I am looking forward to reading more of Pearl Buck's books and happy to see that Amazon Kindle has many if not all of them!
I was impressed with Pearl Buck's ability to hold the reader's attention and increase the desire to keep reading from the very first page. The main character Joan Richards comes alive and I couldn't wait to see what would happen next in her life. I am looking forward to reading more of Pearl Buck's books and happy to see that Amazon Kindle has many if not all of them!
September 23, 2025
It started out a bit slow, but was worth the read.
March 7, 2018
All I can say is the more I think about this book, the less I like it. I didn't like it when I finished it and I like it even less in retrospect. Since Buck is one of my favorite authors, I don't say this lightly. She really missed the mark in this one, though.
All the stereotypes of Christians without a living faith are here, as well as the tired idea that seeking one's own fulfillment--above all else--is the highest good. Both are flawed constructs, for she fails to balance her examples with Christians who really ARE Christians in the full meaning of the word--Jesus followers--and undermines the damage the selfishness of the self-seeker does to other people.
This book was a great disappointment in terms of finding a larger understanding of Buck's worldview--for, unlike some other of her works, I found little redeeming value here.
She is still a succinct writer, and can turn a lovely phrase, but I'll not return to this one or keep it in my collection.
All the stereotypes of Christians without a living faith are here, as well as the tired idea that seeking one's own fulfillment--above all else--is the highest good. Both are flawed constructs, for she fails to balance her examples with Christians who really ARE Christians in the full meaning of the word--Jesus followers--and undermines the damage the selfishness of the self-seeker does to other people.
This book was a great disappointment in terms of finding a larger understanding of Buck's worldview--for, unlike some other of her works, I found little redeeming value here.
She is still a succinct writer, and can turn a lovely phrase, but I'll not return to this one or keep it in my collection.
February 12, 2013
A minha opinião 3,5****
http://www.lerviverler.blogspot.pt/20...
http://www.lerviverler.blogspot.pt/20...
December 16, 2021
Heart wrenching, painful story but believable and very real. Pearl S. Buck writes raw emotion unlike most authors I’ve ever read. I’ll read more of her books when able.
November 15, 2016
Joan comes home to Middlethorpe, Pennsylvania in 1920, a young college graduate full of hope and optimism. "The Time is Noon" follows her life as she begins to care for her ill and aging mother, faithfully attends the local church under the preaching of her pastor-father, and cares for her younger brother Frances and sister Rose. Her father is completely engrossed in his work as a preacher and her mother relies on Joan as the eldest.
When Joan is left destitute and alone, her siblings having left home, she makes a choice that impacts the rest of her life.
“She rose and packed her mother’s things steadily into the trunk, and when they were all put away she closed the lid and locked it fast. Their babyhood, their childhood, their mother’s life – all were locked away now, forever. It darted across her mind that there was nothing there of the man’s – nothing of their father at all...”
Choosing security and marriage, Joan ignores her inner qualms as to her choice of marriage partner, and her life is never the same. There is very little romance or beauty in Joan’s life, but as Joan progresses through life and matures, she finds a way to make her own beauty.
“There could not be, of course, any white satin nor any of that dreaming. White satin would have sat strangely upon her with Bart standing by her in his bursting blue suit. So she put on her old orange wool dress and her brown coat and the small brown felt hat and she and Bart stood before the country clerk, repeating his words.”
Joan finally has a child to love, a child to make a real home for, in her bleak hard life as a farmer’s wife... but sadly, even that small happiness is flawed. As we follow her on throughout this story, we are hoping so much that Joan will find contentment and happiness. However, although her life is hard, Joan is always hopeful and finds others to nurture and make a home for.
“...this house sheltered her at once, warmly, closely. She felt as though she had already lived here a long time. She loved the deep walls, the many small windows, the hues of brown and golden stone. There was an old fireplace. Someone had taken the stones of the field, from his own land, and built this house and made a fireplace to warm him...and she would live here with all her children, gathering them together beneath this roof.”
Pearl Buck’s writing in this novel is just so lovely. But what a tragic story! Joan's life seems to consist of one tragedy after another.
The best that I can say about this novel is that Joan’s character is resilient. Although never completely fulfilled, she does find the strength to continue with her optimism that life, even with its disappointments and dashed hopes, for her, was still worth living. Because, after all, the day is not yet over - the time is just noon.
3.5 stars
When Joan is left destitute and alone, her siblings having left home, she makes a choice that impacts the rest of her life.
“She rose and packed her mother’s things steadily into the trunk, and when they were all put away she closed the lid and locked it fast. Their babyhood, their childhood, their mother’s life – all were locked away now, forever. It darted across her mind that there was nothing there of the man’s – nothing of their father at all...”
Choosing security and marriage, Joan ignores her inner qualms as to her choice of marriage partner, and her life is never the same. There is very little romance or beauty in Joan’s life, but as Joan progresses through life and matures, she finds a way to make her own beauty.
“There could not be, of course, any white satin nor any of that dreaming. White satin would have sat strangely upon her with Bart standing by her in his bursting blue suit. So she put on her old orange wool dress and her brown coat and the small brown felt hat and she and Bart stood before the country clerk, repeating his words.”
Joan finally has a child to love, a child to make a real home for, in her bleak hard life as a farmer’s wife... but sadly, even that small happiness is flawed. As we follow her on throughout this story, we are hoping so much that Joan will find contentment and happiness. However, although her life is hard, Joan is always hopeful and finds others to nurture and make a home for.
“...this house sheltered her at once, warmly, closely. She felt as though she had already lived here a long time. She loved the deep walls, the many small windows, the hues of brown and golden stone. There was an old fireplace. Someone had taken the stones of the field, from his own land, and built this house and made a fireplace to warm him...and she would live here with all her children, gathering them together beneath this roof.”
Pearl Buck’s writing in this novel is just so lovely. But what a tragic story! Joan's life seems to consist of one tragedy after another.
The best that I can say about this novel is that Joan’s character is resilient. Although never completely fulfilled, she does find the strength to continue with her optimism that life, even with its disappointments and dashed hopes, for her, was still worth living. Because, after all, the day is not yet over - the time is just noon.
3.5 stars
February 11, 2018
Generations of Strong Women
Is it to say sacrificing one's independence for love of family is weakness? Forgetting soul and individuality to raise children in a time when women were to be dutiful from the marriage bed to dinner table. Shelving a sense of purpose. Weeping for respite. Joan draws from generations her strength, her courage, her pragmatism. Her singular success.
Is it to say sacrificing one's independence for love of family is weakness? Forgetting soul and individuality to raise children in a time when women were to be dutiful from the marriage bed to dinner table. Shelving a sense of purpose. Weeping for respite. Joan draws from generations her strength, her courage, her pragmatism. Her singular success.
August 26, 2023
I've enjoyed every Pearl Buck book I've read. And after this one, I may have read them all. It's a simple story with an insightful and relatable look into a woman's inner life from young adult to mature motherhood. A little slower than her other novels, I still looked forward to sitting down with it whenever I got a chance.
May 27, 2011
This is the second book I've read by this author and I loved it. The main character has complexity and I couldn't help but feel like a friend watching her life story unfold. Beautifully written and I'm glad I read it.
September 9, 2022
A difficult, sad and depressing book that contains an important life lesson, mainly to women.
August 17, 2019
Whenever I pick up a Pearl S. Buck novel, I approach it with initial skepticism (Do I REALLY want to read this?) and then wind up completely delighted (What a master storyteller!). Buck always makes even the simplest story compelling.
This one is NOT taken from her experiences in China; it’s more autobiographical. Through protagonist Joan Richards, Buck revisits her own early years as a minister’s daughter, a caretaker for aging parents, a responsible elder sister, an unhappy wife living with her husband’s family, and a mother of a severely handicapped child.
With exquisite detail, Buck takes us deep into Joan’s inner life. Dutiful, eager to please, hungry to experience love and life — Joan is always hampered by the restrictive expectations placed on her gender.
All the supporting characters are richly drawn, distinctive, and completely believable.
• Joan’s parents whose outward success hides mutual dissatisfaction.
• Her handsome, self-indulged younger brother — eager to pursue his dream of becoming a pilot, in part to escape an uncontrollable hidden passion.
• Joan’s remote younger sister Rose — with a quiet, almost ethereal devotion to God.
• The closeted church organist who becomes Joan’s first romance.
• And the oafish farmer who becomes her husband.
I came to care about all of them and eager to discover how their life struggles would resolve. And particularly whether Joan would ever find the contentment she deserved.
According to the notes, when Buck first wrote this book, she decided NOT to publish it because of the deeply personal nature of the content. Initially, the act of writing it served as a cathartic experience for her, allowing her to move on with her life. The actual publishing of the story she felt could wait.
I found this novel completely engrossing. Particularly its decided feminist take. It’s quite a testament to the struggles of one woman, whose personal desires do not quite mesh with the expectations of the family and friends in her surrounding community.
This one is NOT taken from her experiences in China; it’s more autobiographical. Through protagonist Joan Richards, Buck revisits her own early years as a minister’s daughter, a caretaker for aging parents, a responsible elder sister, an unhappy wife living with her husband’s family, and a mother of a severely handicapped child.
With exquisite detail, Buck takes us deep into Joan’s inner life. Dutiful, eager to please, hungry to experience love and life — Joan is always hampered by the restrictive expectations placed on her gender.
All the supporting characters are richly drawn, distinctive, and completely believable.
• Joan’s parents whose outward success hides mutual dissatisfaction.
• Her handsome, self-indulged younger brother — eager to pursue his dream of becoming a pilot, in part to escape an uncontrollable hidden passion.
• Joan’s remote younger sister Rose — with a quiet, almost ethereal devotion to God.
• The closeted church organist who becomes Joan’s first romance.
• And the oafish farmer who becomes her husband.
I came to care about all of them and eager to discover how their life struggles would resolve. And particularly whether Joan would ever find the contentment she deserved.
According to the notes, when Buck first wrote this book, she decided NOT to publish it because of the deeply personal nature of the content. Initially, the act of writing it served as a cathartic experience for her, allowing her to move on with her life. The actual publishing of the story she felt could wait.
I found this novel completely engrossing. Particularly its decided feminist take. It’s quite a testament to the struggles of one woman, whose personal desires do not quite mesh with the expectations of the family and friends in her surrounding community.
May 5, 2025
You know, they just don’t write ‘em like they used to. This somewhat-biographical 1966 novel by Pearl S. Buck dragged me through fantasy, heaven, and hell, emotionally. It’s the story of a very conventional middle-class girl of the early 20th century who ends up losing almost everything, and then fighting her way back to herself. It touches on issues of racism,the less-uplifting aspects of Christianity, hypocrisy, small-mindedness—it’s all in here. At points I did not want to follow where the author was taking me, but I’m glad I hung on for the ride. A very interesting story, well-told.
October 21, 2018
Let me be clear: i dnf'd this book, but not because it was bad, simply because im not into it. I've been reading this since the begining of the month and i barely have read 100 pages.
The writing is beautiful, and Joan is okay, for a main character, but there really is no plot and nothing happens, ever, and that's usually what puts me in a reading slump.
Yet, i think if you're interested you should give it a try. And still, i might try to finish it another time.
The writing is beautiful, and Joan is okay, for a main character, but there really is no plot and nothing happens, ever, and that's usually what puts me in a reading slump.
Yet, i think if you're interested you should give it a try. And still, i might try to finish it another time.
September 25, 2020
I struggled with the first half of this book, but stuck with it and 'enjoyed' the second half more. Not sure 'enjoy' is the best word as it's rather a depressing book. Many tragedies - mother dies of cancer, father is very distant, a lonely marriage, child born with mental disorder, sister & husband killed in Nanking Incident, etc. But I did like Joan's strength and how she survived all the sadness and still made a life for herself.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 23, 2023
A recent college graduate, Joan is ready for her life to begin. Tall and strong, she is passionate about everything. And then life gets in the way. Through the challenges thrown at her, the young woman takes them on individually until she discovers a quiet, joyful life.
Buck reminds the reader that in the 1920s, there was little in the way of public welfare and people had to make their own way in the world.
Buck reminds the reader that in the 1920s, there was little in the way of public welfare and people had to make their own way in the world.
January 29, 2019
A fictional story that captures a part of Pearl S. Buck’s life. As a fan of her writing style, this book was a must read. It flowed from beginning to end with waves of emotion expressed through the various fictional characters. Those same emotions may have inspired her to write the book and share her inner thoughts about her personal life.
March 10, 2019
Was a decent book. Very dated but readable. At times, a bit too detailed. Does have some good messages, especially for the time period. Caring for special needs kids, independence if women, racial tolerance. All themes in book. And that sometimes those who are the strongest are meant to shoulder the greatest burdens.
July 23, 2020
I was halfway through this book before I began to be engaged, but ended up really liking it. I liked it in spite of the racial slurs (Chinese and African American) and the sadness. I liked it because it was real and Joan, the main character, was real. She traveled through an easy childhood to the realities of life with a disabled child and a loveless marriage, but ended up with hope.
August 23, 2023
Great story & well written. It’s Pearl Buck after all! My favorite novels are historical fiction. While this book is fictitious, it is presumably semi autobiographical as well, taking place at turn of the last century in a rural Pennsylvania village. The author describes the people & their joys & sorrows so realistically. I was sorry when the book ended.
August 21, 2025
Spectacular. A vibrant exploration of a woman's life, so lyrically told. I want to see the world through Joan (or is it Pearl's) eyes.
It is a dated, yet historically accurate view, so the racism is overt without actually being addressed. But love does triumph, even over prejudice.
A treasure I uncovered in a free little library!
It is a dated, yet historically accurate view, so the racism is overt without actually being addressed. But love does triumph, even over prejudice.
A treasure I uncovered in a free little library!
October 15, 2025
What a wild ride. I never read the synopsis and my copy doesn’t have a cover picture so I went in blind. So depressing yet so good at the same time. Completely wild! I wouldn’t even know how to go about recommending this to anyone, “Hey would you like to read about a girl that loves life and then has life chew her up and spit her out?” Yet I’m glad I read it.
January 16, 2018
I thought the first part of this book was dull, but it did greatly improve as it went along, and I found it to be an excellent and well written story that held my interest and attention and I did not want to put it down......of course it is well written; We’re talking about Pearl Buck here!
February 2, 2018
Excellent. There's a reason this author won Nobel Prize. This book written in 1966 is about Joan Richards and I read online it wasn't published right away because it closely compares to Buck's real life. Loved it. At the end of the book there's photos and interesting facts about Buck's estate.
July 11, 2018
A classic, unforgettable read.
I read this in one sitting, which does not happen that often. Deep, lyrical, inspiring and uplifting. If you are not already a Pearl Buck fan, you will be after reading this.
I read this in one sitting, which does not happen that often. Deep, lyrical, inspiring and uplifting. If you are not already a Pearl Buck fan, you will be after reading this.
March 19, 2019
I've read over ten Pearl Buck's books and have thoroughly enjoyed each one until I read this one. When I came to the end of this book, I felt as though there was more to the story and was left hanging waiting for more to the story.
November 15, 2019
Hated it from beginning to end, 300 pages of dribble, I have to state here that I am an atheist but have given 5 stars to many books by Buck. overly , I do not know what, mushy? written for a 12 year old girl in some religious boarding school 1oo years ago.
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