Today, June 26, a new anniversary of the nacimiento from the American writer Pearl S. Buck. He spent a good part of his life in China and thus his work was greatly influenced by the sagas and oriental culture. He received the award Nobel en 1938.

For me Pearl S. Buck is a reference writer that has inspired some of my humble private work. So I review some of his books, books that have been at home since I can remember.

His full name was Pearl Sydenstricker Buck and was born in Hillsboro in 1892. The daughter of Presbyterian missionaries, she lived in Asia until 1933. Buck worked on behalf of the civil and women's rights and founded the Welcome House, the first international and multicultural adoption agency.

First works

His first novel was East wind, west wind (1930), which was followed The good land (1931), set in the China of the 20s. It was a great critical success that led to it winning the Pulitzer Prize. It is a very complete and detailed account of Chinese customs. It is considered one of the masterpieces of the 1937th century. It was adapted to the cinema in XNUMX.

The good land is the first part of a trilogy completed with Children (1932) and A divided house (1935). In it, the Chinese folkloric theme is maintained through three social representations: the peasant, the warrior and the student.

Revolutionaries, merchants, peasants, and courtesans appear in all three titles. They show a diverse environment around the Wang Lung family, of whom his laborious social ascension until his final decline is narrated. The difficult beginnings with financial savings problems and how they get their wealth amid their ups and downs of bourgeois behavior and feelings.

Other novels and short stories

Later in 1934 he published Mother and in 1942 The dragon race, another novel where he supported the Chinese struggle against imperialism and the Japanese occupation. It is the story of the story of a peasant family that lives near Nanking. A film version was made in 1944 although without much success, but it is a curiosity to see a western cast with slanted eyes, like Katharine Hepburn.

Pearl S. Buck also wrote numerous stories, compiled under the title The first wife. They narrate the profound changes in society and life in their country of residence. The main issues they deal with are the contradiction between traditional China and the new generations, and the universe full of energy and utopia of communist revolutionaries.

The promise

This novel perfectly recreates the Chinese people's struggle against the Japanese. In it we find peasants, merchants, guerrillas, students and courtiers. In this varied social canvas, not devoid of passions, the characters of the farmer Ling Tan, of his children, and of the beautiful Okay. The two will experience a drama in which the real and the romantic are mixed, and both aspects are equally moving.

El patriota

It is the story of life in China and Japan during the most changeful years. It starts with a student revolution and it ends in the interior mountains of China, in the hardest and most difficult part of the fight against the Japanese invader. But it is also a great love novel.

Other gods

This book tells the story of a woman who marries a famous man, an American sportsman, idol of the masses. But in reality and in privacy, this man is only facade, a wimp without personality. However, his wife loves him and prefers hide the truth of the fraud that is her husband. The question is whether or not it will succeed.

Death in the castle

With tone of suspense and intrigue, this book is both a small rarity and one of the most accomplished works by Pearl S. Buck.

Some Americans want to buy a XNUMXth century English castle to move it to Connecticut. But the castle houses a mystery that their owners do not want to reveal. But both those interested in buying it and visitors insist on discovering it.

Finally, The eternal wonder

Written in 1973, right at the end of her life, she remained hidden until very recently. It was found in a Texas farm storage room and has been published as a major publishing event. It is a love story and has been considered the more personal and passionate work of the author.