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PAVILION OF WOMEN
My favorite Pearl Buck book is of course The Good Earth. This book is a close second. It was totally absorbing and seemed true to life.. I could hardly put it down and highly recommend it to anybody who likes good historical fiction.
PAVILION OF WOMEN
The writing is beautiful, I was drawn into the Wu household and all of the people that live under thier roof.
PAVILION OF WOMEN
I love reading Pearl Buck books but this one got buried in too much detail of the kind that I'm not appreciative of. While the Chinese culture remains intact, it got too bogged down for my taste and I raced through it in order to start another book.
PAVILION OF WOMEN
Insightful, entertaining, and well-written novel about a noble Chinese matriarch and her transition into middle age. Her children are grown and she no longer wants to bear children, she wishes to begin living for herself but finds her duties to family and others never quite go away. Great read!
PAVILION OF WOMEN
Pearl S. Buck's novel tells the story of the Wu family in pre-communist China. Nobel and respected, they have lived for generations in the same tradition. Madame Wu is the mistress of this household, her whole life spent fulfilling the duties of her sex - ministering to her husband, bearing sons, dealing with servants, maintaining a smooth order in the house. But she is intelligent and deeply emotional, and has felt caged by an existence where everyone else come first.So on her fortieth birthday, Madame Wu decides to "retire" from her duties, to find time for herself. She arranges matters in the house like pieces on a chess board - procuring a concubine for her husband, and marrying off her children, hoping they will no longer demand her attention. But her retreat brings only emptiness, until a foreign priest enters the house to tutor her son.What follows is not a typical "forbidden love" story. Instead, "Pavillion of Women" uses the plot to explore themes of identity, self-love and what our connections with other people really mean. Madame Wu finds that freedom doesn't mean running away from duty. It involves learning to love herself first, setting her spirit free. It is then that she is able to return to her duties with a new sense of content.The conflict between responsibility to the group and personal freedom is played out in the family, as a microcosm of China as a whole at the time. But the issues here transcend time and culture - most of us will be able to relate to them. The book is beautifully written, and I recommend it if you want a story that makes you think.
PAVILION OF WOMEN
I love and treasure this book immeasurably. Every time I find a copy at a used book sale, I buy it and send it to my one of my women friends. Women everywhere should read this spectacular, beautifully written story of the independent, sassy Madame Wu. I thought Ms. Buck could never top "The Good Earth" but this one did it for me. I won't give a book report, just my humble opinion that this book should be on the reading list of every woman on earth....even my 20-something daughters loved the story.