Relentlessly positive portrayal. While Spurling is good for info on Buck's first marriage, don't rely on this biography alone if you want an idea of the actual, rounded person -- indeed, for the actual, rounded anything. Spurling needs to read up on Orientalism; some of this is just embarrassing (when it's not infuriating). Also, Buck's writing about poverty does not automatically make her work Dickensian. Spurling is a good researcher here (on Buck; clueless about China), provides useful background --with several other texts -- for teaching The Good Earth, but I'd never read this for fun and as a biographer she's kind of a hack. ( )

Great read! Pearl is a remarkable woman. Only biography I've ever actually wanted to read. ( )

Review: Pearl Buck in China by Hilary Spurling.

The author has done a wonderful job of representing and translating Pearl Buck’s life in China and America. After reading this book you will understand how Pearl’s life and events were embedded in all her writings. Spurling doesn’t hold anything back which keeps the book enjoyable and interesting. She has written the time Buck spent in China with its confusing and dense culture and collated a collection of facts with conclusive accuracy and describes them in sections of vast time frames and personalities. The book was also educational underlining the history of US-Chinese relations in the early twentieth century.

As I read it was like placing the pieces of Pearl Buck’s life together as a puzzle connecting all the gaps without any confusion. The book is both compelling and an emotional rollercoaster of a women’s life that will have you wondering how this woman struggled and survived.

The author also relates a lot of insight to the times Pearl Buck spent in America with the same kindness and accuracy she so describes in magnitude. The book is well written, interesting and delivers the justification that Pearl Buck deserves as a person and writer. I think it is a must read if you’re an avid reader of Pearl Bucks writings. ( )

Another audiobook serendipity, riveting and eye-opening. Loses some of its vivid intensity after Buck gets married and the author no longer has the source material of Buck's biographies of her parents, with the emotional truth of Buck's marriage somewhat unclear (perhaps obscured by lack of reliable source material) and her later life just sad and vague. But this book is subtitled "Journey to the Good Earth" not "A Life" and it fully tells the story of that journey. Now that I understand how thoroughly Buck knew the peasant life of which she wrote, I am looking forward to reading The Good Earth, knowing that it will be as authentic as possible, considering the challenges of a literate outsider writing from the point of view of illiterate peasants. Hilary Spurling establishes how Pearl's life experiences gave her both the empathy and the knowledge to write authentically about a culture not her own. I was also very touched by the story of Pearl's devotion to her disabled daughter Carol, but a little disturbed by her need to keep adopting new babies later in life, since it seems she did it just to be surrounded by children, not to actually parent them.
(The author reads the audiobook and does a great job.) ( )

As the title suggests, this is a biography of Pearl Buck, author of The Good Earth. I found it very enjoyable.

Pearl Buck was an American born and raised in China by missionaries. She grew up interacting with Chinese children - speaking the language and learning the stories. She was so comfortable in China that she never really identified with America when she visited there or when she ended up living there in the second half of her life. The book does an interesting job of weaving Chinese history into Buck's life and showing how it influenced and formed her. Also discussed at length is her relationships with her mother, father, and husbands and her complete rejection of the missionary philosophy as practiced in China by her father and others.

Her writing is discussed quite a bit as well, particularly because so many of the dozens of books and stories she wrote had considerable portions of autobiographical content or obvious ties to her friends, family, and experiences. I had no idea Pearl Buck had written so prodigiously, but I also have to say I'm not interested in reading much further than a reread of The Good Earth and possibly continuing on with the 2 books that complete the series. Buck's writing was written for the masses and it doesn't seem from this biography's description that most of them were the quality that you'd expect from the author of [The Good Earth]. I did find it interesting that she wrote by crafting the words in Chinese in her mind and translating to English as she typed the manuscript, at least for The Good Earth.

I thought this was a very readable and interesting biography of a fascinating woman. ( )