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    Pearl of China
    Pearl of China
    Pearl of China
    Audiobook10 hours

    Pearl of China

    Written by Anchee Min

    Narrated by Angela Lin

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    An internationally best-selling author, Anchee Min draws upon her Chinese heritage to pen lush historical epics. Here she transports listeners to the Far East for a fictionalized account of acclaimed author Pearl Buck's youth. Arriving in late 19th-century China with her missionary parents, Buck is soon fascinated by her new home and strikes up a friendship with a young Chinese girl named Willow. The two become inseparable even as civil war, failed relationships, and world conflicts threaten all they hold dear.

    Editor's Note

    Fascinating fictionalization…

    From the internationally bestselling author of “Red Azalea” comes a fascinating fictional portrait of the novelist Pearl S. Buck, as narrated by her devoted, life-long friend, Willow.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMay 14, 2010
    ISBN9781440792472
    Pearl of China
    Author

    Anchee Min

    Anchee Min was born in Shanghai in 1957. At seventeen she was sent to a labor collective, where a talent scout for Madame Mao's Shanghai Film Studio recruited her to work as a movie actress. She moved to the United States in 1984. Her first memoir, Red Azalea, was an international bestseller, published in twenty countries. She has since published six novels, including the Richard & Judy choice Empress Orchid and, most recently, Pearl of China.

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    Reviews for Pearl of China

    3.5/5

    260 ratings67 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Anchee Min, like Pearl S. Buck, is a Storyteller in the most compelling sense of the word. I'm an ardent fan of Pearl Buck (and now I will be looking for everything else Anchee Min has ever written) so the opportunity to learn a bit more about her life in China was too good to pass up. I think Min was both very brave and very wise to write Pearl's story as fiction. There are those who will be critical of the choice, wanting and expecting to read a traditional biography. Personally, the novelization gave me the opportunity to forget my preconceptions and set aside what I already knew of Pearl Buck. Once that happened, I immersed myself in the lives of Pearl and her best friend Willow and found that the book was extremely difficult to put down. My only complaint is that the book probably should have been longer. There is so much "story" to tell and Anchee Min writes so beautifully that I found myself wanting to know more about the later events of the book. Should Min have decided to pen another five hundred pages, the book would have earned a full five stars!Definitely a book for fans of friendship, Pearl S. Buck, Anchee Min, and China.
    • 4/5
      A story of childhood into adulthood Friendship (yes, with capital “F”) between Pearl Buck (the American author, brought up and raised in China) and Willow : 2 lifelong Friends who were forced to go their separate ways during the difficulties of the cultural revolution in China.
      I enjoyed thoroughly this book, together with the reader of it who brought these friends Life stories to… life. Thank you,
    • 4/5
      This is the story of a friendship. The friendship of the young Pearl Buck as told through the eyes of her fictional friend, Willow Yee. Pearl's father is a missionary in China where he converts Willow's father, and that is how Pearl and Willow meet. When there is unrest in China, particularly against foreigners, Pearl is sent to Shanghai for her safety. From there, she is sent to America to attend college. When she returns to China for her wedding, she reunites with Willow. Willow is now unhappily married and is the founder of a newspaper. Their friendship is tested when they both fall in love with the same man.When the 1949 revolution is imminent, Pearl flees China and Willow's husband becomes Mao's right hand man. This leads to an ultimate showdown between Willow and Madame Mao, where Willow refuses to denounce her friend.Pearl went on to write many books about China and the Chinese people. She was the first American woman to win a Nobel Prize.
    • 3/5
      Pearl of China is the story of the friendship of Pearl S. Buck and Willow. Anchee Min has received a lot of positive reviews here on LibraryThing, and I really enjoyed The Good Earth so I was very pleased to get this book! I thought it was an interesting story, but it seemed a little…disjointed. An example being in the beginning of the book the two girls don’t like each other at all and just a few pages later they are holding hands and playing together; there wasn’t any background on how they resolved their differences and came to be so close. It almost seemed in places to be a book of short stories. All in all, I enjoyed the book and will read more by this author.
    • 4/5
      Reason for Reading: I am a huge fan of Pearl S. Buck, having read almost all of her books.The book purports to be the fictionalized story of Pearl Buck's life in China told through the eyes of a lifetime Chinese friend. Pearl's mother went to the US to give birth to Pearl after losing several babies but soon came back to China with the babe in arms and Pearl was to remain there well into her thirties, except for brief periods away while she sought higher eduction in the US. She even married and came back a missionary herself. Willow, her fictional friend, tells the story of her own life and how it intermingled with Pearl's and through this the reader gets glimpses into the great writer's life, who though she was white on the outside was Chinese on the inside.The book is enjoyable and we are given a touching look inside the day-to-day life of a small Chinese village, Chin-kiang, from the early 1900s through the end of Mao's Cultural Revolution. The villagers themselves are eccentric and lovable and the reader falls in love with the people and way of life, though one must watch out for the war lords, in Chin-kiang before the terrible atrocities of the revolutions started.I'm not sure I completely agree with the author's portrayal of Pearl's mother and father. She does have the personalities correct but it somehow feels overboard. It has been a long time since I read Buck's two biographies, that each tell the same story, one through her father's eyes, The Fighting Angel, the other through her mother's, The Exile, so I can't say anything concrete but I am left with an odd feeling here.The same goes for Pearl actually. Since the author chose the rather strange narrative of telling Pearl's life through the eyes of a (non-existant) Chinese best friend from childhood, the reader can only experience those parts of Buck's life in which the friend is involved. Thus creating long passages of time where Pearl Buck is not present. I have only read Buck's first biography, My Several Worlds, but there is a large amount of information missing on Pearl's life and the topics that were close to heart. I'm rather dismayed that Anchee Min glosses over the atrocities of the Nanking Massacre so quickly, as it is a subject that Pearl writes about in much detail.Now, rather than being the story of Pearl Buck, this novel is more the story of Willow a Chinese peasant who happened to know Pearl Buck. We are shown how her childhood is influenced as she becomes like a sister to Pearl and Carie (Pearl's mother) becomes like a mother to her for her entire life, as her own mother died when she was very young. Her father is converted to Christianity, fake on his part to start with, but eventually a true convert and the reader sees how being a Christian in Mao's China affects ones life. Actually, the most riveting part of this novel is the Mao years. I always find reading about the Cultural Revolution almost unbelievable and then terrifying when the reality sets in my mind.Overall, I enjoyed the book. I think it is a mistake to assume this is a book about Pearl Buck and will be better enjoyed with the understanding that it is the story of a peasant girl who knew Pearl for thirty-odd years. I certainly enjoyed the writing style and if I had known nothing about Pearl S. Buck to begin with, it would be a teaser of an introduction to this great woman and perhaps may make readers look up some of her lesser known work. This is the first Anchee Min book I've read and I see she has written several others; I will definitely be reading her backlist.
    • 4/5
      This story is not about Pearl Buck. It is the story of two girls from different cultures who became friends -the best of friends. We should all have the opportunity to share our lives with someone special. Willow (and China) was as special and important to Pearl as Pearl was to Willow."Joy, gratitude, and a sense of peace are what this moment means to me. I thank God for the fortune of having known you." Written by Willow as she honors Pearl at Pearl's grave in America. Who would be able to say those words about you?The condensed history of China in the 20th century helped put some names and historical events into a perspective that, when it was happening, I didn't really understand their importance.
    • 3/5
      PEARL OF CHINAANCHEE MINMY RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️▫️PUBLISHERBloomsbury USAPUBLISHEDApril 4, 2011A compelling novel of how Pearl Buck’s insight and sensitivity to the Chinese and the Chinese culture might have evolved. SUMMARYPEARL OF CHINA is a fictional account of a lifelong friendship between Pearl S. Buck and Willow Yee in the small southern China town of Chin-kiang. Willow is the only child of a educated but destitute father, whose only way to survive is to steal from his neighbors. Pearl is the headstrong daughter of a fierce Christian missionary. The two are destined to meet, when Willow steals Pearl’s father’s wallet and Pearl catches her. This unlikely pair become life-long friends, confiding their beliefs and dreams, and experiencing love and motherhood together. As Communism was gaining power in China the Nationalist government believed all foreigners were the source of Communism and so began torturing and murdering foreigners. No one was safe. Pearl, her daughter and sister all fled on the last boat out of China, leaving their aged father behind. Willow would correspond with Pearl in the future, but they would never see each other again. Some sixty years later Willow makes a pilgrimage to America to spread Chinese dirt on Pearl’s grave.REVIEWFrom the title you assume the book is all about Pearl Buck’s life. The first portion of the book does focus on Pearl and Willow fictional childhood escapades; separating and shining eggs, watching a traveling opera troupe perform The Butterfly Lovers, and making corn explode into popcorn. As the two grow older and are separated by geography, the latter portion of the book turns to Willow’s involvement in the political history of China; from the nationalist and communist revolutions to Mao’s inner circle power struggles. Perhaps the major reason for including the political history here, is ANCHEE MIN’s desire to show how the relationship between Pearl and China evolved. Not a bad idea, execution could have been better ANCHEE MIN’s goal was to “convey a full sweep of Pearl’s life and also tell her story from a Chinese perspective”. Given that Willow and Pearl never saw each other again after Pearl’s exile, I don't believe this book could quite be considered a full sweep. So many parts of Pearl’s life was missing. MIN also wanted to show us how Pearl’s insight and sensitivity into the Chinese and Chinese culture came about. That, I think she did compellingly through the stories of Pearl’s friendship’s with Willow and the Chin-kiang community.My biggest take away from this book was a frustration with historical fiction, and a desire to read a true biography of Pearl Buck!
    • 4/5
      Review for the unabridged audiobook.I listened to the Audible version of this book and therefore did not have a cover to inform me that this was a biographical novel. It was not until I was about a third of the way through that the penny dropped and it gradually dawned on me that I was reading the life story of Pearl S.Buck.Sadly, I have never read any of Ms Bucks writng, though there are three of her books lurking in my shelves. However, I had obiviously heard of her, and once I realised the significance of the characters, this novel took on a whole new meaning.In an interview by KPBS, Anchee Min relates how she came to write this book about a character who had been considered persona non-grata by the Chinese authorities during her teens (1971). Ms Min was amazed to discover that Pearl Buck actually loved Chinese peasants and didn't hate the Chinese at all. Thus Anchee Min's appetitie was whetted and Pearl of China is the result.It did, however, seem to be more about Pearl's (fictional?) friend, Willow, than about Pearl herself. Willow is from a poor family and is used in the novel to illustrate the lives of this strata of the population during the revolution that resulted in Mao's rise to power.Pearl Buck was from a missionary family and the book covers the fall of the Christian Church under the leadership of overseas missionaries. Interestingly, this is correlated in the book I am currently reading, The Woman Who Lost China by Rhiannon Jenkins Tsang.After Pearl left China in 1934 she was never again allowed to return, which distressed her greatly. America was an alien place to her, and she considered China to be her home.My one complaint about the book was the emphasis on Pearl's friend Willow, otherwise an interesting listen.Also read:Empress Orchid by Anchee Min (4 stars)
    • 4/5
      I really liked it until about half way - then I really didnt mind if I just stopped reading it. So I gave 4 stars for the first half because it was a nice read - but not enough to sustain a whole book. Maybe Ill revisit it some other time.....
      SO I had a moment and revisited this book...it was slow in the middle really....but things picked up at the 70% mark and I found myself getting emotional at the end. I still keep it at 4. A nice read if you have the time, but not one to go hunt for unless youre into Pearl S Buck. Nice Historical Fiction.
    • 5/5
      Die fiktive Romanheldin Weide, einziges Kind einer bettelarmen Familie, schildert als hochbetagte Frau im Rückblick ihr Leben in China vor und während der Kulturrevolution. Ihre Kindheit und Jugend verlebt sie in enger Freundschaft mit Pearl, der Tochter eines amerikanischen Missionars und späteren Literaturnobelpreisträgerin Pearl S. Buck.Die chinesischen Wurzeln von Pearl S. Buck werden in diesem Roman aus der Perspektive ihrer chinesischen Freunde und Mitmenschen dargestellt und zugleich wird ein eindrucksvolles Bild der kulturellen und politischen Umwälzungen in China in der ersten Hälfte des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts vermittelt.
    • 3/5
      In 1971, as a middle schooler in Shanghai, Anchee Min was ordered denounce American author Pearl S. Buck as an enemy of China. It wasn't until 1996 that she finally had a chance to read The Good Earth, after it was given to her by a woman attending her book-signing, who told her "Pearl S. Buck taught me to love China." Min read the book in one sitting, tears streaming down her face. 'Pearl of China' is Min's love letter to Pearl S. Buck, her way to honor the woman who loved China more than anything in the world.

      That's not the plot of the book, that is how it came to be written. In 'Pearl of China', Anchee Min tells the story of the life of Pearl S. Buck and the rise and fall of the Cultural Revolution through the eyes of Pearl's childhood friend Willow.

      This was a beautiful, and above all, moving book.


    • 4/5
      I've never read anything by Anchee Min, or Pearl Buck but this book made me crave more. Min's writing had me actually seeing the things she described in China, smelling the jasmine and the cooking, and wanting to know everything.

      The two main characters Willow and Pearl are lifelong best friends, and the characters were very strongly developed. They were in my head even when I wasn't reading. This story engulfed me. All I wanted to do the last few days was be in the book.

      I love Min's writing style, the people - all of them, that were so real and came to life on the pages, and all the political events that happened during the span of Willow's life. I felt like a part of the family.

      This book is magical.
    • 3/5
      Interesting, but the prose seemed flat to me.
    • 2/5
      **This was a reviewer copy provided by Library Thing**Pearl of China is a fictionalized account of the life of Pearl Buck as told by her best friend, Willow Yee. From Buck's childhood as a missionary's daughter in China to her life in America during Mao's Great Leap Forward, we see Buck's life through Willow's eyes and, as a result, what her work meant to the Chinese people. Having been raised in China, Buck is presented as more Chinese than American and as the only Westerner who could communicate the Chinese culture without bias, stereotypes, or misunderstanding.This is a slim book and a fairly quick read, although it seemed longer because I found so much of the novel to be tedious. I appreciate what Min was trying to achieve, but I think perhaps a biography may have better served her purposes than a fictionalized account ever could. Its brevity is problematic in that events move quickly and the transitions are often choppy and unclear. The passage of time is difficult to track as entire decades may pass between one paragraph and the next. This also leads to seeming inconsistencies within the development of characters. In the beginning, Willow and Pearl despise one another and then, inexplicably, they're best friends. Both Willow and her father have problems with the faith preached by Absalom, Pearl's father, but both inexplicably become true believers (this is especially unclear in Willow's case). We never get to fully know Willow or Pearl, which makes it difficult to care about either.Much of the novel, especially toward the second half, reads more like a textbook being narrated by Willow. There's a great deal of "this happened and then that happened," and this fact-dropping often stands in as evidence for the supposedly deep friendship between Willow and Pearl. As a result, I never really understood how these women became devoted lifelong friends. The second half is also set in Mao's China and for the last 100 pages mentions of Pearl are reduced to "Pearl was once again denied entry to China" statements. We have no idea what life was like for Pearl during this time period, although we do see Willow's suffering as a result of her inability to give up her faith in God which would also be a rejection of Pearl. Even in what should be the most moving part of the novel, Willow's flat and toneless narration of events makes it difficult to connect with the characters.While I do respect Min's attempt to show what Pearl Buck means to Chinese culture through Chinese eyes, one's time would be better spent reading Buck's body of work.
    • 5/5
      Pearl of China: A Novel by Anchee Min is fascinating. The story is about Willow and her childhood friend, Pearl Buck. The story starts with Willow, a motherless child from a poor family and living with her father and grandmother in Chin-Kiang of Jiangsu Province, China, where Pearl grows up. Being saved by Pearl from being raped, Willow befriends Pearl. Since then their friendship has lasted throughout their lives, and their families have become life-long friends, too. Is there a romantic relationship between Pearl and Hsu Chih-Mo, a well-known Chinese poet? The curious mind will find the answer from the novel. Willow never sees Pearl again after she leave for America in 1934, but their friendship continues. Thirty-nine years later in 1973, Willow finally goes to the U.S. and visits Pearlfs graveyard. Pearlfs Chinese name, æÎ'¿Zì, is on her self-designed tombstone, the Chinese characters representing her name, Pearl Sydenstricker. The ending is sweet and sad: the life ends, but the friendship lasts forever.Historical events are woven with personal experiences in the storyline, such as the Boxer rebellion, a development of Chinese Christians, Sino-Japanese War, Maofs communist revolution in Yenan, the Chinese Communistsf takeover in 1949, the Cultural Revolution and Nixonfs visit to China. I enjoy the novel because of its touching personal stories and historical events. Readers who enjoy this novel will like Letter from Peking by Pearl S. Buck and The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan.
    • 5/5
      I couldn't put this book down! Min completely destroyed my childhood image of Pearl Buck as an "old lady." She has become a vital, vibrant, real person to me. I enjoyed this book for the friendship between Pearl and Willow, and wonder if any of the real friends in the real Pearl's life had been this close. I also enjoyed it for the Chinese perspective. For years all I knew of China were Pearl Buck's stories. Min validates Buck's view of China, for me.
    • 4/5
      This is a work of fiction based on the life of Pearl Buck. The narrator for the story is Willow and it begins during the childhood of both Willow and Pearl. Cautious of one another at first, Willow and Pearl become lifelong friends separated by the chaos and failing Nationalist government in the years leading to the invasion of Japan and World War II. Once Pearl returns to the US, the story is strictly from Willow’s perspective and documents the major events in China at this time—the Communists coming to power, the Cultural Revolution, and Nixon’s visit to America.I enjoyed this story, but it rather small to cover so much time—only 275 pages to span from 1890 to the 1980s. I would have liked more details on the life of Willow and less skimming from one period to the next. Nevertheless, I would recommend this book especially if you have an interest in China and Pearl Buck.
    • 3/5
      When I was growing up I loved the books of Pearl S. Buck and was excited to read this to learn more about her life. The book was well written and enjoyable to an extent, but the characters felt flat to me and I had a hard time finishing it. It WAS well researched, also, and I learned a lot about the history of that time period.
    • 4/5
      This is the fictional story of a friendship that may have been…that of Pearl S. Buck and a Chinese girl from the village where she grew up as the child of missionaries. This imaginary friend, Willow, (a composite of several real people, according to the author) is the narrator of Pearl of China, which is almost more her story than Pearl’s. Willow’s voice is clear and beautiful as it tells of two women moving through historic events (the Boxer Rebellion, the rise of Communism, the Cultural Revolution) that affect them equally yet in very different ways. Fascinating view of Chinese life from a Chinese perspective, but it seemed that the author tried a bit too hard to educate readers about the history, which didn’t always blend seamlessly into the story line as it should in a good historical novel. This semi-biographical work was an ambitious undertaking that almost succeeded, but it fell a little short of engaging me fully with the characters.
    • 4/5
      "Pearl Buck and I have a long history together, and in some sense that story is at the heart of my novel. As a teen back in China in 1972 during the Cultural Revolution, I was asked to denounce Pearl Buck as an "American cultural imperialist." Though I wasn't given a change to read The Good Earth, I dutifully went ahead and made the denunciation. Years later, when I was living in America, [...] I read the book on a plane and burst into tears. I cried because I realized how beautifully Buck had told the story of the Chinese peasant, in a way that few others, even Chinese, had ever done. And I cried because I was only then realizing that I was only one of a generation that had been indoctrinated to think poorly of Buck. I wrote the novel to show where Pearl's great sensitivity and insight into the Chinese and Chinese culture came from. And also to show how the relationship between Pearl Buck and China changed over time, just as mine had changed." — From a Q & A with Anchee Min in the Bloomsbury edition of Pearl of China In this fictionalized biographical account, which spans from Pearl S. Buck's years in China to several years after her death, the narrator, Willow, gives a first-person account of how she and Pearl came to know each other as little girls, and the progress of their lives as the two women become lifelong friends. Willow is an invention of course, and while Min says she based herself on several people to build that character, she also represents the fondness and admiration that Anchee Min herself has obviously developed for the American woman who embodied the Chinese spirit and went on to become a Nobel Prize-winning author, thanks to her novels which were set in China. Based on a mixture of fact and invention, Willow describes her own life situation, growing up with a father who was a beggar, and by contrast, Pearl's parents, both Presbyterian missionaries, with Pearl's father, Absalom Sydenstricker working tirelessly to bring the Christian faith to the mostly Buddhist natives, while her mother tried to bring music and culture and help the people in her own way, in a China that would never be home to her. The first half of the book describes both young women's progress in an evolving China undergoing grave turmoil, first with the Boxer Rebellion, a proto-nationalist movement which declared war on foreigners and Christianity. During the worst of the persecutions, Pearl sought shelter in America, but returned as soon as it was safe to do so with her new husband, agricultural economist missionary, John Lossing Buck with whom she had a child, Carol, who was sadly afflicted with a condition which caused mental retardation. Willow describes what appears to be an unhappy marriage, of a husband who refused to support Pearl's fledgling writing career, of the difficulties the author faced when trying to have The Good Earth published, in a time when no one believed a book about the peasant class would be of interest to anyone. While I found all this interesting, this first part of the book seemed unconvincing; the Pearl character didn't ring true and seemed two-dimensional. But things really took off following the "Nanking Incident" during which Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist troops, Communist forces, and assorted warlords murdered several Westeners, and with their lives threatened Peal and her family were forced to leave China again, this time for good. From here on Willow's first person narrative mostly concentrates on relating the changes that came with the rise of communism and the cult of Mao and though Pearl remains in the background, she seems more convincing at a distance, while the dramatic changes, not least of which the Cultural Revolution, are vividly recounted, Willow having married a man who is involved with the communist party from it's very beginning and eventually becomes Mao's right hand. All in all, this makes for a good read, and since Min took plenty of artistic license, a non-fictional account of Pearl S. Buck's life might be necessary to sort out fact from fiction. But Anchee Min does offer a uniquely Chinese perspective on Pearl's life, her relationship to China and how the Chinese people viewed her, and weaves it all into an enlightening and eminently readable novel.
    • 4/5
      Told from the viewpoint of a "fictional childhood friend" of Pearl Buck, this novel covers Ms. Buck's years in China. Though born in the United States, Ms. Buck was taken to China at an early age by her missionary parents. She learned many dialects of Chinese and much about of the culture of China. She was forced to return to the United States when Mao Tse-Tung and the Communist party came in to power. Ms. Buck never returned to China, but she never forgot the country she loved. The story continues with that of her friend, Willow, and of life in China until the 1970s. I thoroughly enjoyed this blend of fiction and fact and when I finished the book I took to reading other sources regarding Ms. Buck's life. I have several of her books in my house and will be moving them up my TBR pile.
    • 4/5
      Born of missionary parents, raised in China during the early years of the 20th century, author Pearl Buck is the Pearl of China in Anchee Min’s semi-biographical story. As seen through the eyes of Willow, her childhood friend, we learn how this blonde American comes to see herself as “totally Chinese under the skin”.I found Pearl of China to be very informative and I was drawn into the story right from the start. Although her focus was on Pearl Buck, Willow led an interesting and varied life that kept the story flowing. I did find the book to be a little slow in the middle, but as there was so much true history to relate, it was understandable that the plot suffered in comparison. The end of the book touched me and I felt that we had come full circle in this friendship between these two remarkable women.Although Willow was a fictional character and was composed of several different people that influenced Pearl Buck’s life, I found the author created a character that rang true which I am sure was difficult as Willow was used to show how the political climate in China changed every few years.If you are looking for a true biography of Pearl Buck, this probably isn’t the book you want, but if you are interested in an emotional and moving look at the turmoil and strife that created modern China than this is a book that I would recommend.
    • 1/5
      The Short of It:Interesting premise but poorly executed.The Rest of It:"It is the end of the nineteenth century and China is riding on the crest of great change, but for nine-year-old Willow, the only child of a destitute family in the small southern town of Chin-kiang, nothing ever seems to change. Until the day she meets Pearl, the eldest daughter of a zealous American missionary."The “Pearl” referenced in that blurb is Pearl S. Buck, author of The Good Earth and numerous other novels. The story follows the lives of Willow and Pearl. This includes their marriages to horrible men, Willow’s imprisonment over refusing to denounce Pearl’s work, and Pearl’s rise as a writer. Some of the novel is based on fact, but the friendship itself is total fiction, which I was disappointed to learn.The historical bits about Mao’s Red Revolution and particularly the bits about his wife, were fascinating but not fleshed out. There were numerous gaps in the storyline. In real life, Pearl was a visionary. Highly revered for her humanitarian efforts yet in the story, her life almost took a backseat to Willow’s. Min was forced to denounce Buck’s work so perhaps this book was her way of paying homage to the writer. I’m not sure she succeeded, but what she did do was make me want to read The Good Earth.In additional to the gaps in storyline, the writing itself is a classic example of “telling” and not “showing.” Min tells you all about these horrible marriages yet she shares nothing about them. I never get a feel for the situation that these women are in. Even the imprisonment, which I’m sure would have been a harrowing experience for anyone, is glossed over with just a few sentences telling us how horrible it was.Pearl of China was my book club’s pick for July. What could have been a fabulous read, ended up being a thin outline of historical facts with a underdeveloped story thrown in for good measure. I can’t recommend this book, although it did provide quite a bit for us to discuss at our meeting.
    • 3/5
      I was excited to read Pearl of China, as I knew nothing of Pearl Buck's life as a young girl growing up in China as the daughter of missionaries. The story is told in first person by Pearl's fictional childhood friend Willow Yee. The narrator's voice as a young girl "sounds" just like her age and I found the first eight chapters fascinating, as the American girl becomes one with her adopted country. The first part of the book covers the years 1898 to 1901, and describes the difficulties Pearl's parents Absalom and Carie Sydenstricker experience with their Christian mission in Chin-kiang. Then the characters grow up. The chapters become shorter and decades are described in only a paragraph or two. The story begins to revolve around Willow, because by the 1930s, Pearl lived in the United States. When Pearl leaves the story, it became less interesting to me, although having little knowledge of Chinese history, I found the descriptions of the Communist takeover and life under Mao Tse Tung to be compelling. I appreciated that the narrator's voice matured as the character aged. However I was somewhat disappointed that I really didn't get to know Pearl--she felt an arm's distance away as I read, and that is the problem with first person narration. I wanted to understand her motivations, but all I knew was what the narrator described. As far as characterizations, I felt that Pearl's parents, Absalom and Carie were strong, but the Chinese characters tended to be one note, and I'm not sure that was the intent.(less)
    • 3/5
      I've read several other books by Anchee Min. I received this one as an Early Reviewer copy and was a little skeptical as to whether I would enjoy it or not. I had previously found the author to be a little too caught up in history and not enough in the story, particularly with Madame Mao, which I found hard to get through.The same was true with Pearl of China. While I found this book a more enjoyable read than Madame Mao, there were certainly similarities. I had hoped for and expected more of the story to center around Pearl Buck, about whom I was interested in learning more. However, after the first part of the book which focuses nicely on the life of Pearl and her Chinese best friend, Willow, the book takes a turn to focus much more on Willow. In my opinion, she was the less interesting character to choose from.Obviously these were not happy times in China and so one could expect that this was not going to be a happy book. I just wanted a little more out of it.That said, I do still believe this is a worthwhile read and quite eye-opening about the culture and situation in that time in China's history.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this novel. It follows the life of Willow as she recounts it in her moments, thoughts, and feelings with her friend Pearl. I loved the open language and the observations. For me, someone who dreams of returning to China, as Pearl had, it was wonderful to experience the cultue both in ways I knew and in ways I could never imagine to experience. The book is well written and artistic, as befit to a Chinese novelist. I would recommend to those who enjoy memoir style writings and to those who enjoy being immersed into a culture.
    • 4/5
      A beautifully told story of Willow and Pearl Buck. I enjoyed "watching" this friendship develop and grow. Anchee Min has a exquisite style to her writing and I enjoyed this book very much.
    • 3/5
      Anchee Min has long been one of my favorite writers. Her first book, Red Azalea, is one that I have recommended many times to many people. In the beginning, I was seduced by her wonderful, lyrical writing. Both Red Azalea and her second book, Katherine, were not only gorgeously written but also full of an unexpected eroticism that seemed to deepen the writing and draw one even tigher into Min's literary web.Over time, Min has changed her focus somewhat in order to tell China's history and provide us with her unique version of historical fiction to bring forth the lives of famous Chinese such as Madame Mao. Min is undeniably one of the best writers today in bringing Chinese life and history to the Western world. Her books are a pleasure to read not only for the sensitive prose but also for the sense of past times, the way politics and history have intertwined and influenced China as a country over time.But what of her newest book? What of Pearl of China? Again, Min has taken on an actual person - in this case, the famous writer Pearl Buck - and has written a fictionalized version of her life based in quite a bit of historical fact. The book will not please Buck purists who are looking for a traditional biography. For one familiar with Buck and her life and work, perhaps Pearl of China will serve as a pleasant and fascinating "add on," or something to read after one has read a detailed biography.Or, it is possible to read Pearl of China knowing nothing at all of Buck. Perhaps in the reading, one will become intrigued with the child of missionaries who grew up in China and later wrote insightful books about the country, winning literary prizes and gaining worldwide attention. Perhaps Min's latest writing will create an upswing of interest in Buck among younger readers. It is also possible to read Pearl of China without any emphasis on Buck at all and view her simply as a background character. After all, the book is more about Willow, Buck's childhood friend in China and her life. One of the most memorable characters in the novel is Papa, Willow's father who both comically and touchingly manages to walk a tightrope between Buddhism and Christianity and between con man and church man in order to survive through decades of difficult times in China.Fans of Anchee Min will read this book, but it probably will not be anyone's favorite book by Min. In fact, Pearl of China feels very much like a Min running out of steam. Her writing - always very good - seems less lyrical, more narrative. One misses the poetic quality of her earlier novels. Also missing is the amazing eroticism that Min used to be able to render in almost every novel. Perhaps the idea of combining Pearl Buck with an erotic factor did not seem wise or even imaginable. But the romance that Min dreamed up for Buck did not seem to work either. Perhaps, in the end, Buck was too difficult and too real a person to fictionalize.Min touches on the Boxer Rebellion and, as always, the Cultural Revloution in China. She manages - as usual - to fill her readers with the horrors of those times. She has done this so well, so many times over now, that one begins to wish for Min to ease up a bit on the political and allow herself to go back to the dream-like early writings with the pages that read as poetry and the building eroticism lurking behind the flowered words. At this point in her life, Min is, perhaps, too serious. Her own writing self seems to be too wired to past political traumas in China. Perhaps this is the time for her to try a different kind of novel. Pearl of China is not it. I, for one, am waiting for the poetry to come back.
    • 3/5
      Author Anchee Min has fictionalized author Pearl Buck's life. She tells it through the life of Willow, who is a composite of several persons Pearl knew in China over the years. I enjoyed the story, but I knew that it differed from accounts of Pearl's life that I had read years ago. Pearl was the daughter of a Presbyterian missionary. In the story, Willow is the daughter of one of Pearl's father's first converts who eventually becomes a leader in the church although his initial motive for joining was purely selfish. The book covers a wide range of time, including the period after Pearl left China during the Revolution and never returned. The biggest problem with the book is the liberties that the author took with the story. That is always a danger when fictionalizing the life of a real person. Perhaps the author would have been wise to stick with the facts and make that narrative readable rather than creating a composite individual who would have know Pearl throughout her time in China. This book was received as a complimentary copy through GoodRead's First Reads Program with encouragement to write a review.
    • 5/5
      Pearl of China by Anchee Min is an inspiring and well written historical novel. Written through the eyes of Pearl Buck's best friend, Willow Yee, the reader experiences the changes in Chinese government through the 20th century. The character development helps the reader follow each character through their lives as they grow and change with the hardships of life. Anyone who enjoys Chinese history would enjoy this historical novel. Interest in China and the life of award winning author Pearl S. Buck is piqued in Pearl of China.