This year I’m discovering Pearl S Buck. I found in a
second-hand bookshop all 3 volumes of The House of Earth for 20 RON (~ 5 EUR)
so I took them and read them all in a few days. I was in China following the Wangs, being
happy, struggling, suffering and prevailing with them. Favorite characters ?
O-Lan, Wang The Tigre (to some extent) and his son - Yuan and his step mom.
First volume – The Good Earth is rapid, strong, babies are being born one after
another, Wang Lung is working hard and gathers a great deal of land, ensuring
the future and wealth of his family. Sons (the second volume) is more difficult
to read, things happen a little bit slower and Wang The Tigre is far away from
his father’s land. He is a warier. The third volume is about the 3
rd
generation of Wangs being as far away as possible from their roots. I loved the
trilogy, I loved the writing, it felt different from one volume to the next. In
the Romanian literature we have realistic novels (high school lit) about the
relationship between a men and his piece of land and this relation trespasses
culture and language and time. I cannot put my finger on it, but the Chinese description
was more romantic in a way, or maybe I was too young and not interested in
anything that had to do with Romanian peasants and their struggle to survive solely
on the fruits of their land. I liked that characters are what they seem to be
and with few surprises, what you think they will become. The women of the
trilogy are not many, but different and their status changes – from slave (O-Lan)
to well read woman (one of Tigre’s wives) to “modern” woman (Ai-lan) as the
time passes by.
I’m fan of sagas and this one in particular.
The Good Earth - the first volume was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1932.
I finished in a
couple of days The Stonecutter – The 3rd book of Fjällbacka series
by Camilla Lackberg. I’m getting used to
reading these books of the series so quickly and to discover the murderer at
the end. I blame it all on Agatha and her countless books I read and enjoyed when
I was in high schoolJ) I love Patrik and Erika – they now have a baby girl Maia and I like
their family as much as I like Alison and Joe Dubois from the Tv series Medium.
In this book a young girl is found murdered in a fishing net and Patrik has to
solve the mystery. Evil lies in ordinary people, I find it difficult to
believe, although I know it’s true. 
Am două cărţi de Kate Morton în
bibliotecă şi am în plan să o cumpăr şi pe a treia. Am citit-o pe prima - Casa
de la Riverton şi mi-a plăcut. Va fi un Kate Morton maraton :) când o să am şi Grădina uitată. The Distant Hours o am in engleză, cred că am luat-o din Munchen. Este
totuşi ceva ce nu mi-a plăcut la Casa de la Riverton, dar nu pot pune punctul
pe i. Poate că mă aşteptam ca secretul să fie unul mai lugubru, poate că m-a
dezamăgit Teddy, soţul lui Hannah, un Teddy atât de carismatic in primele apariţii şi din ce in
ce mai antipatic şi mai rigid pe măsură ce înaintam în carte. Oricum, Grace
este o fire puternică, self made woman, servitoare, cameristă, chelneriţă şi
prin muncă şi ambiţie doctor în arheologie. Loială Hannei şi familiei Hartford, Grace alege să îi
povestească doar nepotului ei (scriitor de succes) secretul pe care l-a ţinut
atâţia ani
(peste 50 de ani). O apariţie dragă mie este cea a Agathei Christie în această
carte alături de soţul ei care a fost arheolog, îi găsim în anturajul lui Teddy
(participă la un dineu).
