Pearl Buck

Overwhelmed with the mayhem and distractions of the modern world I decided to slip back into the beginning of the last century to a rural farm in Imperial China in The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. Reading this novel was such a relief I sincerely wish I could erase it from my memory and begin it all over again. No spoilers, I'll just say a few words...

Imagine looking over a plot of farmland and saying to yourself "I can live on this." And I mean, "I can use my bare hands to work the soil and feed myself and my family." There would be perpetual back breaking labor with little time for anything else. There would be the regular fear of drought or flood and starvation. And despite rigorous labor there are no guarantees - life continues to teeter on the whims of chance.

This life is hard to imagine, and I find something so noble and comforting about it. It made me want to brew, which I did, which gave me more time to think about it. I think we all know that none of us are capable of sustaining ourselves, and I guess I find that somewhat uncomfortable personally. We leave so much of our fate in the hands of others, and this gives us so much prosperity, but also so much responsibility. It makes me want to pick up a trowel. Reading about all the hardships I almost feel as though I've left my own fields go to weeds.

I highly recommend this book. Its language is so simple and readable, its themes so ubiquitous, I am going to have it purged from my mind at the first opportunity for a repeat.