Sons by Pearl S. Buck

 

Title:  Sons

Author:  Pearl S. Buck

Narrated by:  Adam Verner

Publisher: Oasis Audio

Length: Approximately 14 hours

Source: Checked out with Libby through the Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you!

Do you like to read family drama books that carry the story through the generation?  If so, what books have you enjoyed in the past?  I loved the Kent Family Chronicles by John Jakes which tells the story of an American family from the Revolution through the twentieth century.

This summer I read The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck for my Back to the Classics book club at the Kewaunee Public Library. I learned it was part of a trilogy and I really wanted to see what happened next in the story.  I got the second book, Sons, on audiobook from the library and I greatly enjoyed it.

Sons picks up immediately after The Good Earth Ends.  In the Good Earth, Wang Lung starts as a poor farmer, but works his way up to becoming a very rich man in 19^th century China.  As he is dying, he implores his three sons not to sell the land.  At the start of Sons, he is still dying and his life is celebrated after it ends. 

All three sons are very different men.  The novel focuses primarily on the third son, Wang the Tiger.  In the first book, he had run off to be a soldier.  In this novel, he is able to get his two older brothers to fund his life as a warlord.  He has many adventures which include love, betrayal, and war.  He wants a legacy of his own through marriage and sons. 

I enjoyed the overall story and how it was very different than the first book.  I also enjoyed the exploration into Chinese culture.  The story was epic in grandeur, but I also liked how it showed that Wang Lung’s sons are following the decaying cycle of the House of Hwang before them.  I am very interested to read the third and final book in this trilogy.  Wang the Tiger’s son is also not taking the path he would like him to take.

I did miss the strong female characters that were in The Good Earth.  The female characters in Sons were not as well developed.  I did enjoy getting to see how life turned out for many of my favorite characters from The Good Earth, including Pear Blossom.

Adam Verner was a fine narrator of this audiobook.