I was made to visit with supervising adults within my family the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Museum in Hillsboro, West Virginia, as a young boy. It was my forced introduction to the Nobel and Pulitzer-winning author, and I was bored stiff. I distinctly remember the stately museum’s period rural antiques, dated artifacts from her life, hardwood floors, and perfectly made up “folksy” beds. I was instructed “Pearl Buck” was an important writer and Far East missionary, but I was still trying to get the hang of cursive writing and making sense of roaming dinosaurs, Adam and Eve’s story, and the marrying of the two distinct worlds.

I wasn’t “bored to tears” with Mrs. Buck’s childhood home,  but I’d rather have been floating my battleship toy in a nearby running creek, or trying to make sparks with flint rocks to give the battleship more drama.

My late grandfather and WWII Marine, “Papaw” Bill Evans, was the residing superintendent of the Edray Fish Hatchery in Marlinton, West Virginia, producing rainbow trout about 20 minutes drive from the Buck Museum. Now this hatchery, dear to my memory, has gushing mountain water pounding little, fast creeks that made the Buck Museum seem a dry affair.

Much later, while I was attending a film studies class in college, trying to raise my GPA from 2.001, and overcome a liberal arts college curriculum that invited dedicated students from all over the world, I watched The Good Earth  (1937), a beautifully filmed b/w American drama about poor Chinese farmers in a struggle for survival, winning Luise Rainer as “O-Lan” the Academy Award for Best Actress. After seeing this film, I started to warm up to Pearl Buck.

The Good Earth is a masterpiece of 20-century literature that makes epic with plain, poetic prose the tale of a Chinese farmer. Anyone this gifted at writing simple yet lyrical depictions of rural life in China has my attention when it comes to held views to inform such artistry.

And kudos to Oprah Winfry’s book club championing this title, reviving interest in Buck’s classic 1931 novel, bringing it to a........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)