The New Year
30. The New Year by Pearl S. Buck (Fiction)
World Lit Challenge: South Korea
When I posted here about The Good Earth, someone recommended this to me. I really enjoyed it. The New Year begins when Christopher de Witt, a rich, successful man, who has spent most of his life preparing to enter politics, is just beginning to run for Governor in his home state. He has a wife, Laura, an intelligent woman who is a scientist in her own right, and with whom he is in love. Everything in his life seems to be coming together, until a letter arrives for him from Korea, addressing him as, “Dear American Father.”
It’s really astonishing that Pearl S. Buck could have written such a book in 1968. Not that many of her characters’ thoughts and opinions about race and gender aren’t somewhat outdated, because they are, but even still….
[spoilers]
I was quite fond of some of the characters, particularly Laura, the main POV character. Her husband Christopher, not so much. If I’d had to read about him calling young Christopher “boy” one more time, I would have screamed and thrown the book across the room. Actually, on the whole, grown-up Christopher was pretty much a jackass, although he redeemed himself somewhat at the end. Laura was pretty marvellous through it all; if only she hadn’t been willing to let Christopher be the head of the household, always deferring to his decisions, even though she was in many ways far more intelligent than he, and possessed far more moral courage.
[/spoilers]
Books read: 30/300 (10%)
Pages read: 7,738/75,000 (10.3%)
Days passed: 24/365 (6.6%)
X-posted here.
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Pearl S. Buck, World Lit Challenge
World Lit Challenge: China