Peony

Peony. Pearl S. Buck. 1948/2006. Moyer Bell. 352 pages.

It was spring in the city of K'aifeng, a late spring in the northern Chinese province of Honan. Behind the high city walls the peach trees, planted in courtyards, bloomed earlier than they did upon the farms spreading over the level plains around the moat. Yet even in such shelter the peach blossoms were still only rosy buds at Passover.

Is it possible to be fascinated by a book that you don't quite like? I think so for I found Peony by Pearl S. Buck to be completely fascinating and compelling and yet not quite to my liking. Narrated by a bondmaid, Peony, readers learn about a Jewish community living within the Chinese city of K'aifeng in the early 19th century. Peony, a Chinese servant who was "bought" as a young child to be a companion to the couple's young son, David, a woman who comes to fall in love with him. It is an all-consuming, sometimes quite manipulative love, a forbidden love, but a forever kind of love nonetheless.

Ezra and Madame Ezra could never accept this servant as a daughter-in-law. But both are fond of her in their own way. As for David, he couldn't imagine life without Peony nearby. He promises that as long as he lives, she'll always always have a place in his home. But does he love her? At the beginning? Not really. Does he even know what love is?!

It is Madame Ezra's greatest desire for her son, David, to marry Leah, the daughter of the rabbi. It is her greatest desire that her son will come to embrace the Jewish faith, study under the rabbi, and maybe just maybe take his place since the rabbi's son, Aaron, is no good. She even invites Leah to live with them in their home. Hoping that Leah will be able to persuade David that he is more Jewish than Chinese. (David's father, Ezra, had a Chinese mother and a Jewish father.)

But. David is more like his father, Ezra, than his mother. David tries to learn about Judaism from the rabbi. He reads what he is supposed to read. He studies what he is supposed to study. But he has a hard time believing that God is real, that his people are chosen, that a wrathful God--a jealous God--could be a good God, a holy God, a just God. Instead, David comes to believe that religions are mostly the same--all man-made and essentially nonsense. He's closer to "accepting" the teachings of Confucius than the teachings of the Torah. He brings the rabbi to despair and breaks his mother's heart--for a time at least.

So his mother is pushing him to marry Leah. And Peony is pushing him to marry a pretty (but mindless) Chinese girl, Kueilan. For she believes that she could get along better with her than Leah. That if he chooses Leah--and the faith--that she'll be pushed out of his life. She even goes so far as to write both sides of their love letters! Peony has flaws--plenty of flaws! And it wasn't easy for me to stay on good terms with her.  

So Peony chronicles the lives of this Jewish family. It examines the tension between being Jewish and being Chinese. It examines how living in China for several centuries--at least--has had an impact on their faith, their culture, their teachings. It explores the decay of this community. How almost each generation weakens the faith, weakens the community. Each generation coming to compromise more and more of their faith.

So I liked elements of this one. I found the story itself to be fascinating. The novel covers several decades--at least--of this Jewish community from the point of view of one prominent family. And the afterword by Wendy R. Abraham was equally fascinating. I learned how much was fact, how much was fiction. How Pearl Buck played with the chronology a bit, but was true enough in some ways to do this community justice. But. I can't say that I "liked" the characters themselves--David and Peony especially. I found my heart breaking--along with his mother's heart--when David rejected faith in the one true God. I found it sad--very sad--to see the decay of the faith. How when the rabbi died there was no one within the community to take his place, there was no one left to carry on his work, his teachings. And Peony? Well. I found her to be selfish and manipulative and deceitful. So I liked some things; didn't like other things.

I did find it to be well-written. I think I liked this one more than the Good Earth trilogy, but I still think Kinfolk is my favorite.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Posted in 1948 , adult fiction , classics , Historical Fiction , library book , Pearl Buck

Taken at the Flood

Taken at the Flood. Agatha Christie. 1948/1984. Penguin. 256 pages.


In every club there is a club bore. The Coronation Club was no exception; and the fact that an Air Raid was in progress made no difference to normal procedure.

 Set, for the most part, in Warmsley Vale, this Hercule Poirot mystery focuses on a dysfunctional family in crisis: the Cloade family. Gordon Cloade made a lot of promises--promises it turns out he couldn't keep. He promised to provide for many--if not most--of his family. He helped them with their bills. He helped them with their dreams. His family was comfortable accepting his financial assistance. So when Gordon Cloade dies shortly after his marriage, everyone is upset. For his marriage changes everything, his wife will receive everything. His wife, an American widow, is a young beauty named Rosaleen. She's accompanied by her brother, David Hunter. The Cloade family hates them both. Though some family members play friendly--hoping to get a little money from her now and then. But David is always at her side telling her that her husband's family would love to see her dead.

So who's the victim? How does Poirot get involved? Well. A man shows up in town wanting to see David Hunter. He claims that he has proof that Rosaleen's first husband, a Mr. Underhay, is still alive. He wants money, of course, or he threatens to go to the Cloade family who will only be too happy to have this proof. For if Rosaleen's first husband was still alive when she married Gordon, then she wasn't legally his wife, and the family would get the money. This "Enoch Arden" is murdered--and the main suspect is David Hunter! But did he do it?

Lynn, one of the family, is involved in a very unhealthy love triangle in Taken at The Flood. Since returning home from the war, she's been restless. She's engaged to Rowley, but she's finding herself fascinated by the devilish David Hunter. And he's flirting back. Which will she choose? And will her choice prove deadly?

I enjoyed this one. It was exciting and fascinating. The family is a tangled mess, and Poirot has much to untangle before he can find all the pieces he needs to solve this one.

"Rowley. What's Rowley?"
"A better man than you--touch him if you dare," she said lightly.
"I've no doubt he's a better man than me--but I do dare. I'd dare anything for you, Lynn."
She was silent for a moment or two. She said at last.
"What you don't understand is that I love Rowley."
"I wonder."
She said vehemently: "I do, I tell you, I do."
David looked at her searchingly.
"We all see pictures of ourselves--of ourselves as we want to be. You see yourself in love with Rowley, settling down with Rowley, living here contented with Rowley, never wanting to get away. But that's not the real you, is it, Lynn?"
"Oh what is the real me? What's the real you, if it comes to that? What do you want?"
"I'd have said I wanted safety, peace after storm, ease after troubled seas. But I don't know. Sometimes I suspect, Lynn, that both you and I want--trouble." (58)

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Posted in 1948 , adult fiction , adult mystery , Agatha Christie , Hercule Poirot , library book