This is the second time that I've read this book and I've enjoyed it thoroughly both times. I love the underlining message of the book about keeping oneself busy. An idle mind belongs to the devil, isn't that right? This is what the book teaches us. It's about a man living in China named Wang Lung; he is a poor farmer and he is getting married to a servant from the rich man's house. The earth and his farm are his world. He buys land from the rich man and having this land and remembering this land is what carries him through a horrible famine. They have to leave their farm and go south, otherwise they would have all died. While living in the south they have to beg for food and he runs a rickshaw through the city. When a riot happens and the city's peasants storm the rich man's house, Wang Lung and also his wife, Olan, come across money and jewels; they can't wait to get back to their farm and their land.
Since Wang Lung is now rich, he can hire people to work his land and care for his animals. He adds rooms onto his house and wears better clothes, but he is bored. He feels too rich for the normal tea house and so he goes to a more upscale tea house and gets into trouble. He never thought his wife, Olan, was beautiful but he meets a concubine who is beautiful and he falls in love with her and buys her and moves her into a wing of his house. He is a rich man and all rich men have concubines. Poor Olan who has done so much for Wang Lung and his house is forced to live with this woman, but she refuses to wait on her or cook her meals or anything of the sort.
Wang Lung soon realizes that he can't make everyone happy. His sons cause problems for him and his uncle and family move in with them and are not good people, but he feels under pressure to take them in or else the local gang will rob him and take all his possessions. Soon his oldest son who is so concerned about appearances talks his father into moving into the rich man's house, where Olan used to work. He buys the house and they fix it up. Before they move though Olan dies. This woman has been through so much. She did so much for Wang Lung, but he never appreciated her. He only felt a small amount of grief when she died. As time goes on he begins to realize that riches aren't what make you happy. His family who all lives together in the big house are bickering and his concubine has grown fat and he doesn't go to her anymore. He does have a last fling with a very young servant girl, which makes my stomach turn and my anger boil: can't he control himself? Seriously. After their little affair he looks to her as a daughter (weird) and he only finds solace in her and his daughter who has mental problems because of the famine she survived.
Soon he grows old and feels he is going to die. All he wants to do in the end is get back to the earth. He moves back out to his little house with his daughter and the young girl to live out the rest of his days. As I mentioned earlier I love the underlining theme of the book, which is to keep thing simple. Money doesn't buy you happiness, what brings you happiness is work and providing for oneself, not being idle. This book will always be a classic because of its timeless theme and message.
