Three Daughters of Madame Liang (Buck, Pearl S. Oriental Novels of Pearl S. Buck, 4th,)

• Imperial Woman (Buck, Pearl S. Oriental Novels of Pearl S. Buck, 3rd,)
• Dragon Seed (Buck, Pearl S. Oriental Novels of Pearl S. Buck.)
• A House Divided (Good Earth Trilogy, Vol 3)
• Sons (Good Earth Trilogy, Vol 2)
• The Mother

Madame Liang has her own opinions about the new society which she has prudently kept to herself. But Grace, back home in China, throws herself into her work as a doctor and embraces everything blindly, including a young physician named Liu Pang, who parrots everything he has read in Mao's Little Red Book. Mercy, the second sister, is a musician, whose talents are not in demand in the People's Republic; but she misses her home and induces her new husband, a rocket scientist, to return to their country. For Grace, the return home is the fulfillment of herself; for Mercy and her husband, it is a disaster. Meanwhile, the third sister, Joy, a painter, having found romance and happiness with a fellow artist who has left China for good and never intends to return, remains in America to make her life with him.

Madame Liang watches the growing tension and hostility dividing the two older sisters with alarm and resignation. She can't live her daughters' lives for them; all she can do is keep on living her own life. But her own life can't survive the insanity of the Cultural Revolution; the very success of her restaurant means she's an enemy of the working classes. The Cultural Revolution sweeps everything away in its path; including Madame Liang.

Buck writes with a flow that keeps her book moving effortlessly along like an unbroken skein of thread (one gets thoroughly caught up in the narrative before realizing that there are no chapters; the book moves from one scene to the next till the final page), covering some six or seven years from the end of the 50's to 1966. Through it all, Madame Liang's continually expressed faith in her country and people suggest that, whatever her own fate, China and its people will survive in spite of themselves. Although the book is ostensibly about her three daughters, it's really the story of a remarkable woman, and through her, the story of China in transition.


12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

Nice intro to the Chinese perspective of the New Government, 2003-05-17
I thought this novel was a wonderful introduction to the mindset of the Chinese people, both those living in China, and those living in America, towards the new government. It was an enlightening story because as an American, we view it simply as a government as one that took away everyone's freedoms, which it did. Yet, of course, it's not that simple. The story is about that deeply-rooted devotion to one's mother country, no matter what changes it goes through. It also reveals what led to the change of government, and what problems arised and what new changes occurred afterward. Through Madame Liang, representing the older revolutionary generation, the story showed how the revolution failed, and she saw how certain mistakes in history were made. Through her daughters, it showed the hope in which the younger generation had for the new China, and their attempts to restore a strong nation within the new framework. Also revealed was the the repression of emotions, through Grace, the eldest daughter, her hopeless lusting after Liu Peng, yet knowing that his mind was narrow and brainwashed in the Communist school of thought. Of course, the repression of individual thought was evident with John Sung, the scientist who refused to create weapons to be used against Americans. The stories surrounding Mercy and Joy, Madame Liang's two other daughters, was interesting in that they both struggled with their loyalties to China, but love, in Joy's case, kept her in America, while experience in the new China, forced Mercy to escape. There were a lot of interesting themes throughout the story, the theme of love in light of this new way of life, the theme of pride in one's own race and country. The style in which the story was told was very different from that of "The Good Earth." Here it was a much more fast-moving narrative, and a great modern story.

I couldn't put this book down, but there's just one thing that bothered me, and that was the ending, which seemed so abrupt. All of a sudden certain events happened which bluntly put the entire story to an end. Certainly these events were convincing, yet it still left me completely shocked and almost disappointed once the novel was finished. That's the only reason why I gave it four stars.


19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

A Moving, Deeply Personal Account of the Cultural Revolution, 2001-08-24
I have read more than a dozen novels by the extraordinary Pearl S. Buck, and this is one of my all time favorites. Buck's lucid writing, and deep understanding of complex cultural issues makes this a gem. Set against the back-drop of the Chinese cultural Revolution, THE THREE DAUGHTERS OF MADAME LIANG charts the deeply personal journey and loss of one Chinese family. There is a sophistication to Buck's writing that is not always immediately apparent, but once you become used to her voice, the deceptively simple prose gives way to deeply moving insights. This is a glowing, powerful novel about a family and a country at a crossroads. Don't miss it!