1949
Reviewed by Marianne
from Let's Read
A story that tells us about the question everyone who has lived in a
different country asks themselves, especially those that are born in
another world than their parents or who moved there when they were
little. Do I belong to the country where I live or to the country that
my passport shows.
This is a story about a Chinese family in New
York who moves "back" to China. My children have lived in different
countries all their lives, the youngest wasn't even born in Germany. And
while the difference between several European countries is probably not
as large as that between countries from different continents, I know
they don't exactly feel as belonging to a certain country, they are
simply "European".
This is not so easy for the chldren of Dr.
Liang, they are American but their ancestors are Asian, and they have to
discover the difference between those two countries.
As any of
Pearl S. Buck's books, this is a highly interesting book about a culture
that is quite foreign to us. But she has depicted it so well, as
always. The characters are so alive and every single one of them shows
us their life.
From the back cover:
"Kinfolk is the
story of a Chinese family. Dr. Liang moves to America in search of a
better life, but his children long to return to China. Each responds to
their new life in China differently, providing rich insight into the
struggles between Eastern and Western culture, and the differences
between generations.
A tale of four Chinese-American siblings in New York, and their bewildering return to their roots
In
Kinfolk, a sharp dissection of the expatriate experience, Pearl S. Buck
unfurls the story of a Chinese family living in New York. Dr. Liang is a
comfortably well-off professor of Confucian philosophy, who spreads the
notion of a pure and unchanging homeland. Under his influence, his four
grown children decide to move to China, despite having spent their
whole lives in America. As the siblings try in various ways to adjust to
a new place and culture, they learn that the definition of home is far
different from what they expected."
Find other books by Pearl S. Book that I read here.
Read my other reviews of the Nobel Prize winners for Literature.
Original Post on "Let's Read".
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