Reviews for East Wind: West Wind

The average rating for East Wind: West Wind based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-09-23 00:00:00 Brian Plyler East Wind, West Wind originally titled Winds of Heaven was Pearl S. Buck's first novel published in the United States in 1930. Though it had gone through many earlier rejections, the acceptance to publish eventually came down to one final vote by Richard Walsh, the president of the publishing company (and who would become Pearl's second husband). He later revealed that he decided to publish it, " not because he liked it, but because he thought her capable of something better." The story is told from the point of view of Kwei-lan, a Chinese girl raised strictly under the old Eastern traditions, newly married to a Chinese man who has studied medicine in the West. The grievous story of her marriage begins on her wedding night when her husband appears repulsed by her. The marriage goes unconsummated. Buck portrays the conflicts of a marriage with its origins in mixed ideology, the differences between Kwei-lan's Eastern manner of life and that of a "foreigner", and the philosophy behind the many ancient Chinese traditions that have kept the female servile to the male. I was mostly moved by Kwei-lan's sense of identity loss, as one partner feels the need to adapt to the other. Hilary Spurling in her biography "Pearl Buck in China: A Journey to The Good Earth," pointed out some similarities of persons in Pearl's life that were incorporated in some of the characters of this novel. There was good thematic material here but I felt the plots were weak. I definitely saw the impotence of a first novel in East Wind, West Wind, having read some of Buck's more significant novels to follow. This wasn't bad, but to parrot Mr. Walsh, Buck was capable of something better. That was proven in her next novel, The Good Earth.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-01-03 00:00:00 Laura Thickbroom A few years ago my brother and I took a road trip to Hillsboro, West Virginia to see Pearl S. Buck's childhood home. I had read A Good Earth and had loved it, and I thoroughly enjoy going to author's homes. When we got back home there was a message from my boss at the time on my answering machine asking why I wasn't at work that day. Somehow I had read the schedule wrong and my brother and I took our trip on a day I was actually scheduled to work. For the first (and only) time to date I received a written warning. It was not one of my shining moments, and for a long time I had a sort of thing against Pearl Buck, like maybe she was bad luck. In any case, I no longer work at that bookstore and life all around is much better for me - I have a set schedule - so I can no longer blame Pearl Buck for my inadequacies. I chose East Wind: West Wind for my return to Buck's writing as it was her first published novel in 1930 and seemed a fitting place to start again. I no longer hold anything against her. I really enjoyed this book. What intrigues me most about Buck is that the time she lived in China, despite being American by birth, she was accepted as a Chinese writer. She had the opportunity to live in and view Chinese culture as a Westerner, which is evident in her writing, particularly in East Wind: West Wind. Kwei-lan is married to a Chinese man who was a doctor in America for a time. During his American stay he accepted several Western beliefs and attitudes, all of which are not accepted by Eastern standards. Kwei-lan is encouraged to unbind her feet, their son is to be raised solely by the two of them; she struggles to understand these Western beliefs without turning her back entirely on what she was raised to believe. Her older brother goes so far as to marry an American woman and returns as a relatively Westernized man. Kwei-lan makes every effort to help her parents come to terms with the changes occurring in their family while also embracing her new sister-in-law. Written 22 years before Amy Tan was even born, Pearl S. Buck's books are much less commercialized and sadly are mostly ignored by readers now.