Pearl S. Buck

Pavilion of Women

Cheryl Hedlund

3.5 I have complicated feelings about this book. The prose is wonderful to read. Smooth and descriptive, but not overdone. It is a detailed portrait of pre-communist Chinese society before and starting WW2. The conflict between the generations and the push and pull of foreign ideas and influences is explored. The life of a large extended family household of a wealthy landowning family is described very well. There is a lot of reflection and we see everything through the interior view of Madame Wu, the leading matriarch of a family with a long and noble heritage. It is her story of striving to free herself from the bondage of duty that she feels so strongly. On her 40th birthday she announces to her husband that she will no longer be sharing her bed with him and that she will choose a suitable concubine to please him. This throws the entire family into upheaval and there are many consequences. She also invites a missionary priest to be her son's English tutor to please the modern-thinking and fashionable wife she chose for him. This also has many unintended consequences. Eventually she asks him to teach her as well. Madame Wu goes through an intellectual and spiritual transformation in this novel. She is inspired by the character and wisdom of the priest, Father Andre. He does not teach her about religion, but about the freedom found in giving yourself for the good of others. The sacredness of all humans and the selflessness of love. But I never was comfortable being in Madame Wu's head. Even after she supposedly "awakened to love", she still held herself so superior to others. She was a little kinder and a little gentler, but it seemed to be serving to prop up her own self-satisfaction. The amazing spiritual and intellectual lessons were actually pretty simple and shallow.

Pavilion of Women

Reviews