What an excellent discussion today about Pearl S Buck's book, Peony. With nine of us in one of the small rooms upstairs [at the library], it was easy to share ideas and to hear everyone's points. As always, there were some insights that had not occurred to me and I am once again grateful to be part of the group. Our ratings ranged widely. The majority of us were middle of the road - preferring other of her works like The Good Earth and Pavillion of Women. The average of our 8 voting raters today was 3.3 out of 5.
One of the major themes of the book was the question of assimilation of the Jewish people into the Chinese culture. For the older generations of the characters this was not in question as much as it was for the younger ones. Adherence to traditions of the faith waned as time went along. Another theme that we discussed was the roles of the women, both Chinese and Jewish in the book. We had generally the same impressions of their motives for their actions, with differing levels of sympathy for Peony's effect on the course of events in the household especially relating to decisions about David's future. It was a revelation to several of us that there was a Jewish community living in China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
--Susan
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