The siblings who surrounded Pearl in these early memories were dreamlike as well. “But we saw none of these.” What they saw was America, a strange, dreamlike, alien homeland where they had never set foot.
“We looked out over the paddy fields and the thatched roofs of the farmers in the valley, and in the distance a slender pagoda seemed to hang against the bamboo on a hillside,” Pearl wrote, describing a storytelling session on the veranda of the family house above the Yangtse River. She was the fifth of seven children and, when she looked back afterward at her beginnings, she remembered a crowd of brothers and sisters at home, tagging after their mother, listening to her sing, and begging her to tell stories. Pearl Sydenstricker was born into a family of ghosts.
No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Excerpted from Chapter 1, Pearl Buck in China: A Journey to the Good Earth by © Hilary Spurling (courtesy Simon & Schuster, June 2010).
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