"The Exile" is one of Pearl Buck's early works, published in 1936 following the completion of her Good Earth trilogy. She wrote biographies of both of her parents. Buck was 44 years old in 1936 and had only left China two years before. This is the biography of Pearl Buck's mother Caroline, "Carie", clearly written as both a family history and tribute with a great deal of love. It begins with Buck's great-grandparents in Holland, their emigration to America in the 1850's including their youngest child who was Buck's grandfather and the young Parisian woman he married and brought to America.

Caroline Stulting was born March 8, 1857 in the part of Virginia that became West Virginia and died October 21, 1921 in China.

There is a heavy dose of patriotism in this book with recurring comments on what it is and was to be "An American", American exceptionalism and religious freedom. Despite all the love poured into this, by book's end I was pretty sad. It is not uncommon to have regrets about life when we near the end. We think of things we should have done when we were younger, different choices we could have or should have made and regret some of the choices we did make. That is the way Carie came to old age and the end of her life in China, unhappy with choices she had made big and small, and things she had never done. She clearly underestimated what she had accomplished, and yet I could not help myself sympathizing with her.

Buck writes with great descriptive flourishes, maybe almost too much, because I tend to think that when one notices the writing too much maybe it IS just a bit too much. Carrie spent the majority of her life in China as a missionary and moreso as a missionary's wife. What that means is that one must watch child after child be born and die from disease. ( )

Peripezie di una donna americana di origine olandese che seguì suo marito, pastore presbiteriano nella missione di introdurre la religione cristiana in Cina. Quello che più ho ammirato è stata la sua umana religiosità fatta di cure ai poveri e di continue domande di un segno divino, visto che 4 dei suoi bambini sono morti per l'inadeguatezza della vita in Cina ai primi del novecento. Storia vera scritta dalla figlia che vide la durezza di comportamento del padre, che pieno di cultura formale ricordava solo un lato delle lettere di San Paolo dove la donna doveva essere sottomessa all'uomo!
Mi è piaciuto molto nonostante un linguaggio a volte arcaico. ( )

Very enjoyable read, subject of the book extremely likable. ( )

This is an excellent biography. It manages to describe the life, times and cultures of two very different societies through the life of one woman. It has vivid description which grabs the heart and emotions, and gives a very real picture of the life of some missionaries who sacrificed all for the cause they believed in; along with the trial which that gave their belief. My overall feeling though, having finished it, is just sadness. Here was a vivacious loving woman, and due to the religious prejudices, or misunderstandings of her day, never knew she was snuggled up next to the heart of God. She didn't know that with every sore she healed, woman she comforted and life she grieved over, she was doing the same for Jesus, the one she so desperately wanted to know. ( )

Pearl's sensitive and loving biography of her mother, a strong woman who instilled a love of home and America in her children. ( )