We recently unearthed 15 boxes of books in my dad's old storage building. They are all from the 1970s and earlier. I have picked some that I want to read, of course! This is one of them. From Amazon:

"The Living Reed follows four generations of one family, the Kims, beginning with Il-han and his father, both advisors to the royal family in Korea. When Japan invades and the queen is killed, Il-han takes his family into hiding. In the ensuing years, he and his family take part in the secret war against the Japanese occupation. Pearl S. Buck's epic tells the history of Korea through the lives of one family. She paints an amazing portrait of the country, and makes us empathize with their struggle for sovereignty through her beautifully drawn characters."

I read Pearl S. Buck's book about China, The Good Earth, recently and enjoyed it, so thought I would like this one as well. I was not wrong. This is an engrossing tale of three generations of a Korean family in the late Eighteenth Century through World War II. In today's world, I am hesitant to rely on a white woman for stories about other countries, but I believe Buck did her research, and she spent a lot of time in Asia. This is a personal story but largely a story about the politics of the era, and I am embarrassed at how little of it I knew beforehand. Excellent read.

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