A strange love
A wonderful but sad look into the last days of recognized concubines in China at the dawn of the cultural revolution. The arrangement is understood and orchestrated by the Number One wife who at the age of forty believes that her days as the bearer of children and husbands's sexual partner have ended. In her typical skill Buck, dissects the lives and character of all involved affected by the addition of other women to the household. The reader knows intimately every character from Madame Wu to the lowest kitchen servant. Truly a tribute to a surviving marriage without the love. of the partners. As a single work, it ranks with "The Good Earth and The Living Reed."
