Pavilion of Women

IN THIS story an orthodox Chinese matriarch discovers the existence of loyalties higher than duty and preservation of the family name. Before her acquaintance with Brother André, an Italian mystic who deserted his family, his country, and the Catholic Church in his youth, Madame Wu glided quietly through a full domestic life directing the activities of her husband and four sons with chilling efficiency. After his arrival, she allows the reins of discipline to slip from her hands. This disintegration of the old way of life and Madame Wu’s substitution of individual freedom and tolerance for blind tradition in the household are the theme of Miss Buck’s latest novel. The picture is clearer before Brother André’s appearance, for the author is happier among the complex family relationships, the ceremonial meals, and the orchid gardens contained within the Wu mansion walls than among the boundless intricacies of mysticism.

As a review of the manners and customs of one of China’s old families, the book is rich and appealing in detail. One learns the delicacies involved in selecting a concubine for a husband and wives for sons, in choosing correct dress, food, and courtesies. As a treatise on the salvation of Madame Wu’s soul, it is impressive but less successful. Brother André, whose teachings are a blend of Christianity and Taoism, has a profound emotional as well as spiritual effect on Madame Wu, so that it is difficult at times to distinguish her reactions as a religious disciple from those as a woman in love.

We see, nevertheless, within its Oriental frame, a comprehensive portrait of an intelligent woman struggling to escape from conventional formalities into a world circumscribed only by the limits of her own spirit and personality,

MARY PINCHOT