- I’ve heard about Willa Cather for quite some time now, so I figured it was time to pick something up.
I also recommend:
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Summary from GoodReads:
The story of Antonia Shimerda is told by on of the friends of her childhood, Jim Burden, an orphaned boy from Virginia. Though he leaves the prairie, Jim never forgets the Bohemian girl who so profoundly influenced his life. An immigrant child of immigrant parents, Antonia’s girlhood is spent working to help her parents wrest a living from the untamed land. Though in later years she suffers betrayal and desertion, through all the hardships of her life she preserves a valor of spirit that no hardship can daunt or break.When Jim Burden sees her again after many years he finds her “”a rich mine of life”,” a figure who has turned adversity into a particular kind of triumph in the true spirit of the pioneer.
My Review:
I feel a sort of kinship with this book. I wasn’t forced to read it when I was in school, so I approached it with fresh, adult eyes and I think that made the experience one that is an experience to cherish. I also grew up in Nebraska, and it’s so farare that I read stories set there that I felt an immediate connection.
My Antonia begins somewhat slow – and after reading a particularly difficult book, I’ll admit, my heart sunk a bit. But once the story got going, once I started being sucked into the narrative of this young boy, I started to fall in love with the writing, the story, and the characters.
Immigration, and treatment of immigrants, always provides an interesting topic to read, and write about, and that shows in this book. As an adult, I appreciated much more the hardships and tragedies experienced, then I would have as a teenager, which results in putting Willa Cather on the list of authors I want to experience more of.
Check out these reviews!
This is one I’ve always meant to read, but never gotten to it yet. Somehow I didn’t know it was an immigrant story.
I’d always heard of Willa Cather, and this was a spur of the moment, saw it in the library and finally picked it up. It sat on that same shelf every library trip, judging me for not getting it and I couldn’t bear it anymore lol
I’ve only read her Death Comes for the Archbishop, but I need to read more, especially since she’s a Nebraska author!
I know! That’s not something that comes up often (Nebraska in books that is lol)
I read this one in school but remember liking it very much. I may have been the only one to like it actually. It was sad but the characters were lovely.
Yes, exactly – and I think you are one of the few who must have enjoyed it in school, everyone I’ve talked to about it hated it!
I have never read any of her workd, though it’s always been in the back of my mind. I wonder if I should start with this one.
Well, it was my first so I highly recommend it as a starter! I plan to pick up O Pioneers! next!
I’m planning to read this in 2012 (finally). It’s good to know that the story is worth sticking with even if in the beginning it’s hard to get into.
I read this book in 9th grade and loved it!