My Antonia by Willa Cather
My rating: 4/5 cats
i read this book the same day i found out that sparkling ice had introduced two new flavors, pineapple coconut and lemonade.
what does this have to do with anything, you ask??
well, sparkling ice is sort of a religion with me, and this book was wonderful, so it was kind of a great day, is all. i don’t have a lot of those.
why have i never read willa cather before? i’m not sure. i think i just always associated her with old ladies, and i figured i would read her on my deathbed or something. maybe it was the unavoidable cather/catheter association.i don’t know. all i know is that a certain little bird here on goodreads was always going “chirp chirp – willa cather!! chirp!! cather!!!”
and when someone dumped a bunch of free books by the curb in front of my house, i decided it was a sign to finally give her a chance. i liked it so much, i will pay for my next book of hers! you’re welcome, cather estate!
this isn’t a novel as much as a loosely gathered collection of stories in which the characters progress through time, grow up, lose their illusions, and make their way in the world; finding themselves in and defining themselves against the vast nothingness of the american prairie.
jim and antonia are children who arrive in black hawk, nebraska on the same train, and the book is an account of their lives both apart and together, through to their adulthood, framed as a series of recollections by jim, as he remembers antonia to a mutual friend and examines what she symbolized for him.
the descriptions of the landscape are phenomenal. the way the characters try to coax a living from the land and the harshness of nature is inspiring, antonia’s irrepressible spirit is triumphant, even though she does come across as a headstrong pain in the ass at times.
i just loved it. it reminded me, probably unjustly, of both huck finn and this whole series of books that i loved loved loved when i was little:
i mean – it’s willa cather – everything that needs to be said about her has probably already been said, so all i can contribute is that this book is like the kiwi-strawberry sparkling ice. it is not quite a black raspberry, but it is damn good.
