This novel is simple, but the descriptions are lush and realistic, the characters interesting, the setting unique for a classic. The balance between the male narrator and female subject worked well for Cather. I tend to read more Southern and British literature, and very few things set on the prairie, it’s not a place I am naturally drawn to. But My Antonia made the prairie come alive to me, full of beauty and very hard work. I enjoyed it a great deal and wondered why I hadn’t read it before, the content is very appropriate for a young adult reader and it seems like it would be a good fit for a high school literature class. (9/10)
Search This Classical Life:
categories:
in the middle of:
read in 2016:
Paterson, The Great Gilly Hopkins
Sloan, Ajax Penumbra 1969
Mandel, Station Eleven
Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty
Shakespeare, As You Like It
Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saintsarchives:
Hmmm, now I’m going to have to read this book again. I read it freshman year of high school and HATED it (although it could have been because I had to do this huge lit project on it that I did horribly on…). You’ve piqued my interest.
I’m glad you liked the book! Even native, book-loving Nebraskans sometimes don’t like Cather–but I do. : )
When I used to play online poker MyAntonia was my screen name.
I also really loved this book. It’s funny how some books that are “classics” sometimes I imagine as being boring, but then when I actually read them, find that I really do love them. For me, this would include Gone with the Wind. I read it because I’m from SC, and figured every good southern girl needed to read it, but thought i’d hate it. But I really did love it.
Anyway…. being reminded about how much I liked this book makes me think I should go check out some more Willa Cather from the library.
My Antonia is so great. I hadn’t read any Cather before I had to for an American lit class and it kind of knocked me over with how good it is. She wrote another one called Shadows on the Rock which is pretty good–kind of like Little House on the Prairie, but in Quebec in the 1700s.