My Ántonia

My Antonia by Willa Cather was well recommended to me a number of times. The last book of Cather’s Prairie Trilogy, I read the first 2 books in order to make sense of the last. So it’s taken me a number of years to finally read this book about growing up on the farms and in a small Nebraska town during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The writing is simple and beautiful. the author’s love of the wide open spaces people by hardy Europeans shines in her every word. She has a wonderful ability to tell the stories of her characters in a comical yet compassionate way. We are in for more enjoyable adventures once Jim and his grandparents left the farm and moved to the city of Black Hawk. We quickly pass through his education and learn third hand what becomes of Antonia and others. It winds up rather quickly with a bit of sentimentality.

It is a daunting task to find anything fresh to say about a book that is justifiably regarded as a classic, so I will keep this one fairly short. Willa Cather moved with her family from New England to rural Nebraska as a child, at a time when new farmland there was still being pioneered, so this tale of the state's development and specifically the experiences of the first generation immigrant farming families from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia that settled it, is inevitably coloured by her own experiences. She distances herself cleverly by making her narrator Jim Burden a man of her own age who for quite a large part of the book retains some distance from its heroine Ántonia, but who was also her childhood friend and neighbour.The story is beautifully paced and contains nothing superfluous. Cather's Nebraska is vividly realised and her attitudes to her characters and particularly those who fall foul of conventional moral judgments seem very modern for a book first published in 1918. For the most part she avoids sentimentality too, except perhaps a little in the final chapter, which seems forgiveable. It was also interesting to read a story that is so positive about immigration at a time when there is so much paranoia about it in popular political culture.

Many good times can be found on the prairie, many adventures, and most of all memories. This book that Willa Cather wrote puts those good times, adventures, and memories in this book. She portrays these traits through the eyes of the country boy, Jim and the Bohemian girl, Antonia. She makes this book interesting while giving you some facts about the prairie. She gives much detail of the things in the book it seems like your in the story too. With the detail that she gives she also makes all the characters and their daily lives real which makes the book more interesting. Her characters are often encountered with troublesome decisions and get in sticky situations, but if all this seems impossible to fit in one book you should read it and find out. This a good book to read when you have nothing to do and want to pass some time.

A most poignant fictional story told as a memoir by Jim Burden of his childhood friend Antonia. At the turn of the century in the late 1800's, Jim is orphaned and moves from Virginia to live with his grandparents on the Nebraska prairie and a life of farming.The Burdens are a perfect example of neighbors and define the true meaning of community. The closest neighbors are an immigrant Bohemian family the Shemirda's and their eldest daughter is Antonia. Jim and Antonia become fast friends and throughout the book he recalls how each of the experiences they shared together have greatly influenced his life. Willa Cather paints a breathtaking landscape in this nostalgic and romantic story. I found it beautifully haunting.

This is a more grown-up version of Little House on the Prairie. It's another look at the challenges of life on the prairie. Not a blockbuster, but a good solid read.

Jim's Antonia. / Copper-red prairie: Toooh-neeey, / My Antonia.Cather's imagery of the prairie is unsurpassed. She not only conveys the appearance, but makes you feel the presence; spring, for instance: "There were none of the signs of spring for which I used to watch in Virginia . . . There was only--spring itself; the throb of it, the light restlessness, the vital essence of it everywhere; in the sky, in the swift clouds, in the pale sunshine, and in the warm, high wind--rising suddenly, sinking suddenly, impulsive and playful like a big puppy that pawed you and then lay down to be petted. If I had been tossed down blindfold on that red prairie, I should have known that it was spring."Her characters are never as noble as the land.Antonia to Jim Burden is a childhood vignette, a sister figure, a romantic kiss rebuffed. He is called away to manhood, but never takes root in his marriage or in his career. He revisits his childhood when he at last visits Antonia on her farm, sleeping in her barn, not in her house, anticipating the happiness of sharing the childhood of her sons until they grow up.Antonia Shimerda perhaps could have made a life with Jim, but she thought first of him as a callow youngster. Later, she recognized his calling and would not see him trapped on the farm, perhaps leading to the same conclusion as Mr. Shimerda's. She herself was trapped--her father's suicide foreclosed an education and the uplifted hopes of the second-generation immigrant. She was recalled to the first generation, worked the family farm in a man's role. Only her children would see a better future. She did what she had to in order to survive--not to the extreme of Peter of the wolves, but she also was made of such stern, but vulnerable, stuff.Antonia made a comfortable life for herself on her own farm--a little island of Bohemia, with a Bohemian husband and nearly a dozen children who spoke only Bohemian at home. Not noble, not heroic, but real, and the best possible given the circumstances. Not a place that Jim could help build, but one where he would always be a welcome guest.

There is something about Willa Cather books that bring me a sense of peace - and make me aware of a connection with the people and land around me that I usually take for granted. My Antonia is another quiet book that speaks powerfully. It is a pioneer story that tells the story of Antonia, a young Bohemian girl whose family has moved from Europe to a rural area in the Midwest, and others who were in one way or another connected to Antonia during the course of her life. The changing nature of that aspect of the American experience is captured in the stories told of youth, adolescence, and maturity. Antonia's impact on the narrator is significant, as is his impact on her. One of my favorite passages, one that describes the powerful nature of their connection, is similar to another facvorite Cather passage in Death Comes for the Archbishop. After two decades apart, Jim Burden, the narrator, returns to see Antonia and her large family. "Before I could sit down in the chair she offered me, the miracle happened; one of those quieter moments that clutch the heart, and take more courage than the noisy, excited passages in life. Antonia came in and stood before me..." As we learn what has become of the characters we have met, many of whom have had circuitous routes to their current station in life (or death), Jim looks back realizing he and Antonia may have missed out on many things. He also realizes that the early days they shared were precious then - and precious still. The intervening years saw each following very different paths, but, in the end, those paths crossed and were joyous because of those memories, not sadly tainted with regret.

My Antonia by Willa Cather is a beautifully written book that seemed to me to be like a series of essays. I loved each separate story with all it’s rich descriptions of homesteading life on the Nebraska plains. The narrator, a young boy growing into manhood is perfectly done, his inquisitive mind and watchful eyes see and note episodes in his daily life in a fresh and believable manner.The Antonia of the title is a high-spirited immigrant Bohemian girl whose family has moved onto the neighbouring homestead. She catches the attention of the narrator and although he is very young, you slowly come to realize that he looks upon her with love. Although there is and never could be a future for these two together, this book is something of a romance as his feelings toward Antonia and his feelings toward the land are so intertwined.Although I wasn’t totally carried away, I consider myself to be lucky that I stumbled upon this book, a slow starter, it gently enfolds you and by the end of the book, you feel as if you have learned a great deal about life when it was simpler, relationships when they were less complicated, and the simple joy of living. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the “heart” of America, and the mixtures of people that settled and developed this land.

Our narrator, Jim Burden, reminisces about growing up in Nebraska with a young Bohemian girl named Ántonia. The two became friends at a young age and their lives remained intertwined for decades. Jim teaches Ántonia how to read and write in English and her lust for life inspires him in turn. The story provides such an interesting look at immigrant life in Nebraska. There’s an underlying prejudice against the immigrants and they struggle to fit in. We know very little about Antonia’s father before he dies, but we later learn he loved to read and discuss ideas, but he struggled with the new language and felt completely out of place in America. The language barrier also increases their suspicions of those around them, because they’re constantly worried they are going to be deceived. Though their fears are sometimes justified, it doesn’t go far to make them new friends. I enjoyed the writing in this one, but the story didn’t resonate for me in the same way that Cather’s O Pioneers did. I went into that one knowing almost nothing and loved it so much. I think my expectations were a bit too high for this one. Jim isn’t a very charismatic character and when the plot meanders, we rely heavily on great characters. Luckily the writing is still wonderful, but I was left wanting a bit more.I’m still definitely a fan of her work though and I’m looking forward to trying Death Comes for the Archbishop next, but my expectations might be a bit more tempered. “I wondered if the life that was right for one was ever right for two.”“I liked to watch a play with Lena; everything was wonderful to her, and everything was true. It was like going to revival meetings with someone who was always being converted. She handed her feelings over to the actors with a kind of fatalistic resignation. Accessories of costume and scene meant much more to her than to me.” 

Very descriptive novel about life in Nebraska for an immigrant family. Mostly takes place on the farm. A look into two people's lives, together and apart.

I managed to get through high school without reading Willa Cather. Someone recommended My Ántonia when I was looking for undramatic material suitable for reading before bedtime, and onto the wish list it went.Undramatic is an interesting label to apply to this book, which witnesses a suicide, an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, several amputations and a murder-suicide. The tone is what makes the story drowsy and golden-hued — romantic doesn't even begin to cover it. It was indeed pleasant to read before falling asleep.This novel is a good counterpoint to House of Mirth because the two novels have some shared structure — you can sense Ántonia's "downfall" approaching her as soon as she moves to town, and the narrator is occasionally exasperatingly useless (both of which remind me of House of Mirth). Cather doesn't write straight-up tragedies, however — her characters have a remarkable amount of self-determination. What could have been a fatal flaw (e.g. Lena's warmheartedness to married men) becomes a colorful personality detail. I love that the entire farming community gossips about Ole Benson following Lena around and years later Lena casually dismisses their gossip with a description of her generosity of spirit ('There was never any harm in Ole,' she said once. 'People needn't have troubled themselves. He just liked to come over and sit on the draw-side and forget about his bad luck.' [p. 226]).

Part 9: My Ántonia review-Mariah S My Ántonia review: The book My Ántonia by Willa Cather is a classic novel about a boy, Jim Burden who meets a young Bohemian girl Ántonia. From the very start Jim seemed to like Ántonia and even had a crush on her. They always had a very special friendship; having been around eachother so much and Jim teaching Ántonia how to read and write in english. They grow up together in the town of Black Hawk, Nebraska. Not much happens there but they sure kept busy. The Shimerda’s (Ántonia’s family) are Bohemian and all are trying to become familiar with the American ways. Mr. Simerda misses his home country dearly and everyone knew it and could see it. This book showed the happiness, saddness, and comfort of the characters towards one another. As the years went by much happened that caused Ántonia, her family, and everyone in Black Hawk grief. Jim and Ántonia somewhat started going their seperate ways and Ántonia started to forget who she was and where she came from, when she was around different people including Jim. They became adults and Jim eventually leaves Black Hawk and his past behind to go onward to discover his future in New York. He meets once again with former friends and returns to his home town to see what he’s missed. This book shows Jim Burden never giving up his hopes until the end and fighting for what he wants and deserves. He grows much in depth inside and out with all that he has experienced. I give this book a 3 out of 5 star rating. It’s a good historical fiction book that talks about the harships that people once had to face to have a life in America. Also, how not everyone (in my opinion) could or can have what they want even if they do deserve to have it.

Bohemian immigrant's struggle with life on the Nebraska plains. Narrated by Antonia's friend, Jim.

Jim Burden narrates the story of his life growing up in Nebraska as an orphan boy living with his grandparents and especially of his encounters, from his moment of arrival there, with Ántonia, the daughter of a neighbouring family of newly arrived Bohemian immigrants. Jim’s Ántonia is ever the Ántonia of those early idyllic days when he was ten and she was fourteen, of wandering together across the prairie, facing hardships of weather and snakes, and growing ever in affection. Later they both live for a time in Black Hawk before he moves to Lincoln to begin his schooling in earnest. But even in Lincoln he learns of Ántonia through their mutual friend, Lena. Indeed, Ántonia becomes a touchstone for Jim, one that always takes him back to those halcyon days. Even when she is married and has numerous children, Jim’s overarching nostalgia always returns them to those early days when he might have safely called her my Ántonia. Late in life, Jim knows that his Ántonia will always be only a version of her, but nonetheless he treasures it and her and, through her, her children.Cather sets up a frame narrative for Jim Burden to (un)burden himself of his particular relationship with Ántonia. And thus, although Ántonia might be said to be the subject of the novel, we often encounter her obliquely. Certainly we are closer to Jim, since this is first person narration, but Ántonia is ever the sympathetic focus. Indeed Jim periodically reveals unsociable flashes. But he always returns eventually to sociability and to fond remembrance of Ántonia. And in relating his story of her, he conveys a story of America itself, even if in keeping with the partiality of the title it might be better to think of it as Jim’s America.A true classic that can be recommended unreservedly.

I really enjoyed My Antonia. I chose to read it because I purchased Read This!: Handpicked Favorites from America's Indie Bookstores by Hans Weyandt and Ann Patchett and I'm using that book as guide toward things to read on my kindle. Currently reading the second book I chose using Read This!, On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry. Very entertaining.

Beautiful book about living on the prairie at the turn of the century. Coming of age. Old fashioned language and culture probably make this a rigorous book under the common core. Fine for sixth grade on up.

Death Comes for the Archbishop is one of my all time favorite books. Sadly this book was a disappointment. Seemingly endless plodding along....

What a beautiful classic novel this was, laced with Bohemian traditions and vivid descriptions of the landscape. I will admit that at first this book was a bit difficult for me to read, but once I decided to lock myself away without any distractions I became immersed in the pages. Although the story is about Antonia, I think it is more about how Antonia impacted Jim Burden's life.Jim lived with his grandparents on a farm in Nebraska and his life seemed to change when Antonia moved to a neighboring residence with her Bohemian immigrant family. He becomes very close with Antonia and her brother and can only imagine that they will be friends for many years to come. Antonia's mother is portrayed as a very greedy woman and vocally shares her inhibitions with her neighbors. When times get tough for the family the greed and selfishness seems to spread to her children and this creates a feud of some sort between Jim and Antonia that will last for a couple of years.When Jim's grandparents become too old to manage the farm they move to the city to live. Jim starts to attend school in the city and is introduced to a new set of friends. He sees that an element is missing from these friendships compared to the relationship that he had with Antonia. So you can only imagine his happiness when he learns that Antonia is going to also be moving to the city to work as a servant for a home nearby. Their friendship picks up again as if there were never an argument of any kind in the first place. Lena is another important character in this novel. She becomes a good friend of Antonia's and you can see that she definitely has a much wilder streak about her. Jim worries that Lena will take Antonia down the wrong path and just be a very bad influence on her. I found it very interesting how Cather portrayed both Lena and Antonia when they were young girls, and then as adults. The story was heartbreaking in the sense that you could feel the love that both Jim and Antonia felt for each other, but they never acted upon their feelings. When the book ends Jim seems to come to terms with the direction that his life has taken and how Antonia had affected it. When he catches a glimpse of the life and love in Antonia's eyes at the end of the novel that is all he needs to know that they both had taken the right paths.This book was so much more to me than a classic novel with beautiful descriptive writing. Many of you know that my Grandma recently moved in with me and she is also Bohemian. So as I was reading this book it juggled memories of her life and stories for me. I could see so many comparisons with the Bohemian traditions that it truly amazed me. I found it interesting how Antonia had such a close relationship with her father, as my Grandma's father/daughter relationship was similar. My Grandma will still tell you to this day about the hollyhocks that she grew by her house in the summer. This was a beautiful story and it also created a great book club discussion for my group.

It was, for a classic book, perhaps the most interesting of them I have read. Unlike the others it kept me so entertained. I love her writing and this book. The story is great and I can picture the place. I love it.

'My Antonia' is a frank look into the lives of the people surrounding the main character, Jim. His narrative begins with stories about how he met each of them, continues into stories about their acquaintance and ends with stories about how these people turned out. It is an easy read, but quite enjoyable without the bawdy action/drama of today's historic novels. That's not to say the book does not tell of any scandals...there are plenty of those as well. But the scandals themselves are pushed to the back as the author tells how the characters dealt with and overcame them. A lovely novel that has stood the test of one century and carries on into the next.

The front cover of my book has a quote by Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken: “No romantic novel ever written in America, by man or woman, is one half so beautiful as My Antonia”. Romantic… hmm, perhaps in an older definition sort of way: mutual admiration, fondness for one and other, eternal friendship, and appreciation for each’s qualities. The times are difficult, needless to say: the land is harsh, the weather severe, the individuals are complicated, a suicide, and “country girls” are abused, raped. Even so, Ms. Cather delivered words that sweep gently over my mind, each page generates warmth that embraces the reader with peace, joy, and contentment. Perhaps it is in contrast to a hectic city life that I find such satisfaction in this Nebraska based book of the late 1800’s/early 1900’s. Jim Burden tells this story of his childhood friends, most notably of Antonia Shimerda, as well as the talented Lena Lingard, and many others in a book divided into 5 books. Book I is the longest that sets the stage of his youth; the harsh beginnings of farm lands are covered here as well as the beauty of idyllic youth. Book II covers his grade school years in Black Hawk. His friends, Antonia and Lena, who are about 4 years older than him, are now “Hired Girls” in the city, working in various capacities. Book III finds Jim in university in Lincoln, where he had a blossoming friendship (and in love) with Lena, who wants to answer to no one, a feminist of her day. :) Book IV takes college grad Jim back to Black Hawk, visiting family and catching up on friends. Here, in chapter IV, we find the warmest of words between Jim and Tony (quote below); the kind of love that lasts forever, regardless of circumstances, wanting only the best for one and other. Book V fast forwards 20 years ahead, and Jim finally returns to visit Antonia again, closing with: “The feelings of that night were so near that I could reach out and touch them with my hand. I had the sense of coming home to myself, and of having found out what a little circle man's experience is. For Antonia and for me, this had been the road of Destiny; had taken us to those early accidents of fortune which predetermined for us all that we can ever be. Now I understood that the same road was to bring us together again. Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past.” This quote from Virgil "Optima Dies ... prima fugit", or, "The best days are the first to flee" starts the book. It seems too sad. I thought the book ended happily, or at least sentimentally, with comfortable closures on the key characters. Everyone found a life that suited them, even if not with each other. Jim might be the exception – without children and with a wife who doesn’t share his romantic disposition. He is also the one who wasn’t true to himself, having been in love with two vibrant girls and pursued neither. Perhaps he did let his best days flee. Favorite Character: Lena Lingard – Yes, over Antonia. Lena was very clear about who is she and dismisses what others think of her wrongly. She’s a strong character overall and never forgot her family that needs her, despite what others predicted. Her troubled youth scarred her leading to a choice of childless (and marriage-free) life – to which I can relate.Least Favorite Character: Mrs. Shimerda – One might think it should be Wicked Cutter, but at least he’s wicked and he knows and shows it. But Mrs. Shimerda is simply wretched, jealous, boastful, underhanded, and leaving one a desire to smack her but you know you can’t.Some quotes:On indoor city girls – uh, yikes, me? :“…Some of the high school girls were jolly and pretty, but they stayed indoors in winter because of the cold, and in summer because of the heat. When one danced with them, their bodies never moved inside their clothes, their muscles seemed to ask but one thing – not to be disturbed. I remember those girls merely as faces in the schoolroom, gay and rosy, or listless and dull, cut off below the shoulders, like cherubs…” On girls, laughter, and poetry:"'Come and see me sometimes when you're lonesome. But maybe you have all the friends you want. Have you?' She turned her soft cheek to me. 'Have you?' she whispered teasingly in my ear. In a moment I watched her fade down the dusky stairway. ... Lena had left something warm and friendly in the lamplight. How I loved to hear her laugh again! It was so soft and unexcited and appreciative – gave a favourable interpretation to everything…. It came over me, as it had never done before, the relation between girls like those and the poetry of Virgil. If there were no girls like them in the world, there would be no poetry".On appreciating the arts – this reminded me of the movie “Pretty Woman”:“I liked to watch a play with Lena; everything was wonderful to her, and everything was true… She handed her feelings over to the actors with a kind of fatalistic resignation. Accessories of costume and scene meant more to her than to me. She sat entranced through “Robin Hood” and hung upon the lips of the contralto who sang, “Oh, Promise Me!”On Love, that never should have started, Lena to Jim:“’I oughtn’t to have begun it, ought I?’ she murmured. ‘I oughtn’t to have gone to see you that first time. But I did want to. I guess I’ve always been a little foolish about you. I don’t know what first put it into my head, unless it was Antonia, always telling me I mustn’t be up to any of my nonsense with you. I let you alone for a long while, though, didn’t I?’She was a sweet creature to those she loved, that Lena Lingard!”On dinner – I found this funny, from Jim who had recently returned to the country from the city:“While I was putting my horse away, I heard a rooster squawking. I looked at my watch and sighed; it was three o’clock, and I knew that I must eat him at six.”On parting and memories – Antonia and Jim:"'Of course it means you are going away from us for good,' she said with a sigh.' But that doesn't mean I'll lose you. Look at my papa here; he's been dead all these years, and yet he is more real to me than almost anybody else. He never goes out of my life".And"I felt the old pull of the earth, the solemn magic that comes out of those fields at nightfall. I wished I could be a little boy again, and that my way could end there. We reached the edge of the field, where are ways parted. I took her hands and held them against my breast, feeling once more how strong and warm and good they were... I held them now a long while, over my heart. About us it was growing darker and darker, and I had to look hard to see her face, which I meant always to carry with me; the closest, realest face, under all the shadows of women’s faces, at the very bottom of my memory."On bonds between two people – Antonia and Jim:J to A: “…since I’ve been away, I think of you more often than of anyone else in this part of the world. I’d have liked to have you for a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister – anything that a woman can be to a man. The idea of you is a part of my mind; you influence my likes and dislikes, all my tastes, hundreds of times when I don’t realize it. You really are a part of me.”A to J: “…Ain’t it wonderful, Jim, how much people can mean to each other? I’m so glad we had each other when we were little. I can’t wait till my little girls’ old enough to tell her about all the things we used to do.”On reunion – Antonia and Jim:“I went down across the fields, and Tony saw me from a long way off. She stood still by her shocks, leaning on her pitchfork, watching me as I came. We met like the people in the old song, in silence, if not in tears.”And"I did not want to find her aged and broken; I really dreaded it. In the course of twenty crowded years one parts with many illusions. I did not wish to lose the early ones. Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again".And"Before I could sit down in the chair she offered me, the miracle happened; one of those quiet moments that clutch the heart, and take more courage than the noisy, excited passages in life. Antonia came in and stood before me... She was there, in the full vigour of her personality, battered but not diminished…"On the fire of life:“I know so many women who have kept all the things that she had lost, but whose inner glow has faded. Whatever else was gone, Antonia had not lost the fire of life.”

Date noted is when my F2F book club discussed this classic work. I had read it first back when I was in junior high. The first "adult" book I ever read.

So, I read this for the American Author Challenge, and it was lovely. I've read very few "pioneer" novels that don't have the words "Little House" in the title, and I have to say, I now do indeed see the appeal in the genre. In this book, a grown man, Jim Burden, tells the story of his life in Nebraska in the late 19th century, primarily bits of his life that deal with a young Bohemian neighbor of his, Ántonia, a girl he loves his entire life. Jim isn't the most three-dimensional of narrators, but I suspect that is the point. The book's love story is truly between Ántonia and the land that she grows to love; Jim is just the vehicle through which Cather tells her story. He is more setting than character, if that makes sense. And what a character Ántonia is, indeed! Though if I'm perfectly honest, I understood/respected/connected to Lina Lingard's character more; I wish there had been more of her! Cather's writing is a startling reminder of just how similar some early 20th century (American) writing is today's. A very good deal of the book could have easily been written today; the language was never even remotely hard to decipher. American English in the last 100 years has not changed nearly as much as I always seem to assume it has.One thing that I took issue with, though, was something I read on Cather's Wikipedia page, that "she regarded most women writers with disdain, judging them overly sentimental and mawkish." At several points during the story she describes the "hired girls," the characters whe Jim clearly respects the most as "mannish" and as other masculine-sounding things. Femininity is never a remotely positive thing. Pairing this with Cather's evident feelings about other women's works, well, I guess I'll just say that I have mixed feelings about her that possibly shouldn't interfere with my feelings toward her works, but do. It's so unfortunate that a woman regarded as one of America's best authors didn't have much respect for her fellow women writers, back when it was probably needed most of all.But still, lovely book.

Lyrical writing by Cather provided an emotional connection to my ancestoral roots and deeper understanding of how I came to be the person I am.

For Cather, My Antonia was very much based on real life experience. She had a friend as a young girl, who was an immigrant hired girl, and she visited her when they were both adults and her friend was married with a large family, similar to Jim's visit to Antonia. Although, Cather was successful at that time, she felt the loss deeply of a relationship that had recently ended with Isabelle McClung, the love of her life, who became engaged to a concert violinist. She returned to her home town, Red Cloud Nebraska for 3 months to mourn the loss. It seems that Antonia and Jim's relationship mirrors Cather's feelings of failure in her personal life, but success in her professional life. Jim recognizes Antonia's contentment with her place in her life, and ultimately feels that sense of fulfillment, by the end of the book, after visiting with her.Many parts of the book are based on truth, such as the story of the wolves and many of the people who played a part in My Antonia, were people Cather knew, the Harlings were really the Miners, neighbors of the Cathers. There was that feeling, to me, that Cather was trying to impart something that struck a chord deep within her, and I think that is because she was basing so much of the story on experiencs that she had and people she knew. The story of the Cutter suicide which seems so innocuous at that point in the story was based on a loan shark Cather knew of who was cruel to his wife, throughout their marriage and finally shot her and killed himself. Just as in life it would have seemed so random and strange, it was when plunked into the story during Jim's visit. Cather's skill lay in bringing the story to light at just the right time, for the fascination of Antonia's children and the entertainment of Jim, who later checks on the facts of the story with another lawyer. I loved the last line, by Jim "Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past."

Long ago, a grad school writing teacher recommended we read Willa Cather. It's taken me way too long to follow his advice.

This is an exquisite novel about life on the frontier and the immigrant experience in America. But mainly about love, loss, innocence, the pain of growing up, and "how much people can mean to each other."

The characters are passionate, beautifully drawn, yet consistently surprising. Cather's technique is indirect, or as she called it "unfurnished." What's left out is often more important than what's stated. The reader is left to interpret the meaning and importance of ambiguous actions and feelings.

It used to said that the late 19th Century was the Golden Age of the Novel. But I think it was the first two decades of the 20th Century when the form reached its zenith. That's when Joyce, Lawrence, and Conrad were writing books with unprecedented technical brilliance and psychological depth. In her quiet, understated way, Willa Cather was doing the same.

I picked this one up on the bargain shelf for no other reason than my daughter’s name is in the title and one so seldom sees that name in print (on anything!). This book was first published in 1918. The story is told by Jim Burden and is rich with details about life in late 19th century Nebraska.

Jim and Antonia are two young children that are both going to Nebraska with their families. Jim is of American descent and Antonia is of Bohemian descent. Antonia's family is destitute and lives in a sod hut, but learn to work the land. As children, they are great friends. Jim always has a real "love" for Antonia and all of her liveliness. You can tell that he has always loved her, even if he hasn't quite figured that out for himself.Life sends them in different directions, but they remain friends throughout life.The descriptive writing in this novel is wonderful. You can almost feel the wind blow, the moon rise, the sun ascend as you are reading this.

I've been listening to this off and on while I knit.

Can't believe I haven't read Willa Cather before this. My Antonia is like Little House on the Prairie for grown-ups. Particularly relevant now because so many characters are recent immigrants.