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sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
4.0
You might have heard it several times before but Cather can cut you most beautiful pictures of American West through her words. Not only the people but the very place come to life in these pages.
There isn’t much of plot in it, it is just people living out their destinies. Cather’s genius lies in creating little moments which spark of poetry of life. The story is written from POV of Jim, a guy who is not much unlike the author but for some reason, Cather seems to prefer writing from a male POV.
The emphasis in the title is on the word ‘My’. It is not really so much about Antonia. Antonia has nothing particular about her, just another of poor immigrants making best of whatever little luck may fell into their unlucky lives. No, it is about Jim’s relationship with her.
We all have our Antonias, don't we? Those childhood best friends whose destinies were not same as ours, yet we feel a certain kind of possession over them:
..We are interested in their lives, want them to do well even though life at times makes us drift apart from them, sometimes when angry resolving never to contact with them again, but whom we still end up searching for anyway, and whose mere sight, with all the changes their appearances might have gone through, reminds us of innocent times of our shared childhood. We look at them and wonder how different our lives come out to be – whether it was anything more than luck that set us on our paths. Jim shares this relationship with Antonia. May be Jim is attracted to her but that is all speculative. In the end, he finds peace in that ‘We will always have Paris’ kind of thought:
There isn’t much of plot in it, it is just people living out their destinies. Cather’s genius lies in creating little moments which spark of poetry of life. The story is written from POV of Jim, a guy who is not much unlike the author but for some reason, Cather seems to prefer writing from a male POV.
The emphasis in the title is on the word ‘My’. It is not really so much about Antonia. Antonia has nothing particular about her, just another of poor immigrants making best of whatever little luck may fell into their unlucky lives. No, it is about Jim’s relationship with her.
We all have our Antonias, don't we? Those childhood best friends whose destinies were not same as ours, yet we feel a certain kind of possession over them:
“He went into the next room, sat down at my desk and wrote on the pinkish face of the portfolio the word, "Ántonia." He frowned at this a moment, then prefixed another word, making it "My Ántonia."
..We are interested in their lives, want them to do well even though life at times makes us drift apart from them, sometimes when angry resolving never to contact with them again, but whom we still end up searching for anyway, and whose mere sight, with all the changes their appearances might have gone through, reminds us of innocent times of our shared childhood. We look at them and wonder how different our lives come out to be – whether it was anything more than luck that set us on our paths. Jim shares this relationship with Antonia. May be Jim is attracted to her but that is all speculative. In the end, he finds peace in that ‘We will always have Paris’ kind of thought:
“Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past.
bibliocinephile's review against another edition
3.0
honestly i need to stop reading books that define women's worth majorly by their looks and use that as part of their personality and like. aren't boring
beautifulminutiae's review against another edition
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
dars's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
katiegilley's review against another edition
5.0
Reread in 2021 and still feel the same way! It was interesting to look at this book through a social justice lens. I think the book lends itself to being a great choice for a book club to read... and I miss my old "Finer Things Club" gang at the University of Texas!
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2008 thoughts:
I read this book for a bookclub at work (we're creating our own "Finer Things Club", like from The Office). I was a bit apprehensive, but that was totally undeserved. This was a wonderful story about life on the Plains of Nebraska. If you loved the Little House on the Prairie series, then I think you'd love this book as well. The story is told through Jim, who befriends Antonia when they are young. The both have hard lives and take completely different paths as they grow, but that never changes the love and the admiration that they have for each other and all of their memories together. This is truly a touching, heart warming story and I would definitely recommend it
=====================================
2008 thoughts:
I read this book for a bookclub at work (we're creating our own "Finer Things Club", like from The Office). I was a bit apprehensive, but that was totally undeserved. This was a wonderful story about life on the Plains of Nebraska. If you loved the Little House on the Prairie series, then I think you'd love this book as well. The story is told through Jim, who befriends Antonia when they are young. The both have hard lives and take completely different paths as they grow, but that never changes the love and the admiration that they have for each other and all of their memories together. This is truly a touching, heart warming story and I would definitely recommend it
bittersweet_symphony's review against another edition
4.0
I feel somewhat betrayed other people didn't tell me how wonderful My Antonia is. Granted, it can be a little slow in parts, but it captures a sense of place, community, and simplicity that I find incredibly appealing—virtues largely lost on us twenty-first-century North Americans.
First-person narrations driven by recollective viewpoints can slip into the overly nostalgic or romantic, but I didn't find this to be the case. It has a realness to it that allows the straightforwardness of the agrarian lifestyle to breathe. Life is challenging but not due to unnecessary complications and modern distractions. Existence is strenuous in many of the satisfying ways for many of the novel's characters.
I'm tempted to read the first 2 of the trilogy, but I understand My Antonia is the best of the three. Alternatively, I may jump back into some of Wendell Berry's fiction.
First-person narrations driven by recollective viewpoints can slip into the overly nostalgic or romantic, but I didn't find this to be the case. It has a realness to it that allows the straightforwardness of the agrarian lifestyle to breathe. Life is challenging but not due to unnecessary complications and modern distractions. Existence is strenuous in many of the satisfying ways for many of the novel's characters.
I'm tempted to read the first 2 of the trilogy, but I understand My Antonia is the best of the three. Alternatively, I may jump back into some of Wendell Berry's fiction.
kstephensreads's review against another edition
5.0
What a beautiful and beautifully written story. I can’t believe I’ve never read it before!
kaithyde's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
the_dave_harmon's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
2.25