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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Murder
Minor: Infidelity, Sexism, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
slow-paced
I read book 3 of the plains trilogy, My Antonia, quite a while ago and I enjoyed it more than this one, which is the first book. Alexandra Bergson inherits her family's farm in Hanover, Nebraska when her father dies. She has a knack for farming, unlike her father and many of her neighbors. It is a hard life, but the farm prospers.
I find Willa Cather's life to be more interesting than the book. She moved to Nebraska with her family when she was 9. Her immediate family were not farmers. She was smart and curious, and she enjoyed being friends with her immigrant neighbors from Sweden, France, Bohemia, and Germany, and learning about their cultures. At one point she cut her hair, started dressing like a man, and going by the name William. She earned an English degree from University of Nebraska, Lincoln. She moved to Pittsburgh at 23 to work at a women's magazine. Later, she moved to NYC to work at another magazine, and spent most of her life there. After she published her first novel, Alexander's Bridge, she no longer worked in publishing. She wrote a total of 12 novels, many short stories, and critical essays. She won the Pulitzer in 1922 for the novel One of Ours. She lived with a woman for the last 39 years of her life and there has been much speculation about her sexuality, but she was very private.
I find Willa Cather's life to be more interesting than the book. She moved to Nebraska with her family when she was 9. Her immediate family were not farmers. She was smart and curious, and she enjoyed being friends with her immigrant neighbors from Sweden, France, Bohemia, and Germany, and learning about their cultures. At one point she cut her hair, started dressing like a man, and going by the name William. She earned an English degree from University of Nebraska, Lincoln. She moved to Pittsburgh at 23 to work at a women's magazine. Later, she moved to NYC to work at another magazine, and spent most of her life there. After she published her first novel, Alexander's Bridge, she no longer worked in publishing. She wrote a total of 12 novels, many short stories, and critical essays. She won the Pulitzer in 1922 for the novel One of Ours. She lived with a woman for the last 39 years of her life and there has been much speculation about her sexuality, but she was very private.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
medium-paced
A lo mejor un cuatro sería una puntuación más objetiva, pero no puedo ponérselo. Necesitaba una lectura así por fin este año, y la he encontrado en Willa Cather. Anteriormente había leído su novela corta "Una dama extraviada", que me gustó mucho, aunque me costó entrar en ella; "Pioneros" ha sido mucho más y mejor, así que seguro que continuaré leyendo a esta autora.
La historia es sencilla, la prosa de Cather también, pero el libro tiene algo especial. Tiene alma.
Por momentos me ha recordado, por los temas que trata y cómo los trata, al Steinbeck más social y de la tierra. O Steinbeck me recuerda a ella, más bien.
La historia es sencilla, la prosa de Cather también, pero el libro tiene algo especial. Tiene alma.
Por momentos me ha recordado, por los temas que trata y cómo los trata, al Steinbeck más social y de la tierra. O Steinbeck me recuerda a ella, más bien.
Land asf. Steinbeck mixed with Middlemarch. The cycles of reincarnation, suppressed romantic spirit, and scale of local intrigue elevate this above Of Mice And Men, where the exhaustion and loneliness of the American West are also confronted, but with less depth and meaning. Cather is incandescent for large stretches of this one.
“All the small creatures of day began to tune their tiny instruments.”
“The great fact was the land itself, which seemed to overwhelm the little beginnings of human society that struggled in its sombre wastes.”
“Perhaps he got more satisfaction out of feeling himself abused than he would have got out of being loved.”
“After you once got cold clear through, the feeling of the rain on you is sweet. It seems to bring back feelings you had when you were a baby. It carries you back into the dark, before you were born; you can’t see things, but they come to you, somehow, and you know them and aren’t afraid of them.”
“All the small creatures of day began to tune their tiny instruments.”
“The great fact was the land itself, which seemed to overwhelm the little beginnings of human society that struggled in its sombre wastes.”
“Perhaps he got more satisfaction out of feeling himself abused than he would have got out of being loved.”
“After you once got cold clear through, the feeling of the rain on you is sweet. It seems to bring back feelings you had when you were a baby. It carries you back into the dark, before you were born; you can’t see things, but they come to you, somehow, and you know them and aren’t afraid of them.”
Alexandra is incredible. She was strong, and suffered at the hands of all of her brothers. The story was beautiful, even in it's sadness. The writing was poetic and kept me reading.
I loved the ending. I loved it.
The one thing that I didn't like was the victim blaming. Frank Shabata hurt his wife, not physically, but emotionally, for years and years.
So, basically I really enjoyed the book, but I didn't like the fact that They were to blame for the sins they committed, yes, but not for the sins Frank committed. I do think I will be reading more Willa Cather in the future.
I loved the ending.
Spoiler
The scene where Alexandra realizes it was Jesus who she had been dreaming about for much of her life.Spoiler
I was still happy when Carl came back and they agreed to get married, but I also liked the idea of Alexandra becoming a nun (it was implied that was what she was considering this.)The one thing that I didn't like was the victim blaming. Frank Shabata hurt his wife, not physically, but emotionally, for years and years.
Spoiler
It was wrong of her and Emil to commit adultry, but two wrongs make more wrong, and I didn't like that first Frank, and then Alexandra essentially blamed Emil and Marie for Frank's murdering them. Besides the fact that this action was a mortal sin for Frank, it also prevented the two of them from repenting their own. Whether he had a temper or not, Frank should not have kept saying that it was her fault for letting him catch them. It was his fault for letting himself become bitter and suspicious. It was his fault for trying to make Marie as bitter as he. It was his fault for taking the gun with him to the orchard when he did not truly think that there were any intruders. And it was his fault for raising the gun to his shoulder and firing. The murder may not have been premeditated, but it was murder none the less. Ivar believes that the Emil and Marie are in Hell for their actions. I don't know whether they are (or whether non-fictional people in their place would be,) but they didn't deserve to die so quickly and without the chance to ask for God's forgiveness.So, basically I really enjoyed the book, but I didn't like the fact that
Spoiler
Marie and Emil were blamed for their own murders.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes