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reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I wanted to like this novel, especially given how much I adore Cather's works, O Pioneers and My Antonia. But this novel was so flat and dry that finishing it felt like a chore. The deep flaw I found here is that the main character is a paper doll. I could not get myself to care about her. Thea Kronborg is a cold little genius, but throughout the 100+ first part that chronicles her childhood it is never once made clear if she actually enjoys the music that others use to define her. She's marked out for brilliance, but she doesn't excuse much. Barely any character flaws, she just performs all that is expected of her. The one defining passion we do see is that she likes to read, which I guess fleshes out some agency for her, but it doesn't make for a compelling heroine.
I found all the adjacent characters far more compelling, and for them I kept returning to this book when the stifling soporific of Thea's piano practicing got tiresome. The piano teacher Wunsch does very interesting things in the novel, and his whole origin demands a novel in itself: how does a tortured virtuoso from Germany end up a frustrated drunkard in Moonstone, Colorado? Ray Kennedy has lived ten lives, and while the age gap between him and his crush Thea was at first off-putting, the genuine emotion he exuded and the desires that shaped his action made him the most intriguing character. His devotion for flat Thea made her more interesting, though it spoke more to his character than to hers. The aunt, Tillie, self-effacing and essential to keeping the burgeoning Kronborg family functioning, is given so little spotlight, but the few pages Cather devotes to her shows a wildly interesting little life. Had she fleshes out Tillie more, as a possible foil to Thea's more ambitious trajectory, it would have justified an epilogue devoted almost entirely to her. As it was, I almost had to remind myself who this minor character was.
I was initially interested to learn about the first mentioned character, Doctor Archie, his comically failed marriage and his own activities, but as his character seemed only to exist as a lens for Thea, I soon got bored with any mention of his character as I knew it was just leading up to more praise for a character that did very little in scenes with him. It made me wonder why he, of all the characters, framed the story in its opening scene.
The novel does showcase Cather's meticulous staging: the attention to the landscape, the geographical and sociological mapping of a village, the social dynamics of men and women across professions and denominations. However, I arrived at the end of the novel caring not a whit for any of the characters I spent pages learning very little about.
I found all the adjacent characters far more compelling, and for them I kept returning to this book when the stifling soporific of Thea's piano practicing got tiresome. The piano teacher Wunsch does very interesting things in the novel, and his whole origin demands a novel in itself: how does a tortured virtuoso from Germany end up a frustrated drunkard in Moonstone, Colorado? Ray Kennedy has lived ten lives, and while the age gap between him and his crush Thea was at first off-putting, the genuine emotion he exuded and the desires that shaped his action made him the most intriguing character. His devotion for flat Thea made her more interesting, though it spoke more to his character than to hers. The aunt, Tillie, self-effacing and essential to keeping the burgeoning Kronborg family functioning, is given so little spotlight, but the few pages Cather devotes to her shows a wildly interesting little life. Had she fleshes out Tillie more, as a possible foil to Thea's more ambitious trajectory, it would have justified an epilogue devoted almost entirely to her. As it was, I almost had to remind myself who this minor character was.
I was initially interested to learn about the first mentioned character, Doctor Archie, his comically failed marriage and his own activities, but as his character seemed only to exist as a lens for Thea, I soon got bored with any mention of his character as I knew it was just leading up to more praise for a character that did very little in scenes with him. It made me wonder why he, of all the characters, framed the story in its opening scene.
The novel does showcase Cather's meticulous staging: the attention to the landscape, the geographical and sociological mapping of a village, the social dynamics of men and women across professions and denominations. However, I arrived at the end of the novel caring not a whit for any of the characters I spent pages learning very little about.
Cather is one of our best of the 20th Century. While some of the prose struggles to hold up under today's scrutiny, her writing is epic and lovely.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
I have loved Willa Cather since long before I could really appreciate her prose and her stories, and revisiting her as an adult is a singular treasure. This, like many of her books, is on the surface a simple, rather quiet character study, but if you dig a little deeper, you get a story about art and artists, children's dreams and imagination, and a love letter to the plains and open countryside and the people who lived on it. It also is about the small, quiet moments that are so monumental and defining to one's character while seeming so insignificant. I love how much care and meaning Cather imbues these kinds of stories, characters, and moments.
There are so many quotes I could pull out, but perhaps the thesis:
"Life rushed in upon her through that window - or so it seemed. In reality, of course, life rushes from within, not from without. There is no work of art so big or so beautiful that it was not once all contained in some youthful body, like this one which lay on the floor in the moonlight, pulsing with ardour and anticipation. It was on such nights that Thea Kronburg learned the thing that old Dumas meant when he told the Romanticists that to make a drama he needed but on passion and four walls."
There are so many quotes I could pull out, but perhaps the thesis:
"Life rushed in upon her through that window - or so it seemed. In reality, of course, life rushes from within, not from without. There is no work of art so big or so beautiful that it was not once all contained in some youthful body, like this one which lay on the floor in the moonlight, pulsing with ardour and anticipation. It was on such nights that Thea Kronburg learned the thing that old Dumas meant when he told the Romanticists that to make a drama he needed but on passion and four walls."
The scope of this book, the number of characters, so many stories and lives, and a lot of reflection on what motivates people to live, to do, to desire, etc. Enjoyed it very much.
I loved aspects of this book but I also felt incomplete upon finishing, it’s such a tease to end a book just as the main character is coming into her own. I’m glad I’ve spent the last year listening and watching and consuming so much Wagner bc it certainly gave me a deeper appreciation of Thea’s rise through the ranks of major soprano roles. I don’t know, this may be a book that grows on me with further rumination and I may edit up to 4stars. There is so much beauty in how Cather describes music and the artistic journey and the descriptions of nature and how it effects a persons sensibility are wonderful. I guess my hesitation in giving the 4 stars is bc I still feel somewhat distant from the character of Thea but I suppose that just aligns me more with the other characters in the book who feel similarly.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is my favorite of the Great Plains Trilogy. In fact, My Antonia is my least favorite of the three, though it is the most famous (and most read). I loved everything about this book, and I loved that it was longer than the others, because it allowed for rich & complex character development. Ir is a beautifully written book.
I'm not sure why they call it a Trilogy - none of the books have anything to do with the other. This is the 6th Cather book I have read, and it was quite disappointing. I love her writing. I have loved the other 5 books (including the other books in the "trilogy"). There were no characters in the book that I loved. Honestly, at 417 pages - her longest book, the book was quite boring. I took the book with me on a trip west. I was going to spend a week each in Colorado, Wyoming & South Dakota. Naturally there was a full schedule of exploring, but I took this book thinking it would get me through the evenings and early mornings for the week in Colorado. I took two other books. I was really counting on Ms. Cather's beautiful descriptions of the Colorado landscape and life there at the turn of the previous century. I hoped to compare what I was seeing with a confidence in her prose. To make a long story short - I have been back for a week and just finished this book. It took me a solid month to slog through. I basically read 1-3 chapters at bedtime, if at all. I have the rest of her writings on my "to read" list but I think I'll take a break.