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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
I struggled deciding between three and four stars for this book. Initially, I fell in love with the story and the characters. The ending of the book didn't fit the rest in my mind, which after reading other reviews, I find I'm at least not alone in that. The ending and Alexandra's handling of the situation is what made me hesitate away from four stars but I will say that I really liked it because Willa Cather's description of life and vivid descriptions of the land were captivating.
“When you get so near the dead they seem more real than the living.” Willa Cather
I finished my second Willa Cather book, O Pioneers!, the first book in her Great Plains trilogy, and let me just tell you, if you haven’t read this book yet, do it soon! I now totally and completely get the hype about this author! This book evoked all the feels, even moving me to tears twice. I really don’t know what else to say about it that hasn’t already been said, so I’ll just leave you with the book description…
O Pioneers! (1913) was Willa Cather’s first great novel, and to many it remains her unchallenged masterpiece. No other work of fiction so faithfully conveys both the sharp physical realities and the mythic sweep of the transformation of the American frontier—and the transformation of the people who settled it. Cather’s heroine is Alexandra Bergson, who arrives on the wind-blasted prairie of Hanover, Nebraska, as a girl and grows up to make it a prosperous farm. But this archetypal success story is darkened by loss, and Alexandra’s devotion to the land may come at the cost of love itself.
At once a sophisticated pastoral and a prototype for later feminist novels, O Pioneers! is a work in which triumph is inextricably enmeshed with tragedy, a story of people who do not claim a land so much as they submit to it and, in the process, become greater than they were.
If that doesn’t entice you to read this book, then nothing else I can say will. I’ve only read two of her twelve novels so far, but who am I disagree with the masses when they say this is her great masterpiece? I must concur! Go on; read it. You won’t be disappointed!
I finished my second Willa Cather book, O Pioneers!, the first book in her Great Plains trilogy, and let me just tell you, if you haven’t read this book yet, do it soon! I now totally and completely get the hype about this author! This book evoked all the feels, even moving me to tears twice. I really don’t know what else to say about it that hasn’t already been said, so I’ll just leave you with the book description…
O Pioneers! (1913) was Willa Cather’s first great novel, and to many it remains her unchallenged masterpiece. No other work of fiction so faithfully conveys both the sharp physical realities and the mythic sweep of the transformation of the American frontier—and the transformation of the people who settled it. Cather’s heroine is Alexandra Bergson, who arrives on the wind-blasted prairie of Hanover, Nebraska, as a girl and grows up to make it a prosperous farm. But this archetypal success story is darkened by loss, and Alexandra’s devotion to the land may come at the cost of love itself.
At once a sophisticated pastoral and a prototype for later feminist novels, O Pioneers! is a work in which triumph is inextricably enmeshed with tragedy, a story of people who do not claim a land so much as they submit to it and, in the process, become greater than they were.
If that doesn’t entice you to read this book, then nothing else I can say will. I’ve only read two of her twelve novels so far, but who am I disagree with the masses when they say this is her great masterpiece? I must concur! Go on; read it. You won’t be disappointed!
This is a great title. If you want to see some of what settling down in untamed Nebraska might have been like, you have a chance here. The protagonist, Alexandra, turns out to be the best choice of her dying father to preserve the farm. And to do so she has to fight nature and people’s expectations. I love her as a strong female character, and in more than one way she is the embodiment of the typical American pioneer. 5 out of 5 stars
emotional
reflective
relaxing
sad
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
A counterpoint to Gone With The Wind. Both feature a practical, independent woman criticised for her strong will, who matures over the novel, and who is deeply attached to her father and her land. But modest Alexandra Bergson cuts a very different figure from the haughty Scarlett O’Hara, and while GWTW is pulpy and monstrous (in size, at least, though perhaps not at most), O Pioneers! is lean, unassuming. A quiet pervades the novel; no sweeping Steiner score would suit its poignant chronicle of the prairie. One laments that Cather’s (great American?) novel did not achieve the popularity of Mitchell’s.
There was something earnest, engaging, and fundamentally optimistic about this book. Like the antithesis of a Cormac McCarthy novel.
I liked the beginning the best and was a little puzzled since I thought the majority of the book was going to be about Alexandra struggling to make her family’s homestead succeed. That was the element of the story I was most invested in. in reality that portion of the book passes relatively quickly and the rest of the novel delves into the family’s personal lives. Not a bad narrative by any means but not quite the one I was expecting / hoping for.
I liked the beginning the best and was a little puzzled since I thought the majority of the book was going to be about Alexandra struggling to make her family’s homestead succeed. That was the element of the story I was most invested in. in reality that portion of the book passes relatively quickly and the rest of the novel delves into the family’s personal lives. Not a bad narrative by any means but not quite the one I was expecting / hoping for.
I really love Willa Cather's writing. It's straightforward and moving, and deceptively simple. She makes you care about the characters almost immediately. This got 4/5 stars mostly for the bummer of an ending, which seems to be the trend in other books written around this time.
This has been recommended to me for years. What a loss, a tragedy, that it was very Not For Me.
3.5 really. Glad that I finally decided to read this author. There is something special about books where the setting is really one of the main characters, as in The Grapes of Wrath, or the works of Kent Haruf. In this book though, I found the transitions to be abrupt, and the male characters annoying. That Frank could have been a dandy as a young man and regress into a virtual Neanderthal as a young adult was a little much for me.
Poignant is the first word that comes to mind when I recall reading O Pioneers!. I was so drawn in from the first chapter, partially because I just needed to read something beautiful that wasn't academic at the time. Talk about deep characters. I don't understand farming much, but I understand people a little bit. And Willa Cather definitely understands people. It was one of those books that you read in a week just because it calls to you whenever you are doing anything else. Plus, it's short, so you know that you can finish quickly. I've gotten a taste of Willa Cather, and now I can't get enough!