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jenmkin's review against another edition
4.0
tbh I don't think I care as much about the main characters as I'm supposed to, but I do love Lena Lingard, Emmaline and Josiah Burden, and Tiny Soderall enough that it doesn't matter too much.
zmorris1923's review against another edition
5.0
An amazing book. Could see myself revisiting. A beautiful ode to the prairielands. I tried to only read this one outside.
sydsnot71's review against another edition
5.0
I have to confess to have barely heard of Willa Cather, but I came to this book courtesy of the excellent Backlisted Podcast.*
It's a marvellous book. Full of beautiful, clear writing - especially about landscape. It's full of life and living. The highlights I made - which I think you'll be able to see when I make them public - are an indication of its joys.
There are two particularly fine scenes for me: when Burden and Lena go to the theatre in Lincoln to see La Dame aux Camélias and the impact that has on them both and late in the book when Burden meets Ántonia and her children.
It's well-worth reading. In other hands it might have been hideously melodramatic, but Cather's style keeps things under control without losing the emotional impact. I'm not going to say much else because you should read the book.
*I recommend Backlisted if you like reading btw. It regularly introduces me to interesting writers/books.
It's a marvellous book. Full of beautiful, clear writing - especially about landscape. It's full of life and living. The highlights I made - which I think you'll be able to see when I make them public - are an indication of its joys.
There are two particularly fine scenes for me: when Burden and Lena go to the theatre in Lincoln to see La Dame aux Camélias and the impact that has on them both and late in the book when Burden meets Ántonia and her children.
It's well-worth reading. In other hands it might have been hideously melodramatic, but Cather's style keeps things under control without losing the emotional impact. I'm not going to say much else because you should read the book.
*I recommend Backlisted if you like reading btw. It regularly introduces me to interesting writers/books.
asl4u's review against another edition
3.0
good story - a bit different than what I have been reading lately - I might need to read it again at some point to get more than just a taste of it. Truely literature... so worth a couple reads I think.
gbeckner's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
nosaltres_les's review against another edition
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
annaluckylark's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
vegantrav's review against another edition
4.0
My Ántonia is a bigger story than just that of Ántonia. It is the story of the homesteaders and rural townspeople on the Nebraska plains in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ántonia is certainly the central character, but the stories of the narrator, Jim Burden, and several other key figures (Lena Lingard, the Harling family, the Cutters) in and around Black Hawk, Nebraska, are also very prominent.
In many ways My Ántonia reminded me of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books: stories of cold winters and massive blizzards, of hard work during hot summer harvests, of riverside picnics, of farmers working hard to scrape together a living off the land, of large families living in cramped quarters, and of small-town dances.
But My Ántonia is also much darker and more mature--at least in the issues it addresses--than are the Little House on the Prairie books. Despite these darker elements, though, there is still a vibrant life that comes through: these are the people who built the modern midwest: the immigrants and poor easterners who came west to tame the plains and make what fortune they could and who did, for the most part, give their children a better life.
In so many ways, these characters and their lives remind me of the stories of my own grandparents and great-grandparents: stories they told of their experiences growing up on the farms of rural Oklahoma and Kansas. Cather's prose, for me, was like my grandmother telling me the story of her childhood. How could I not be enchanted by My Ántonia?
In many ways My Ántonia reminded me of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books: stories of cold winters and massive blizzards, of hard work during hot summer harvests, of riverside picnics, of farmers working hard to scrape together a living off the land, of large families living in cramped quarters, and of small-town dances.
But My Ántonia is also much darker and more mature--at least in the issues it addresses--than are the Little House on the Prairie books.
Spoiler
There are three suicides: Ántonia's father, the tramp who jumps into the threshing machine, and Wick Cutter. There is a murder: Wick Cutter's murder of his wife. There is an attempted rape: Wick Cutter sneaking home to try to rape Ántonia and being surprised to find Jim in Ántonia's bed. There are characters suffering from mental illness: Ole Jensen's wife and Ántonia's brother, Marek. There are people with dark pasts they are trying to escape in Nebraska: the two Russian immigrants, one of whom had literally thrown a newly married couple to the wolves on their wedding night. And finally, of course, there is the scandal--at that time--of Ántonia having a child out of wedlock.In so many ways, these characters and their lives remind me of the stories of my own grandparents and great-grandparents: stories they told of their experiences growing up on the farms of rural Oklahoma and Kansas. Cather's prose, for me, was like my grandmother telling me the story of her childhood. How could I not be enchanted by My Ántonia?
nothingforpomegranted's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
I really enjoyed the beginning of this, but as the book continued, my interest started to wane. I was intermittently connected to the characters and well enjoyed the book within a book that reminded me of Frankenstein. The story itself didn’t totally capture me. There are some parallels here with the nature writing and the wildness of the growing up in nature to Where the Crawdads Sing.
The story begins with a conversation between a man and a woman and continue with the man’s reflections on his childhood friend. In fact, this structure also has some connections to To Kill a Mockingbird, but yet again, the story wasn’t quite as compulsive. I don’t know if it’s that my taste for quiet novels just isn’t present at the moment with so much going on in the world or if I don’t really really like them anymore, about this characters reflections childhood friendship, or lost love just wasn’t doing it for me. Antonia immigrates from Bohemia to western Nebraska, where Jim and his family live. together, they discover the attractions of nature and develop strong friendship so especially after Jim‘s parents die. I didn’t feel included in the friendship which I think is what I’m looking for when I read these interior novels. I listened to the episode of Novel Pairings podcast. While usually those episodes really help me connect to the text and understand it and explore it on a different level, this episode was much more a discussion of their previous experiences with the novel (especially because they had a guest who was one of Sara’s former students) rather than the novel itself.
The story begins with a conversation between a man and a woman and continue with the man’s reflections on his childhood friend. In fact, this structure also has some connections to To Kill a Mockingbird, but yet again, the story wasn’t quite as compulsive. I don’t know if it’s that my taste for quiet novels just isn’t present at the moment with so much going on in the world or if I don’t really really like them anymore, about this characters reflections childhood friendship, or lost love just wasn’t doing it for me. Antonia immigrates from Bohemia to western Nebraska, where Jim and his family live. together, they discover the attractions of nature and develop strong friendship so especially after Jim‘s parents die. I didn’t feel included in the friendship which I think is what I’m looking for when I read these interior novels. I listened to the episode of Novel Pairings podcast. While usually those episodes really help me connect to the text and understand it and explore it on a different level, this episode was much more a discussion of their previous experiences with the novel (especially because they had a guest who was one of Sara’s former students) rather than the novel itself.
stevelawler's review against another edition
3.0
I found passages in this book breathtaking - typically those that describe the midwestern prairie around Black Hawk, Nebraska, where it is set. Other bits (particularly those that describe the small town attitudes of the residents there), were frustratingly familiar from my own experiences growing up in rural Iowa.
I was surprised that the Ántonia of the title didn't play a more central role in the action of the book, rather than as a sort of muse to its narrator, Jim. He often recounts the intensity of his (platonic?) feelings for her, though there are several moments when his actions fail to bear these out. Also, though Jim seems to look fondly on Black Hawk's judgmental townsfolk, he devotes many pages to describing the successful careers of two of his friends - young women who were initially disparaged by them.
Cather uses a complicated framing device, wherein the novel's true narrator (unnamed) claims she is more or less transcribing the recollections of her friend Jim about their mutual friend, Ántonia. So, perhaps Jim is not the only unreliable narrator here.
Overall, I found much to reflect on in My Ántonia, even though I did not fall in love with the book as I had hoped.
I was surprised that the Ántonia of the title didn't play a more central role in the action of the book, rather than as a sort of muse to its narrator, Jim. He often recounts the intensity of his (platonic?) feelings for her, though there are several moments when his actions fail to bear these out. Also, though Jim seems to look fondly on Black Hawk's judgmental townsfolk, he devotes many pages to describing the successful careers of two of his friends - young women who were initially disparaged by them.
Cather uses a complicated framing device, wherein the novel's true narrator (unnamed) claims she is more or less transcribing the recollections of her friend Jim about their mutual friend, Ántonia. So, perhaps Jim is not the only unreliable narrator here.
Overall, I found much to reflect on in My Ántonia, even though I did not fall in love with the book as I had hoped.