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A review by chrissie_whitley
The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
3.0
"Yes," she reflected, as the taxi cut into the Park carriage road, "we don't get fairy tales in this world....
I began this with high hopes, having adored the third book from Cather's Great Plains trilogy, [b:O Pioneers!|140963|O Pioneers! (Great Plains Trilogy, #1)|Willa Cather|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388956566s/140963.jpg|467254]. While this was entertaining enough and the first half didn't lack for too much, the second half neglected me altogether.
The beauty of Cather’s writing is there, the gorgeous way she captures the landscape and its people in her net of words—pragmatically beautiful, but some of the story was missing and thin. Thea, the main character and a musical talent, had all of the flight of a dreamer but Cather misplaced her anchor and the plot lacked a little for it.
It was in that second half that I didn't feel the great current of life running through it and pulling me along. No place, no person, no time. Instead, I felt too much of the author’s movements and knowledge. Like Cather waggled and then flexed her fingers before writing the last 15% to say, Look how I impress you with my opera prowess. While the first half felt like a Cather novel to me, as though you simply plucked a fragment from the timeline of life and examined it, the second half felt more directed and sculpted for a purpose.
Artistic growth is, more than it is anything else, a refining of the sense of truthfulness. The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.
The thing that seemingly elevates this work is Cather's understanding of truly talented people and her ability to translate that into words with a time, place, and characters. Once again, Cather does create a force of a main character, a woman to be reckoned with, and she stays true to that character throughout. She creates situations for Thea to help the reading audience understand her better, understand and make sense of the choices she makes. For instance, her choices about marriage and how it fits into her vision of herself and her future—especially the future for her career.
This story attempts to deal only with the simple and concrete beginnings which color and accent an artist's work, and to give some account of how a Moonstone girl found her way out of a vague, easy-going world into a life of disciplined endeavor.
Ultimately, I felt a great imbalance here that never righted itself. Thea was all push, push, push, and soar, soar, soar—never really leaving me with the impression of living, making her feel a little one-sided and two-dimensional. While this was a perfectly fine book, well -sculpted and -executed, I cannot but help feel the blow my expectations took against this one. I wanted more for Thea. More of something—anything. If she was to succeed in all aspects of life, great! But succeed proudly and loudly and fully. If she was to fail in some aspects in order to make the sacrifice for her career, fine. But show more of the sacrifices and make me feel Thea's pain, even if it's just for a while. There seemed to be no price fully paid...an unreconciled account of a talented Moonstone girl.
I began this with high hopes, having adored the third book from Cather's Great Plains trilogy, [b:O Pioneers!|140963|O Pioneers! (Great Plains Trilogy, #1)|Willa Cather|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388956566s/140963.jpg|467254]. While this was entertaining enough and the first half didn't lack for too much, the second half neglected me altogether.
The beauty of Cather’s writing is there, the gorgeous way she captures the landscape and its people in her net of words—pragmatically beautiful, but some of the story was missing and thin. Thea, the main character and a musical talent, had all of the flight of a dreamer but Cather misplaced her anchor and the plot lacked a little for it.
It was in that second half that I didn't feel the great current of life running through it and pulling me along. No place, no person, no time. Instead, I felt too much of the author’s movements and knowledge. Like Cather waggled and then flexed her fingers before writing the last 15% to say, Look how I impress you with my opera prowess. While the first half felt like a Cather novel to me, as though you simply plucked a fragment from the timeline of life and examined it, the second half felt more directed and sculpted for a purpose.
Artistic growth is, more than it is anything else, a refining of the sense of truthfulness. The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.
The thing that seemingly elevates this work is Cather's understanding of truly talented people and her ability to translate that into words with a time, place, and characters. Once again, Cather does create a force of a main character, a woman to be reckoned with, and she stays true to that character throughout. She creates situations for Thea to help the reading audience understand her better, understand and make sense of the choices she makes. For instance, her choices about marriage and how it fits into her vision of herself and her future—especially the future for her career.
This story attempts to deal only with the simple and concrete beginnings which color and accent an artist's work, and to give some account of how a Moonstone girl found her way out of a vague, easy-going world into a life of disciplined endeavor.
Ultimately, I felt a great imbalance here that never righted itself. Thea was all push, push, push, and soar, soar, soar—never really leaving me with the impression of living, making her feel a little one-sided and two-dimensional. While this was a perfectly fine book, well -sculpted and -executed, I cannot but help feel the blow my expectations took against this one. I wanted more for Thea. More of something—anything. If she was to succeed in all aspects of life, great! But succeed proudly and loudly and fully. If she was to fail in some aspects in order to make the sacrifice for her career, fine. But show more of the sacrifices and make me feel Thea's pain, even if it's just for a while. There seemed to be no price fully paid...an unreconciled account of a talented Moonstone girl.