My Antonia by Willa Cather

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I have just been introduced to Willa Cather this past month by a mentor of mine. I have only read O, Pioneers! thus far but absolutely adored it. The detail she puts into the settings is phenomenal and I fell in love with each and every character. Someone also brought up Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, which was recently recommended to me as well, and that I also loved. Such a tragedy though. What is most interesting about Ethan Frome I think is its wonderful depiction of the New England country side, but Wharton was an urbanite, and most at the time didn't think she would be ablet to pull off such a story in that setting, but she did a wonderful job. I plan on reading more Willa Cather and will put My Antonia and Death Comes Before the Archbishop on top of my list.

[godreaujea]

My Antonia stole my heart almost as much as O, Pioneers! did. I am a sucker for historical fiction as it is, and Willa Cather's writing is so beautiful, it pulls me right in. The mixture of characters and backgrounds brings life to the dull Nebraska country side.

[Missalaeneous]

I read this book this summer, and one thing that struck me is how poetic of an author Cather was. I usually hate reading people's descriptive language, but her' s was vivid and poetic. She described people's appearance in uniquely funny ways. I remember one such description where she compared someone's posture to a snake. It was a great visual for that scene. I look forward to reading "Oh, Pioneer!"

[franny]

My Antonia is a beautiful book. Told with tenderness but lacking sentimentality, the characters and the setting is conveyed with delicate precision. Though I did not grow up in the United States, reading this novel gave me almost a nostalgic feeling for the rural freedom and hardships of early life on the plains. Antonia is an awesome character, resilient and joyful. To me this book is kind of like comfort food in novel form.

[karlpelham]

My Antonia is a book that was required for me to read during high school. The first few pages made me think it would be just like every other required text and I would be bored out of my mind. However, just a chapter or two in, I found myself soaking each word in and savoring the experience. As a teenager who knew nothing about reading good classics, I thought, what a breath of fresh air! I could take something from each lesson and apply it to my life.

[lettiebeth]

There is such depth of emotion evoked by My Antonia. This was my introduction to Cather, and I was in love. She reminds me very much of Dickens in her ability to make the reader actually feel what the characters are feeling, and in the blending of poignancy and pain. The darkness and light of life are expertly blended to produce a story of haunting beauty and tragedy. My Antonia leaves one with a deliciously satisfying ache in the heart.

[Carolreads30]

I read this book in college and was fascinated by the story. As I have begun researching our family history, it makes the story even more important to life as we can understand just how hard life was for our great, great grandparents who came to the United States to build a better life for themselves. It was not an easy journey, but they struggled through and learned many lessons along the way.

[Bigwig1973]

I read this in high school and in college and I did like this quite a bit. My family's basement was full of books but almost all of them were written by males and consequently, I never really got a feel for books written by women. Books written by men seemed a lot more exciting! But, for being such a small book, I found that I liked My Antonia quite a bit.