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My Ántonia

Willa Cather

Start date: January 1, 2025

Finish date: March 31, 2025

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Oct 03, 2019 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, read-in-2019, american-lit, favorites, coming-of-age, frontier-western

My family are from Southeast Iowa, but I was raised in Colorado. This meant trips through Nebraska often. And those sweeping views of the "corn and sky, corn and sky" are ones I know well. It is beautiful; the people work hard to produce those crops but are warm and friendly. When I was about 10 my maternal grandparents brought my paternal grandfather along for the ride to visit us in Colorado. He hated it. He missed the still, quiet, productive land. He couldn't see a use for the mountainous wo My family are from Southeast Iowa, but I was raised in Colorado. This meant trips through Nebraska often. And those sweeping views of the "corn and sky, corn and sky" are ones I know well. It is beautiful; the people work hard to produce those crops but are warm and friendly. When I was about 10 my maternal grandparents brought my paternal grandfather along for the ride to visit us in Colorado. He hated it. He missed the still, quiet, productive land. He couldn't see a use for the mountainous world we now inhabited. Over and over he said: "I wouldn't give you a plug nickel for the whole darn lot of it." I have never forgotten. At the time I thought he was crazy, but now I know he was like Antonia. He loved the flat fields and expansive skies. He loved the work and the produce. My grandpa was a farmer. And in this wonderful classic novel by Willa Cather that love was brought into vivid detail. She painted the fields, the bugs, the heat waves that can be seen low lying above the ground, the fluffy white clouds, the black soil, the sounds of crickets and frogs... She painted a world so real and lush that when the book ended I was sad to say goodbye.

The part of the book that always means the most to me is the development of the characters, and Cather’s characters were real, flawed, open, and lively. I fell in love with Antonia's father in much the same way that she did. He was unique, and completely out-of-place, but still so attached to the land and the story. He was the kind of dad that every girl should have. And Antonia was funny, sassy, and optimistic. No matter how hard her life was she always saw the silver lining. And best of all was our narrator, Jim. He was orphaned as a child and was sent to the prairie to live with his grandparents. They too were wonderful characters, teaching Jim to give everything he could to help those around him - like Antonia's family. Jim was loyal, friendly, hopeful. And despite the hardships of his childhood and the unlikeliness of escaping a similar life he became an educated man.

In the book we get to see the beauty of a lasting relationship and how the love of family and friends shape the people we become. At the end of the book when Antonia and Jim are reunited for a visit and catching up, she tells him about her lasting love and respect for her father:

'Of course it means you are going away from us for good,' she said with a sigh. 'But that don't mean I'll lose you. Look at my papa here; he's been dead all these years, and yet he is more real to me than almost anybody else. He never goes out of my life. I talk to him and consult him all the time. The older I grow, the better I know him and the more I understand him.'

And when Jim told her a bit later that he would return to visit again, she said:

'Perhaps you will. But even if you don't, you're here, like my father. So I won't be lonesome.'

This passage is so lovely and true. I have my dad with me in that same way. I consult with him daily. And, thanks to Cather's beautiful novel I got to visit again with my grandfather who died in 1978.

******
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Sep 08, 2009 Chrissie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: hf, favorites, usa

This is definitely the best by Willa Cather. Her other books which I have read don't come close to this one - they have a message, an agenda which is too simplistic. Marvelous description of the American pioneering days. I read it ages ago. ...more

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Oct 23, 2009 Laura rated it it was ok

Shelves: american-fiction, e-books, mtbr-challenge-2013, gutenberg, read-2013, fiction-20th-century, america

Free download available at Project Gutenberg ...more

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Apr 20, 2008 Jenny rated it it was amazing

My Antonia is one of those comforting books for me. I return to it again and again, and love it every time I read it. It has certainly profoundly influenced the way I think about life. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but perhaps, Antonia stirs my soul and awakens that part of me passed down from my own Bohemian grandmothers. I love Antonia's strength, her zest for living, and the way she never shies away from hard work. For me, Antonia captures the very essence of being an American and even mor ...more

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