My Ántonia in Around the World in 80 Books

Nov 06, 2013 Rachel rated it it was amazing

Audio 3/16/20

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Sep 01, 2023 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classic, fiction, literary-schmiterary, era-mid-late-1800s, coming-of-age

When I got to this line, early in the story, I knew I would enjoy this book:

The only thing very noticeable about Nebraska was that it was still, all day long, Nebraska.

So descriptive and and also funny!

And then this passsage:

There in the sheltered draw-bottom the wind did not blow very hard, but I could hear it singing its humming tune up on the level, and I could see the tall grasses wave. The earth was warm under me, and warm as I crumbled it through my fingers. … Nothing happened. I di

When I got to this line, early in the story, I knew I would enjoy this book:

The only thing very noticeable about Nebraska was that it was still, all day long, Nebraska.

So descriptive and and also funny!

And then this passsage:

There in the sheltered draw-bottom the wind did not blow very hard, but I could hear it singing its humming tune up on the level, and I could see the tall grasses wave. The earth was warm under me, and warm as I crumbled it through my fingers. … Nothing happened. I did not expect anything to happen. I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.

That is so achingly beautiful, it captures the place and the time and the child’s mindset.

Cather was clearly a keen observer, and she loved the land. How many people would notice things like this:

It was noon now, and so hot that the dogwoods and scrub-oaks began to turn up the silvery underside of their leaves, and all the foliage looked soft and wilted.

The story, told from Jim Burden’s POV (Antonia’s neighbor and best friend) from the age of thirteen through adulthood, was charming and engaging. It was just interesting enough to keep my attention, but never edge-of-your-seat drama. The framing story that opens the book wasn't necessary and I immediately forgot about it (when I finished, I had to go back to see who was supposed to be talking to whom, telling the story- the speaker is never named, and I suppose it must be Charley Harling who lived next door to Jim in Black Hawk, since no other boy near his age is mentioned in the story). I feel like I learned a lot about that time period.

There were a few cringy racist descriptions (a black woman is described as a “wench” rather than a “woman,” and there is an infant teeing description of Chinese people) but I guess it's a product of its time, and it wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. ...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Katy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I had never read any Willa Cather before but WOW. This turned out to be a book I just absorbed. I couldn't put it down all day. I really enjoyed myself. ...more

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Oct 06, 2016 Elizabeth marked it as to-read

Recommended by Professor Nancy Parker.

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Aug 24, 2012 Erica rated it really liked it

An amazing little read. Simultaneously one of the most flattering books about Nebraska's landscape I've ever read, and yet one of the most horrifying in terms of the casual domestic violence most women seemingly endured in early 20th century small-town prairie life. One of those books that fills a cultural hole I had somehow papered over with other works. A quick, lovely, enlightening read. ...more

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