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One of Ours (Willa Cather, 1923 winner)
By Johnny · 32 posts · 91 views
By Johnny · 32 posts · 91 views
last updated Jan 16, 2024 09:06AM
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This is the 1923 Pulitzer and the first one I've read that's awful! It's about WWI and this small family in Indiana that sends their son off to the war. The beginning was slow and pretty creepy. Like, for example (and sadly there are like 10 other examples), there's this part where the son (Claude, and he hates when people pronounce it 'Clod' so don't do that, thanks) is going off to the war and his mother takes his 'heavy underwear' to sniff it 'one more time'. And there's this whole group bath
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I really liked this book in spite of its great flaw. The well-known criticism of Willa Cather's battle/war scenes is all too true, her depiction is grossly over-romanticized--she was clearly out of her depth. But this aside, her writing as always is superb; her gifts lie in her description of nature and capturing the subtlety of human emotion with a beauty and lyricism seldom surpassed. Flawed but still recommended.
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This was a wonderful story of the doughboys and WW1. I had problems at first, because Claude W. was to my thinking a spoiled little brat who couldn't be thankful for the good that he had in his life. He was always looking for more and what he thought was better. I feel that he did some growing up as a soldier and that he was able to appreciate home better afterwords. I would have loved to find out what happened with his wife in the end, and the story seemed to end abruptly, but that was just wis
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I enjoyed the story.
It's more or less a war-time story, where family life is depicted, then it goes on with some war scenes.
(Sorry - I don't get into writing long reviews)
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I enjoyed the story.
It's more or less a war-time story, where family life is depicted, then it goes on with some war scenes.
(Sorry - I don't get into writing long reviews)
...more
Nov 13, 2010
Mark
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
pulitzer-prize-winners
The fifth Pulitzer, 1923. It's the story of a Nebraska farm boy whose aspirations and search for broader horizons cannot be bound by the farm life that has been created for him, and he is ultimately drawn into the First World War. Claude is part of a wealthy and successful Nebraska farming family, and he could easily settle for a comfortable future, but a restlessness and a desire to cut his own path in life form the basis of this story. I've taken on a monumental task to read the Pulitzers in o
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This gets really good during the last third -- basically after the main character escapes the U.S. on his path of finding/destroying himself. And that is very much Cather's point, I believe. He felt trapped before he got out of farm country. I don't think it's Cather's best, but it's a good read.
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May 01, 2010
Steven
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
pulitzer-author,
pulitzer
Aug 21, 2011
Shaun
marked it as to-read
Apr 05, 2012
Constance
marked it as to-read
Jan 07, 2014
Winfred Hwang
marked it as to-read
Jan 08, 2016
Sharon Robinson
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
pulitzer-prize,
women-authors
Feb 03, 2016
Mary D
marked it as to-read
Aug 05, 2016
Julia
marked it as to-read
