My Ántonia
My Antonia, first published 1918, is one of Willa Cather's greatest works. It is the last novel in the Prairie trilogy, preceded by O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark.My Antonia tells the stories of several immigrant families who move out to rural Nebraska to start new lives in America, with a particular focus on a Bohemian family, the Shimerdas, whose eldest daughter is named Antonia. The book's narrator, Jim Burden, arrives in the fictional town of Black Hawk, Nebraska, on the same train as the Shimerdas, as he goes to live with his grandparents after his parents have died. Jim develops strong feelings for Antonia, something between a crush and a filial bond, and the reader views Antonia's life, including its attendant struggles and triumphs, through that lens.
Stats for nerds
11recommend
14mentions
14people
2012–2025years
79% recommend7% neutral14% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- "Death Comes for the Archibishop" reached the public domain in January of this year. It is excellent.
Cather grew up in Nebraska, and two of the "plains novels" ("O Pioneers" and "My Ántonia") are set there. I like the first a little bit better than the second, but both are pretty good. The third plains novel ("The Song of the Lark") starts out in eastern Colorado, but the character moves around quite a bit. It is the longest of the three, and Cather has more room to develop the main character. I'm about 2/3 of the way through "Lark", and I think I like it the best of the three. The main character Thea Kronborg is interesting and complex, and many of us can understand the fits and starts you go through to figure out what you need to be doing in life.
In all of the books above, Cather has a gift for place. Her descriptions of the scenery of the west or of someone's kitchen are vivid and memorable.
In a Western Writers of America poll (https://web.archive.org/web/20111030021251/http://www.wester...), Cather comes in second in the list of best western authors. Elmer Kelton is first (the compiler noted he got twice as many votes as Cather and the third-place author [A. B. Guthrie]). I've read a couple of books by Kelton and by Guthrie, and they're both excellent as well. Westerns have turned out not to be simply the formulaic stuff I expected (though some of the formulaic stuff is fun to read!).
- My favorites I read this year in order:
- Prayer of Owen Meany, it’s the basis of the movie Simon Birch if you have seen that. The book has so much more going on though
- My Antonia, wonderful characters
- Jude the Obscure, the cover tells you the ending is shocking, and the cover is right!
- How the Irish Saved Civilization, really fun and interesting
- It's been a long time since I read My Antonia. Loved it. If memory serves, though, wasn't the main male character quite the self-made man? Again, it's been a while. Beautiful picture of the harsh reality, and stark beauty of life on the plains.
If you want Ayn Rand that makes sense, read We the Living, in my opinion, by far her best work. As a matter of fact, I'd say Ayn Rand's three major works, can be rated worst to best with length being the determining factor. Worst -- Atlas Shrugged. If ever a book needed an editor of steely resolve, it was that windbag of a novel -- would have been great at 1/2 it's length. The Fountainhead was tighter and better. But We the Living is the best because it is set in the world of her youth and makes her rah-rah cheerleading for capitalism and her deep hatred of communism completely relatable in context. The story never leaves the Soviet Union, so it's very different from her other work.
I love capitalism, but reading Atlas Shrugged left me feeling like this is one hard woman. Reading We the Living left me feeling like now I get it -- I'd be hard, too.
- Howard's End, EM Forster, is one, along with all of Forster.
Arcadia, a play by Tom Stoppard, is fantastic. Good for many re-reads (and re-watches).
Ursula Le Guin (maybe The Left Hand of Darkness is my favorite?) might be the best sci-fi/fantasy ever written, as much as I love Lois McMaster Bujold (three worlds to choose from, each offering many more or less independent novels and novellas), who is also great.
A few more:
Sometimes a Great Notion, Ken Kesey.
My Antonia, Willa Cather.
Bluebeard, Kurt Vonnegut.
- I grew up before the Internet, and I used to read a lot more. Being online has made me have very little focus for reading anything of length. I have spent time recently trying to undo this. I would say you are missing out and encourage you to make time to read some of the classics. I know it's hard to find which ones to read, it will just have to be some trial and error (not all the classics are good imo -- it's impossible for me to get into any of the Russians). I tend towards American or English classics, I suggest one of my all time favourites, it's a short one "My Antonia" by Willa Cather. I'm currently reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy and enjoying it very much.
- I'd recommend My Ántonia by Willa Cather
