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Summary: My Antonia
Review: My Antonia
Willa Cather
One character in the book that stands out in my mind is Antonia. She is an immigrant whom learns English when she is young. The way she speaks and tries to help others out plays a big part in being a noticable character. She is a good person at heart, but sometimes she tries to help out too much. For example when another character, Jimmy, and Antonia were walking and run into a snake,Jimmy kills it. But she tries to help Jimmy by telling him that he did good, and he gets mad at her. She tries too hard to be liked, and it can be really annoying.
When I chose this book I thought it would be really interesting, but as soon as I read it , I got a little bored and I was reluctant to read the rest of it. The author goes into a lot of detail, but she really draws things out. For example, you have to read through two chapters before you finally meet the main character Antonia.
This book was really drawn out, and I really wouldn't reccomend it , but if your hobby is reading and you enjoy long novels, you might want to give it a try.
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Summary: My Antonia
Review: Willa Cather's My Antonia is a brilliant book. It illustrates the warmth of a wonderful friendship. My Antonia takes you back to a desolate Nebraska where this beautiful friendship takes place. Willa Cather describes life on the prairie so vividly that one can even imagine themselves being there. This book touched my heart. I would definitely recommend this book to a friend.
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Summary: Vivid descriptions, but lacks storyline!
Review: 'My Antonia' by Willa Cather captures the reader with her wonderful writing but loses your interest once you realize there is no complex plot. Cather's descriptions give the reader a deep inside look into the fundamentals that form her characters. The book revolves around the narrator, Jim, and his love for Antonia, a Bohemian girl. The story is set in the plains of Nebraska where there is "nothing but land." The reader follows Jim's transformation to adulthood with his surprisingly indepth observations. Jim makes a promise to Antonia that he will return for her. To discover what happens, read 'My Antonia' and decide for yourself if this book is a tribute to classic literature.
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Summary: This book took my breath away...... and then...... I died...
Review: This book is very well worded I will say, but it is a horrendous piece of American literature. There is no plot ... to the story (most of this comes from the fact that it is a biography of the most boring person imaginable) and no real ending. Apparently Jim finally realized that his life was worthless and stopped writing in his journal, which gave Cather no more material to work with by the end of the book. In essence I loved this book's ending for the sole reason that it was the end of the book.
This book is an abomination of American literature, a meticulously crafted piece of mule ... that still manages to draw from it's readers the question of "Who has the time to waste writing something like this??". The imagery is great, but just like in a movie, imagery is nothing without a basic plot line (which is something that My Antonia lacks). To add to this you have truckloads of utterly useless and two dimensional characters that seem to appear and dissappear for no real reason and have little or nothing to do with the book. The secondary characters often have lives that are considerably more interesting than those of the main characters; but we never hear enough about the secondary characters to really care.
Overall, the book is worthless except as an example of how NOT to write about the lives of immigrants (and for those of you that say "well gee, he's not a writer, how would he know..." I say this... I am a writer... and I am reviewing the work of another writer... I write mostly poetry and short stories). If you want to read about immigrant life and hardships, pick up a copy of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" instead. Not only is it better in style, but it actually accomplished something (the passing of Pure Food laws) for the country.
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Summary: My Antonia............................ How Boring Art Thou!
Review: My Antonia is not a great book for a few reasons..... First of all, it is very slow moving, the relationships and characters seem very flaky, and when you are done, you don't have that satisfied feeling you might desire. All of this is probably because it is a true tale about Jim Burden and the life and friends he had while living on the Nebraska plain. From the description on the back, this sounds like a great love story, but Jim actually hates Antonia for much of the book, and for the rest of it is simply a good friend to her. One thing I must say in favor of the book, is that Willa Cather created an excellent sense of setting and no other author I have read has been able to capture the symbols and people of the Nebraska Plains like she has. If you have read some of Cather's other books, then I would reccommend this to you. Or if you have strong/close ties or an interest to the Nebraska setting, this might be interesting to you. Otherwise, don't waste your time.
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Summary: My Antonia is interesting, not a masterpiece
Review: While it is true that the book My Antonia by Willa Cather is rich with lots of description and that it draws an almost palpable picture of prairie life for new American settlers, a large part of the work rings false. The first difficulty is apparent from the beginning as the voice of the storyteller is presumed female, in spite of the use of his name, Jimmy, because we know the author is female, and the prose feels slightly soft and is detail rich: feminine. The reader goes around, wondering if Jimmy is just a nickname or a trans-gender anomaly like "A Boy Named Sue". After 25 or so pages of story in first person voice, we grow to accept the voice as male, but then we continue to wrestle throughout the book with female issues, woman's work, woman's place, the expectations of women. Since the story teller is male, we now expect the viewpoint to be male. Instead, an infusion of society's constraints and expectations clouds a bold feminist message which would have had more meaning coming from a true male perspective, just as Mark Twain's human rights views had more power coming boldly and honestly from the "poor white trash" perspective. We might expect Jim to make a solid case for the worth (and the sexual worth) of women who don't conform. The muddy conflict of goals and identities is very typical of a female reality and the fact that Jim, in spite of substantial love and lust and admiration of these older women, fails to see them as appropriate mates for him, further undoes the integrity of the story fabric. A reader is left to conclude that love of strong women, love of older women, love of capable women, somehow spoils the native masculine impulses that lead men to live happily among women and to be really male. While the book is a good read as a period piece and does grapple with gender issues, it isn't quite credible and that is why Willa Cather can't claim a literary gem here.
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Summary: Has good intentions...but fails
Review: "My Antonia" takes place during the mid 1800s on the Nebraska prarie and tells the story of the ever-changing relationship between Bohemian immigrant girl Antonia Shimerda and Jim (the books narrator).I was very dissapointed in the book. Willa Cather has good intentions trying to depict the landscape down to every last detail, but end up making her charming story hard to follow. I lost interest in the book qucikly. I also found it very dissapointing that Antonia does not play a more important role in the story... the main focus is on Jim about halfway through the book. Antonia is a far more interesting and complex character than Jim, and is more fun to read about. All things considered,it is not worth your time and effort to finish. However, if you are a huge history fan or are into westward expansion, you may enjoy "My Antonia" more than I did.
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Summary: Willa Cather's "My Antonia" is a must read!!!!!
Review: Willa Cather's My Ántonia is a classic, breathtaking account of a young boy's life on the Nebraska frontier. After the death of his two parents, Jim Burden moves out to Nebraska to live with his grandparents who he meets for the first time at his arrival. He falls in love with the frontier and it's beauty and quaintness. On the frontier he meets the Shimerdas and teaches their eldest daughter, Ántonia. Jim and Ántonia soon become close friends for life. During their childhood they share many adventures killing a snake, exploring different paths and teaching each other different important lessons. Jim teaches Ántonia English, and Ántonia shows him the skills of a true cook. Even after the two friends grow up they still remember their childhood and manage to keep in touch. The book revolves around Jim's feelings for his friend. Ántonia is a women who many people admire and respect for her hard work and great strength. Even after the death of Ántonia's father and an unsuccessful marriage, she manages to keep her head straight. The book shows the importance of friendship and strong character. This is a great book because it relates to people's real life experiences and shows the power of women. Reading it makes you feel many happy and sad emotions. Once you start reading Ántonia you will not be able to stop. The book is beautifully written with an exciting storyline.
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Summary: Good book for older readers
Review: I read My Antonia as a assignment for 9th grade Literature. I did not enjoy, along with many of my classmates. For one thing the setting is in the 1800's and the book moves a little slowly. I think that if I would have read it when I was older I maybe would have appreciated it more.
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Summary: My Antonia
Review: My Antonia was a great book by Willa Cather. It is about a immigrant family who come to the U.S. and settle in Nebraska. The narrator of the story is not one of the immigrants however it is a neighbor boy, Jim Burden, who helps the family. Jim and Antonia become really close throughout the book and the reader wants them to come together. However after the first section of the book the focus goes off of Antonia and ends up being more about Jim until the last 50 pages or so. Antonia is still discussed in the book but she is no longer the focus. I wish Willa Cather had discussed Antonia more in the book because she was the title of it not Jim.
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