O Pioneers

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and Inspiring
Review: This book touched me so deeply. The wonderful prairies and the timeless love of Marie and Emil are woven so beautifully into words by Cather. In regards to the other less enthusiastic reviews, there is more to the book than what meets the eye. Without reading between the lines at the details of the ever changing landscapes and how they reflect the characters, there is no way to truly understand and appreciate this book. I cannot give it any less than a perfect score.

Rating:
Summary: This book was semi-inspiring.
Review: This book was okay. I liked parts of it but I feel like it was nothing more than another version of Little House on the Parire. The best parts of the book were the one about Marie, the little French girl.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: I am writing this review because someone needs to counter the first couple reviews that are way off. This book is brilliant and very moving. You will think of it often. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: tough call...
Review: It's difficult for me to give this book four stars, as opposed to three. I've just finished it, and thinking back on how deeply moving it was, especially in the scenes between the two sets of lovers (the point when Carl leaves Alexandra for Alaska, the moment in the fortune telling tent between Marie and Emil, and others). I won't give away the ending of the novel, or at least I'll do my best not to, but I was struck more swiftly than I've ever been in a novel, at the end by the mixture of sorrow and blame in Alexandra. How in hell could this character, though perhaps not quite as in tune with her emotional center as others in the book - how could she place the blame where she does? Her blaming of the two came closer to breaking my heart than the event itself. Carl does what he can to bring her around, letting her know what he had seen and that what was between the two was as pure as can be, and as beautiful as love should be. One even gets the sense that Carl believes the two young lovers would have been wrong to not love each other. But, by the final line of the book, I, as a reader, was not convinced that Alexandra was swayed by Carl's words as she should have been. I kept wondering whether or not Cather had read Hardy's 'Jude the Obscure' before writing this. Though love may end in tragedy, that love cannot be blamed for the tragedy. In the Hardy novel, it was not the love between Jude and Sue that brought them to ruination, but rather societal mores and Sue's lack of resiliency. She didn't realize that it was only her love for Jude that could save her. Love doesn't lead to tragedy - it is the responses to love that oftentimes lead to tragedy. A simple idea. I think Cather would have been well to illustrate this more completely in the end. Up through the last thirty or so pages, I would've given this book five stars without a second thought. I've maybe never read of love more tender than the love between Marie and Emil. And to know that the protagonist might blame such horror on such tenderness - it seems almost unbelievable that Cather would have written such reaction.

Rating:
Summary: Unjustly criticized by others.
Review: This is a book that needs to be read with an active imagination. Some have said it is "dull" or "flat as the praries" and if you don't look closely enough, you never see the complexity or see that those praries aren't just flat. They roll along ever changing with time, gently upturning the elements from beneth the surface until they are staring you right in the face. You never can know exactly what you have without giving it time. This book is full of deeper meaning and personalized messeges. You are the one that makes the book what it is. You are the one that draws a meaning closely tied to your own life from the book. I feel books are supposed to enlighten oneself. It shouldn't spell out to you what it's trying to convey, you should have to use your feelings and your mentality to form what you want to get from the book. And this book does just that!

Rating:
Summary: Great Prarie
Review: Another fantastic and interesting pioneer novel by Cather, but not as original and kind as MY ANTONIA. The story of the struggles of prarie life, and two young neighbors(male and female). After one loses land, the other buys his former neighbors land, causing great disasters and envy. The beauty of this is that in the end, true love is discovered.

Rating:
Summary: The Strength of a Woman
Review: This book is superbly written and executed. It is easy to read and goes by very quickly. The main character, Alexandra, is easily identifyable and is depicted with such clarity one can almost see her before your eyes as she goes through her day-to day chores. She is depicted as a strong woman, with the red fiery hair underneath her brown veil in two thick braids. I would give the book five stars. It leaves an impression in your mind of the struggles of the Western frontier

Rating:
Summary: The boy/girl next door you fell in love with
Review: ::: We milked our cows, side by side, he on his side on his father's land on one side of the fence, and I on my own father's land on the other side of the white fence.::: Those words drew me in deeply, the bashful female who shyly wants love, and the deep regret of her neighbor's son's leaving the town to attend college. By chance he returns, when she owns both her late father's land and his late father's land. Deeply intellectual and stimulating, the love of two people.

Rating:
Summary: Classic Romance of Willa Cather
Review: Another great blunt tale of immigrants from Cather. The cleverness of a girl, leads a family into wealth. The most important aspect of O PIONEERS was the importance of land, and how it wove two people, male and female, away from each other, then together again at the end. A beautiful country classic romance.

Rating:
Summary: O Please tell me this book is NOT considered a classic!
Review: The book starts off great, with a warmth and vividness that makes one care about the characters. Unfortunately, that brief spark of brilliance fades all too quickly. We soon find ourselves mired in a muck of endless drivel. Early on, a time leap propels us 16 years forward where we lose a sense for who the characters are. From that point on, the author gives us no more than a two-dimensional portrait of our heroine and her family. In depth descriptions are reserved for the landscapes and boring events, instead of for the emotions that motive the main characters. Inexplicably, some of the characters turn into brooding morons with (seemingly) no redeeming qualities. This work left much to be desired. Read "O Pioneers" only if you want to see how a great start means...absolutely nothing! For more enjoyable reading try authors like Lucy Maud Montgomery, Henry James, or Jane Austen...you'll be glad you did!