My Antonia

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Summary: Beautifully Read, But Why Abridge a Masterpiece?
Review: MY ANTONIA, by Willa Cather, read by Joan Allen. This story and DEATH COMES TO THE ARCHBISHOP are my very favorite Cather books - masterpieces. Joan Allen reads these beautiful words so beautifully that I almost wondered if it wasn't better to listen to it than read it. But I don't understand the abridgement - first, why? - second, abridgement wasn't particularly well done. Our daughter (who had NOT read the story) listened to it and was a bit confused. But Cather's words are simply lovely, and the reader is an excellent match - tone, pace, different voices.

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Summary: Superb!
Review: One of my FAVOURITE books! It's about a Bohemian girl who moved to Nebraska and how her life touched so many in a small prarie town...

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Summary: kewl
Review: it was beautifully intriguing and was beyond the human grasp of amazing intellect.

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Summary: A junior AP student's View on My Ántonia
Review: Willa Cather's My Ántonia was a different sort of read for me. My reading genre usually consists of Stephen King and some other randomly selected texts from my mother's bookcase of mysteries and classics. I can somewhat say I enjoyed the book, but at certain times the lack of plot made me rather bored with it. Willa Cather does an amazing job of romanticizing the land. Her constant use of imagery and metaphors depicts to the reader the exact scene in which Jim Burden, our Narrator and main character, and Ántonia must have lived. The story centers around the life of Jim Burden, a boy forced to move to Nebraska after his parents' death and Ántonia Shimerda a poor Bohemian immigrant girl. Their lives are displayed to the reader in scatted time periods including early childhood, teenage years, and late adulthood. Though the story line did not hold my attention span, the character Ántonia did. The representation of such a strong woman during this time period is a much-admired feat of Cather's. The amount of time spent developing the characters allows the reader to become very entranced in their lives and their ever-changing personalites. Ántonia's strength surprised and delighted me all at once. At each turn of the page a new trait is discovered or acquired. Overall the story would make a great resource for a paper, but the lack of plot makes the book only for the reader with an appreciation for detail and not necessarily a need for action.

Rating:
Summary: Quaint, charming, not riveting
Review: Willa Cather's "My Antonía" is a quaint, charming story I'd recommend to anyone who prefers character to plot, and novels of manners to great themes. Not riveting like a novel by Melville or Kazantzakis, and with an easy language sans the "muscularity" of greater works, "My Antonía" deserves to stand the test of time, as a glimpse into America's past, her heartland, an America which really once was a "nation of immigrants". Even while reluctant to rank this book among the very best, I must be candid and confess that, Yes, I cared deeply for Antonía, felt saddened by her suffering, and admiration for her fortitude and courage. A VERY GOOD novel...just not a great one!

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: H. L. Mencken said "No romantic novel ever written in America, by man or woman, is one half so beautiful as My Antonia." I agree whole heartedly! Cather's description of the prairie, the endless red grass, and the vast space that could swallow a person is masterful. Here is her description of the sun setting behind a plough. "On some upland farm, a plough had been left standing in a field. The sun was sinking just behind it. Magnified across the distance by horizontal light, it stood out against the sun, was exactly contained within the circle of the disk; the handles, the tongue, the share -- black against the molten red. There it was, heroic in size, a picture writing on the sun." The novel is slow paced, in fact it moves at the pace of another time and place, the 19th century Nebraska prairie. Slow down and read, it's well worth it. In the introduction by a friend of Jim Burden he says "We agreed that no one who had not grown up in a little prairie town could know anything about it. It was a kind of freemasonry, we said." Cather raises the reader to master mason of the prairie in this novel, the most beautiful I have ever read.

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Summary: Not Great, But an Interesting Study.
Review: This was the first book I had to read in Women's Writing. I can see the significance of it in this class, but I don't feel it is powerful enough to stand on its own. The images are beautiful, but the plot is weak. The characters are not really that memorable, and Cather does not have the best orginizational skills. (Or if she does she does not show it in this work.) On the other hand, there are some things about this book that make it important in the museum of women's writing. Antonia does not fall into the traditional pattern women in literature previously did. She has a mind of her own, she shows that she is capable of taking care of herself, and she does not have to marry to have the benefit of a happy ending. Yes, she does marry, but she did not have to. I probably would not buy this book as a gift for someone. But if someone were doing a study of women's writing, or writing a paper on the evolution of the female protagonist, I would say this book is an important study.

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Summary: The Immigrants Life
Review: Willa Cather beautifully portrays the hard life of immigrants in Nebraska. Cather, herself, grew up in Nebraska, and therefore described the loveliness of the plains of Nebraska from experience. In addition to portraying Nebraska as beautiful, Cather demonstrates how difficult immigrant life can be. Through her uses of similies, metaphors, personification, moitifs, and colorful descriptions, Cather reaches her main theme of man verses the land. This novel was very will written and Cather did a wonderful job in depicting a young immigrant girl growing up on the plains of Nebraska.

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Summary: Prairie Life!
Review: I loved this classic of life on the Nebraska prairie! If you know the prairie, you'll love this book. It is sprinkled with wonderful characters, short scenes that are very descriptive of the harsh life on the prairie, and laughable moments. Will Cather knew the prairie.

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Summary: A new perspective
Review: My Antonia is book that descibes in full detail the life in Nebraska for the pioneers. I liked this book because it was not the normal book that introduces characters, attracts problems to the characters, then the characters solve the problem, and then follow it up with an ending. This story focused on the little problems not everyone would face. With so many characters in this book, there were many different personalities. The main story is not just about Antonia, but about Jim's experiences and friendship with her. This is a good book for something pleasant to read, and not like every other book on the shelf.