Rating: 
Summary: My Antonia a great novel
Review: This novel is set on the Nebraska prarie when all that the country consisted of was land.It is the portrait of an American herione, an elegy for a vanished frontier and the story of an unconsummated love affair. Jim Burden, the narrator, meets Antonia Shimerda as a child on the Nebraske prarie. Jim and Antonia grow up together, and he harbors vague and contradictory romantic yearnings toward her. They are separated in their youth and spend most of their lives apart. They are reunited only briefly at the novel's end, and both are married and Jim is unhappily married.What makes Antonia a genuinely heroic figure is her ability to overcome circumstanses no less bleak than the ones that killed her father, to improvise happiness in the same way she once improvesed stories.
Rating: 
Summary: A BOOK TO RELIVE YOUR CHILDHOOD
Review: This is one of the best books that I have read about coming of age. I think that it portrays growing up very accurately and very descriptively. The book gives excellent descriptions of where Jim Burden and Antonia Shimerda grew up at and how their lives were as farmers in the country. The vivid descriptions that were described were done so well that I could find myself actually being able to see where they grew up.
I believe that Jim and Antonia had the typical relationship that any children would have being next-door neighbors. I think that they helped each other pass the time with them both living on the farm. I also think that Jim was so used to the average white girl that when he saw someone from a foreign country he found her exotic and feel in love with the idea that she was different than what he was used to. Jim in my opinion was a young boy who wanted to love for the heart but he got caught up in wanting wealth over love, and I think that Antonia who wanted wealth actually ended up choosing love over wealth.
Over all I think that this was a great book because it was a breath of fresh air for the normal lives of adolescence and what decisions that you have to make growing up. I would recommend this book to anyone who is trying to remember what it is like to be a child.
Rating:
Summary: enjoyable reading
Review: My Antonia, written by Willa Cather, is a powerful and adventurous book. It takes you on a journey through the American vision of modernism. The work invokes a sense of disillusionment with modern society, a feeling of fragmentation and despair at the trends toward industrialization and urbanization. At other times the novel presents an idealized view of a pre-industrialized and still "innocent" society. My Antonia follows the path and offers a vision of the idyllic world of the American West. Cather idealizes the American frontier and depicts it as a perfect alternative to the corrupt world that we now live in. Cather also glorifies the values of independence, hard work, asceticism, as she contrasts it to the isolation and laziness of modern society. This novel is an excellent way of understanding what it would be like if we were not all accustomed to a developed and technologically advanced society. It takes you a few steps back in time, and demonstrates the importance of independence and self-reliability. It shows the developing of a young boy, searching and battling with growing up.
Rating:
Summary: My Antonia
Review: This was a book that was enjoyable and easy to read. The author did a great job in drawing me the reader into the book. It was the typical american novel of the migration from the east to west coast. It also included imigrant migration, and there struggles to make it in america. Over all a good book to read.
Rating:
Summary: Review of an American Classic
Review: My Antonia was a great American Literature classic as it portrayed the life and times of
the early western settlers in America. Throughout the book by Willa Cather the reader can see
what life was really like during this time period. She portrays a story of two people, Jim Burden
and Antonia Shimerda, meeting at a young age and making a bond that the story evolves around.
The story starts off with a recollection of this friendship which began at a young age and evolving
over time where Jim had eventually lost contact with Antonia. In the beginning we see Jim's
journey begin with the death of his parents and his travel from out East to live with his
grandparents in the West. Soon after his arrival they find that they will have new neighbors. The
neighbors are the Shimerda's, a family from Russia who come to America seeking the American
dream. What they find is that they are faced with a life that is very hard and certainly not what
they expected. This is where the reader starts to really see the new Western life and the struggles
that people had to cope with to survive. In a sense the Shimerda's were unprepared and lucky to
be neighbors with Jim and his grandparents, who were very caring and good people. Each
character in this story is significant in the fact that they all portray a unique feeling or outlook on
life as a settler. Upon the arrival of the Shimerda's, Jim soon finds himself infatuated with
Antonia who he looks up to and admires in every way. The Shimerda's come across as stubborn
and we see in Antonia as Jim begins to critique Antonia in all her actions and her words. The two
find themselves in a very close relationship and for awhile life is good. Later, Jim and his
grandparents move into the city leaving the farm life. Soon after this, Antonia comes into town
and gets a job taking care of a house fool of children. The setting and way of life is somewhat
different here than it was on the farm and through the eyes of Jim, we see how Antonia adjusts
and lives her new life. He really only wants the best for her, but she has chosen a path that Jim
does not seem to care for. He finds that they are drifting apart and he cannot follow her as he is
well educated and has his sights on college and a better life. Everyone looks at Jim and expects
him to go on and be successful. Antonia on the other hand is almost stuck in this way of life. She
finds that she doesn't feel that she is that compatible with Jim anymore. She does her own thing
and Jim is very upset, but he knows that it has to be this way. Soon Jim goes off and becomes
successful just as everyone had wished and Antonia basically doesn't do anything with life. Later
one day, Jim returns and see that Antonia had married and had children. Before this he still in a
way had deep sentimental feelings for her. It had been a life long crush.
Rating: 
Summary: A Classic Classic
Review: If all novels were written this well TV never would have gotten ahold of American society.This is one of the most romantic love stories I have ever read, and nary a kiss was had! Cather's beautiful flowing writing adds to the flowing beauty of the plains and her characters. As romantic as this novel is, it is not a chic book. It captures the times and people of a bygone era in wonderful and unrivalled prose.
Rating:
Summary: My Antonia
Review: At the age of ten, Jim Burden travels by cross-country train to live with his grandparents on the Nebraska frontier. Jim meets a girl named Antonia. Antonia and Jim instantly become friends, and they spend a lot of time together outdoors, with Jim teaching her English. This is the story of Jim's and Antonia's life. It kept me hooked until the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Willa Cather Fails Miserably with "My Antonia"
Review: Though it is regarded as a classic, Cather's "My Antonia" is not, by any means, an example of good literature. The problem lies in the plot--or lack thereof. The book, which focuses on the life of Jim Burden once he has moved to Nebraska from his home in Virginia, lacks an over-arching conflict or storyline. When I looked for an antagonist or protagonist, there weren't ones. When I looked for any kind of battle or struggle that, as it does in good novels, might have given the plot a highly needed injection of life, there wasn't one. In addition, the narrator (Jim) is not a very interesting character. He doesn't lead any kind of life that keeps the reader interested or wanting to know more. In addition to the lack of a storyline to keep the reader interested, "My Antonia" is not written excitedly. Each chapter in the novel simply drones and drones, either presenting events that rarely have any long term bearing, talking about characters that you never hear about again, or just providing random information and ramblings on tangential topics. (One such example: a piano player named Blind D'Arnault is discussed in detail in one chapter, and yet he never does anything for the plot and is never spoken of again!) When I read the book, I found that most of the words were not being absorbed because they added nothing. Talking non-stop about characters, events, places, or things that have no bearing on the book and do not interest the reader--well, it simply isn't good writing. Some have called this novel a love story--according to H.L. Mencken, "No romantic novel ever written in America ... is one half so beautiful as 'My Antonia'." But it isn't a love story, if only because there is no real romance. The characters of Jim and Antonia, while having an emotional connection, never act on it; the narrator doesn't even acknowledge it as a real attraction until well into the book (and past the limit of my patience). The only time I felt a pang of emotion for the book was during the very nostalgic ending--and I'm not even sure if it was caused by "My Antonia" or just the sappy music I was then playing. Essentially, "My Antonia" does not have literary merit. It lacks a conflict and a plot, a grave omission that completely loses the reader; it rambles on and on about completely unrelated things; and it doesn't even live up to its own aspiration of being a classic American love story. Not once did I want to pick up the book and continue reading; conversely, I was counting down the number of pages I had left, cheering when another grueling chapter was brought to a close.
Rating:
Summary: Slow and Steady
Review: For me, the book My Antonia was both interesting and boring at the same time. The story of an immigrant family, a boy who must live with his grandparents, and the hardships both families went through on the Nebraska prairie began very slowly. However, the incredible detail that Willa Cather puts into the book makes you feel like you are a part of the story.
Rating:
Summary: Kind of Interesting
Review: A word of caution before I begin...do not let the very "slow" start of this book stop you! "My Antonia" is in many ways a deceptively simple book. Narrated by a boy, Jim, it chronicles his experiences of life on the early American prairie, and his friendship with a fascinating Bohemian immigrant girl, Antonia Shimerda. It is one of those unique books that is not controlled by a plot-it is a collection of Jim's memories and thoughts of Antonia, from his earliest remembrances to his thoughts as an adult. Although I am not overly fond of Willa Cather's simple writing style-I much prefer Betty Smith in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," this quiet book is a beautiful story and quite stunning in its own way.
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