Of course, I have never picked up My Ántonia for several reasons. First, the title alone turns me off. Without knowing anything about its place in history or much about Willa Cather, I just never picked up the book and read the summary. Secondly, it has never been thrown in my face, so to speak. If it was part of the High School Curriculum, I don't remember. I do remember the name Willa Cather. Finally, I assumed it was a mans name and the same as my previous husband, so I just didn't have interest.
In any event, there I am in the store, looking for a book to read. I like to shop Goodwill for books, by the way. I see a plain copy of My Ántonia and pick it up. When I say plain, I mean beige with a darker beige ink and a black and white photo on the front of whom I assume is WC. So, I read the back cover and surprising the description intrigues me. I think mostly because I have been doing my genealogy and finding more about the early pioneers of the Midwest interesting. Also, there has been a new commercial on TV for Levis, I think, and the voice-over is reciting O Pioneers!...So, that's how I came to read My My Ántonia.
I jumped right in without Goggling anything about the novel or its author. The introduction had me thinking - Well no wonder! -- she goes right on into how she can't stand the wife of a friend. You see, I had assumed the intro was by Willa and not that if the "storyteller" who is not the actual author who is Willa who is writing as the voice of the ..... well you get my point now, don't you.
Then, I read the first chapter of Book One The Shimerdas and I figure out that the POV is the friend with the wife that the storyteller dislikes who is not Willa writing as herself. Now, I am set straight and enjoying the story. But by the third chapter, I start to wish I was reading the story aloud to my children.
I've put the book now for now. I need to do my research so that I can know what I reading.
Willa In A Nutshell
Born 1873 in Virginia, moved to Nebraska when she was 9. After graduating from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in 1895, she moved to Pittsburgh to begin a career in journalism and after 5 years she turned to teaching. While teaching, she wrote and didn't exactly wow every one. Then in 1918, she hit the big time, with My Ántonia, which is about living in Nebraska. For the next 19 years she wrote a bunch of stuff and even won awards for her writing. She died in 1947.
Need to know more? Try Sparknotes.
My Ántonia In A Nutshell
A fictionalization of Willa's youth in Nebraska -- vividly describes the prairie and life of Jim as he grows up and moves to the big city. It's a classical piece of work, albeit a modernist novel, because during that time period, people were still reconciling the advancing industrialization of the modern world with their own world view.
How It Changes My World In A Nutshell
I suppose it gives a real face to the body of life I have created for my own ancestors in my head. Some pioneered their way to Indian, then Iowa and Missouri. Even my grandparents had the experience of moving from the Rural to the Urban. Ántonia's family are immigrants and that pertains int the same manner.
Finally, who can't resist a love story?
