My Antonia

My Antonia This remarkable piece of literature by Willa Cather is layered with its sense of place, connections between people and between people and places as well as visual, and surprisingly simple, descriptions of prairie life and events. The characters and the story are far more complex that at first appear. Even the simplistic tone of the narrative voice is deceptive in terms of the depth of feeling it ultimately reveals. Cather is the sort …

…youth and age, heart and head, actor and spectator, success and failure. However, the final and most enduring characteristic of the novel is the simple fact that it is a wonderful story of a strong woman who perseveres and manages to build a great life out of a bad situation. It is a story of heart and courage that is able to transcend the eighty years between the tine it was written and the present.