When you think of fiction and prairies, you probably think of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House books...homely accounts of a pioneer’s everyday life. After you read My Antonia, the picture that comes to mind may change.

This novel by Willa Cather is a snapshot of a boy’s growing up in the Nebraska prairie of 1880. How is this much different from Laura Ingalls? The perspective, my friend, it’s all in perspective. Jim, the protagonist, tells this story from a first person angle, which gives it a warm, reflective feel. The style is simple, though not necessarily easy, with a narrative approach to tie together all the stories and anecdotes. The events that fill the book may seem at first blush the typical prairie events...but look again. The tale is focused around a Bohemian girl who changes from isolated to popular to disgraced to unknown, and the people around her, all of whom are affected by her passionate nature. Jim draws you into his world of joys and problems and struggles, and Antonia is a part of them all.

The story is appealing, taking what must have been commonplace activities for the pioneers and turning them into amusing accounts. I can’t deny that the pace is rather slow, making it more of a book for those who enjoy stories as fragrant and lazy as a warm summer afternoon, than those who like point-blank action. Also, the strung-together anecdotes may have you wondering what point the author is trying to prove.

However, character depiction is a strong point in My Antonia, and makes up for the somewhat haphazard story line. Antonia’s family, especially her brother Ambrosch and mother Mrs. Shimerda, are vividly foreign, with prejudices and vices that make them distinctly likeable or unlikable, depending on your viewpoint. Jim’s grandmother and grandfather give a good example of a couple that complements each other, or rather evens each other out, since the grandfather is a bit stern, withdrawn, but noble, and the grandmother is motherly, opinionated, but kind. Jim himself is hard to sketch, since the first person angle prevents much objective discussion about the narrator; but by the end of the book we have a better idea of his character than we do of most first person narratives.

When I finished the last page of My Antonia, I found myself reflecting on what the ultimate message of the book was, the reason Cather wrote it. I knew it had to be more than just getting fondly-remembered events from the prairie off her chest. Or was it? Was she trying to show us how a young foreign woman could affect the lives of so many around her? Was she trying to give us a coming-of-age story that ends with retrospection on the past? Or was she simply depicting life in the wild fields of Nebraska? This question is one that readers must decide for themselves.


Recommended: Yes