My Antonia (Penguin Drop Caps) Hardcover – Illustrated, December 12, 2012

This book carries me along through a time and place, allowing me to feel it, as if a good friend were telling me a story. This is the third time I have read this book. I am sure I will read it again.

"My Antonia" is part of my [reading required list from High School] which comprises 48 books in total. It’s the first book of the list I read officially, starting the countdown. This novel is the last of the Great Plains Trilogy."My Antonia" is a beautiful novel celebrating the gift of everlasting friendship. The main character, Jim Burden, shares his childhood upbringing with his grandparents in Nebraska, at the beginning of the 20th Century. There he meets, the Shimerdas, a Bohemian immigrant family. Jim became best friends with their daughter, Antonia.Jim’s account is special because we witness his genuine and compassionate approach to the European immigrants and his attachment to the land. Through the description of his surroundings, we witness how Jim identifies wholeheartedly to the country lifestyle. How much it contributes to his well being:"I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep."Cather, Willa (2012-03-12). My Ántonia (Dover Thrift Editions) (p. 12). Dover Publications. Kindle Edition.One of my favorite description of the land marked a definite moment when he encounters Antonia and her family, later on in life, thus embellishing this experience. For an instant, it reminded me of the famous scene of Gone with the Wind where Scarlett stand on top of the mountain and promised to never go hungry in her life."For five, perhaps ten minutes, the two luminaries confronted each other across the level land, resting on opposite edges of the world. In that singular light every little tree and shock of wheat, every sunflower stalk and clump of snow-on-the-mountain, drew itself up high and pointed; the very clods and furrows in the fields seemed to stand up sharply. I felt the old pull of the earth, the solemn magic that comes out of those fields at nightfall. I wished I could be a little boy again, and that my way could end there."Cather, Willa (2012-03-12). My Ántonia (Dover Thrift Editions) (p. 152). Dover Publications. Kindle Edition.Apart from this friendship admiration, Jim describes the prejudices of the community towards the European immigrants. The well known, established American families were repulsive in letting their son marry one of these girls. They were stained with bad reputation and were called “Hired Girls”."What did it matter? All foreigners were ignorant people who could n’t speak English. There was not a man in Black Hawk who had the intelligence or cultivation, much less the personal distinction, of Ántonia’s father. Yet people saw no difference between her and the three Marys; they were all Bohemians, all “hired girls.”"Cather, Willa (2012-03-12). My Ántonia (Dover Thrift Editions) (p. 98). Dover Publications. Kindle Edition.I think this was one of the major impediment on Jim and Antonia relationship. Thus contributing to never surpass the status of friendship. We feel Jim’s nostalgia, all along, for what could’ve been. One feels Jim’s regret, sadness and loneliness. Thus, accepting his fate by holding on to their everlasting friendship."I’d have liked to have you for a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister — anything that a woman can be to a man. The idea of you is a part of my mind; you influence my likes and dislikes, all my tastes, hundreds of times when I don’t realize it. You really are a part of me.”"Cather, Willa (2012-03-12). My Ántonia (Dover Thrift Editions) (p. 152). Dover Publications. Kindle Edition.Having read this novel, I must admit that I may not have appreciated its beauty back in High School. I think I would have found it boring and slow paced. Now that I am more patient and open-minded, I was able to enjoy the storyline and the beautiful narration of the prairie lifestyle. It’s weird to say this but I am glad I read it at this moment and not before. I listened to the audio companion narrated by Jeff Cummings. I was not impressed. It was ok.[Message of the novel:]"Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again."Cather, Willa (2012-03-12). My Ántonia (Dover Thrift Editions) (p. 155). Dover Publications. Kindle Edition.Great Plains Trilogy:1. "Oh Pioneers!"2. "The Song of the Lark"3. "My Antonia"

Willa Cather’s novel My Ántonia was originally published in 1918. It is the final novel in her Prairie Trilogy, following O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark. Since the three books don’t share any common characters or setting, the designation of trilogy is questionable, so don’t feel like you have to read either of those preceding volumes in order to enjoy this book.My Ántonia is set in and around the fictional town of Black Hawk, Nebraska. The story is narrated by Jim Burden, an attorney, who recalls memories of his boyhood, in particular his friendship with a girl named Ántonia Shimerda. Jim loses his parents at the age of ten, and moves from Virginia to Nebraska to live on his grandparents’ farm. On the train out West he encounters the Shimerda family, just arrived from Bohemia, who turn out to be his new neighbors. The Shimerdas are a proud and hardworking family, but they don’t take readily to farming the prairie, and they eke out a poor existence form their land. The Burdens befriend the Bohemian family and offer them as much help as they can, but the two families don’t always see eye to eye.Jim and his grandparents eventually move into the town of Black Hawk. Ántonia is not far behind, for like many immigrant farm girls, she takes a job in town as a household servant and once again becomes Jim’s neighbor. Because the immigrant families don’t speak the language as well as the native-born residents of Black Hawk, they are treated as second-class citizens. No “American” boy would ever consider marrying one of these Norwegian or Bohemian hired girls, yet that doesn’t lessen their attraction. Having been raised in the country, Ántonia and her foreign friends are more free-spirited than their city-bred counterparts, with no inhibitions about socializing or dancing with men. Thus these girls are branded as bad girls by the gossips of the town, whether they deserve such a reputation or not.In plain-spoken but poetic prose, Cather brilliantly depicts both the pleasures and pains of growing up in small-town middle America. Jim’s recollection of youth includes many nostalgic joys, but it’s not all sunshine and roses. When Cather shows the negative aspects of Black Hawk—its insularity, its conventionality, its narrow-mindedness—she does so in a matter-of-fact way that’s free of condescension or cynicism. The relationship between Jim and Ántonia is fascinating to watch as it progresses, but the supporting cast is equally well-drawn and engaging. Even when Cather goes off on a tangent to examine some of these minor characters, the result is fascinating. The story of Peter and Pavel is a tour de force, and ought to be excerpted and inserted into every high school literature textbook. The book’s final act is a little weak and unimpressive compared to all that came before, yet overall My Ántonia is a masterpiece of American naturalist literature. Cather finds real epic drama in the everyday lives of ordinary people as they try to make a life for themselves in this isolated hamlet on the Great Plains. If you grew up in a small town or rural area, My Ántonia will make you consider your own life and times, and how the people and places you knew in your childhood shaped the person you are today.My Ántonia is generally considered Cather’s greatest work, though I think it’s a toss-up between this and O Pioneers! The first and third books in the Prairie Trilogy are both excellent, while the middle volume, The Song of the Lark, is clearly the weak link in the chain and a poor fit with the other two in terms of style and subject matter. For any fan of classic literature looking for that Great American Novel, My Ántonia is a must-read.

Il libro è arrivato con qualche minima imperfezione in copertina. Questo libro racconta di un America ancora rurale e poco sviluppata, dal punto di vista di immigrati. Il protagonista, Jim Burden entrerà in contatto con una famiglia di boemi, la cui figlia maggior, Antonia giocherà un ruolo essenziale nella sua vita. Questo romanzo fu pubblicato nel 1918 come parte della "Praire Trilogy" che includeva "O, Pioneers" e "The song of the Lark" e si basa, in parte, su delle reminiscenze della stessa autrice. Consigliato!

My Ántonia by Willa Cather had me longing for the innocence of childhood— the happy nonchalance towards harsh circumstances that can only be the preserve of children and the naiveté of their conviction in the wonders of the future. Cather begins her masterpiece with a train journey during which two friends who chance upon each other converse about their mutual friend, Ántonia Shimerda, whom they both remember fondly. One of them entreats the other, a man named Jim Burden, to write about her and what follows is the story of this Bohemian girl and her immigrant family living in Nebraska, America.There’s not much I’d like to say about the plot but I do want to share what made me adore this beloved classic. The book takes a close look at the hardships faced by immigrant families in foreign lands. The problems of not knowing the native language, the constant sense of being ill-at-ease because of ‘looking different’ from the ‘original inhabitants,’ the urgency of adapting to harsh climatic conditions, sustaining on limited means, and above all an acute awareness of the wealth of your neighbours. Cather foregrounds these challenges with much eloquence and pathos.While reading the book, I was mesmerised by the friendship between Jim and Antonia. They were friends as children and the sweetness of their relationship remained invulnerable to time and distance. The fact that they loved each other was made more beautiful because that feeling wasn’t bound by a need for marriage. They continued to acknowledge what the other meant to them in front of their respective families even when they grew up. It’s rare to see such a relationship in books, let alone classics, and it warmed my heart to witness the splendour of friendship between a man and a woman without the underlying subtext of an obligation of matrimony.I think I picked up this book at the best possible time with its overarching theme of nostalgia for bygone times echoing our present-day yearning for a life that wouldn’t be so complicated and claustrophobic. My Ántonia’s wistful gaze at rustic lives, the glowing, sun-kissed prairies, the majestic farms, the canopy of trees, and the coexistence of humans and animals was a humbling reminder of there being a whole world that exists outside of us which desperately needs our attention.

No es tapa blanda, pero sí flexible. Es muy cómodo para leer y queda bien en la estantería.Hay que tener un nivel alto de inglés para adentrarse en la historia, pero es un libro que vale la pena leer.

Good product. Can be preserved for life.

I could have written love of the land. The harsh reality and huge rewards of farm life. A stirring tale of love and the land.