My Antonia ★★★★☆

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Title: My Antonia
Series: ----------
Author: Willa Cather
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 272
Format: Paperback

Synopsis:

Young Jim is orphaned and sent to live with his Grandparents in Nebraska, or one of those big flat states. He meets the Shimerda family, the eldest daughter's name being Antonia.

Jim grows up with Antonia being just a part of his life and the book ends with him returning 20 years later to meet her family and kids and grandkids.

My Thoughts:

This was a great book of growing up but without all the drama that we expect from young people nowadays. Not that there wasn't drama, but it wasn't the focus.

This was small vignettes of Jim growing up. Jim meeting his grandparents and Antonia. Jim's first big snowstorm. Going into town. Playing on the praire. Going to school. Summer vacation. Mr Shimerda committing suicide.Moving from a farm to town. Growing up but as seen through Jim's eyes as Antonia grows up. Then things begin to speed up as Jim grows older. His college years consist of only 2-3 stories, then bam, 20 years later and going back to his little town and meeting Antonia and her little clan.

Part of what I liked was that there was no romantic drama between Jim and Antonia. He gets jealous a couple of times and she warns off some of her older friends from pursuing Jim, but in both cases it is for the good of the other person, not because they wanted the other. It was a calming influence even when tempestuous occurences happened.

I'm sure this would make a great book to discuss in a book club, as there is a lot of material to make hay with. Even back in highschool, I probably would have enjoyed this quiet book and been glad to write a book report about it. Now though, I simply enjoyed it. Jim at the end of the book is just a little bit older than me now and I was realizing it has been 21 years since I first attended Bibleschool. Jim's life didn't turn out how he planned and neither did mine. Jim was never more than friends with Antonia and I was never more than a friend to a little redheaded girl. And yet we're both solidly content. I like that, I like that a lot in fact.

I would recommend this book if you're looking to see what the American West was like after the cowboys from Louis L'Amour passed on through. I thoroughly enjoyed my read of this.

★★★★☆