My Ántonia

Name: My Ántonia
Author: Willa Cather

Willa Cather · 1918

A Bohemian immigrant girl on the Nebraska prairie, seen through the eyes of a man who loved her without possessing her. Cather's 1918 prose is luminous and spare; its sense of place is unmatched in American literature. A feminist text before the term existed, told by a male narrator who can only see the edges of what he is missing.

The case against

on the plot
“it has no plot”
four stars · a book blog
on Ántonia’s character
“of all the characters Antonia interested me the least”
a book blog
on the pacing
“It simply drifts along, first I did this, then I did that.”
a book blog
on the middle
“softens, loosens and loses a bit of steam as it moves past its city-life middle”
a Substack review