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Book & Review Forums: My Antonia

My Antonia - just starting

I've only read two installments but my does it ever leave you hanging! It's like the old seriels that used to be prevalent.
It's probably a good thing that the installment is short because I don't have the time for more. It's teaching me something ... that a perfectly acceptable way of reading a book is in many short installments.
I can feel that train ride, the heat the dryness. I can feel that lawyer friend, the depth in him when he recalls Antonia. I can feel Antonia coming and am looking forward to knowing her. I love the way he says he can only tell the story from his experience, or from recalling his response to her and the author's answer that that is the best way to tell the story.
This going to be a good read, only one short installment at a time.

Reply

hsmall

Posted by hsmall
Mar 16, 2007 1:11 pm

Replies (3)

Posted by

  • the trip across the country ... her descriptions put me right there in the train, getting off the train onto a wooden platform totally dark with only lanterns to break the darkness, the ride in a wagon on top of straw that got pressed down real soon so that his ride became bumpy. I feel grateful to Willa Cather for those descriptions because it is a world totally different from today, yet it feels familiar because of her.
    We've seen Antonia and the rest of her immigrant family on the train and again in the wagon ahead of their's. The whole experience is so utterly different from his (Jim's) experience that there's no room for fear. He can't believe his parents are watching him from the "dome of heaven" sky, he thinks he just left them off back where he used to live.
    He's had to grow up real soon.

    hsmallMar 17, 2007 10:32 am
    by hsmall

  • What can I say? It just keeps getting better and better! : )

    spectrekittyMar 18, 2007 8:15 am
    by spectrekitty

  • One of my favorite books is "Death Comes to the Archbishop", also by Willa Cather, but set in a very different time and place. What I love about her writing is that she can give us a window into the lives of her characters like no one else can. I look forward to becoming intimately familiar with these characters and with the land as well.

    cb

    cbutlerJun 7, 2007 3:17 am
    by cbutler

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