There may be spoilers below, so beware (and read the book!)
My Ántonia (published in 1918) is the third novel by Willa Cather that I've read, the others being Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) and O Pioneers! (1913). The former is my favorite book of all time and the latter is one of my favorites, so I had high expectations for this book. Additionally Àntonia is often considered her first and perhaps greatest masterpiece. All this made me more excited for this book than any I had been for in a while. Unfortunately, while I thoroughly enjoyed it, I don't think it beats the other two books in the level of enjoyment I got from reading them.
Much like O Pioneers!, My Ántonia follows an immigrant family (here the family is Bohemian) as they try to adapt to the harsh conditions of pioneer life in the late 1800s. Both take place in Nebraska and both focus on strong women.
I thought Ántonia a very likeable, uniquely written character. As expected, she was one of the most interesting characters in the book. She is a strong woman who's early experiences working on the farms as a young girl fated her to a life of trials and labor, though she maintains her great beauty in spite of it.
The narrator, Jim, at times seems in love at other times in awe of Ántonia. That he loves her is not questioned, but his love never seems to breach the romantic; it is a love purely a love built from fascination and respect. Jim has a great amount of respect for Ántonia, even as he disapproves of mistakes she makes throughout the book.
Though the book is titled after her, and she can be thought of as the central character tying everyone else together, there are a lot of characters which left impressions on me at times greater than Ántonia. For example, the early characters of Jake and Otto, two farmhands who kind of act as older brothers to Jim, were memorably kind and thoughtful people. The early chapters, where Jim spends Christmas with them, made me smile and feel strongly at peace.
In my opinion, this is Willa Cather's greatest strength: through her writing, she is able to convey a humanity and love for others that is felt strongly, endowing the reader with a sense of peace and optimism. Essentially, she helps the reader regain a faith in humanity. All this while never shying from the hard facts and tragedies of life.
Something I noticed when comparing this book to Cather's other works is the lower amount of emotion the characters feel throughout. Not to say they don't react to things, nor to say that great loves don't occur, but it seemed like Cather was playing a bit safe at times.
Early on, the suicide of Ántonia's father made me think the book would keep a steady stream of tragedy and heightened drama, but the book for the most part is drama free. I started to think that Jim was asexual or something, because in spite of "loving" the Bohemian girls, he never once tries to date or marry them. The only other dramatic moments I can think of was when Jim got caught leaving the house late at night or when Mr. Cutter attacked him or maybe when Ántonia's first love left her (which barely had a chapter dedicated to it).
Much of these moments were replaced by the characters existing together in peace and loving understanding. I do appreciate this, as Cather is trying to romanticize the pioneers life while still putting it firmly in the realm of normalcy, but it created in me a false sense of hope that something crazy might happen. When Jim leaves Ántonia at the end of the book, Cather didn't even describe a long goodbye. Instead, Ántonia simply waved from the gate while Jim's carriage belted on. It was somewhat disappointing.
Every Cather book consistently excels at one thing: poetically and romantically describing the natural elements of the setting. Nebraska's lonely plains and ardent prairies are lovingly conveyed by someone who undoubtedly spent many moons wandering the tall red grass and understood the importance of the sunflowers to the earth.
Perhaps because the story wasn't as good as the others, I felt Cather's writing of the nature of Nebraska was far better than O Pioneers!, possibly in part because this book has more pages to muse on the butterflies and the birds and the prairie dogs than O Pioneers!.
Unlike O Pioneers!, which had a stronger female lead, and unlike Death Comes for the Archbishop, which had far more drama, My Ántonia felt like a calmer diversion from Cather. Instead of the tragic fates of two lovers or the destitution of the wild west, Cather explores the incommunicable past between people with shared histories. She asks what part our early chapters play in the forging of our destinies. And she shows us how our character gets illuminated by hardship and the passage of time.
I greatly enjoyed this book, even if it was slightly weaker than its sisters. Thank you Willa Cather for your wonderful books full of love and humanity, and until next time, my Ántonia.