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Greetings! It has been a while since I have updated my blog because I have been really busy building my dream and making it happen. That and my day job have been consuming the lionshare of my time; however, I have been reading some (although the second half of last year I did not read nearly as much as I am usually accustomed to; nor had I been kayaking and kayak fishing nearly as much as I usually do). This year however, I am in a better position to return to reading and hopefully when the weather breaks, return to regularly kayaking and kayak fishing and hiking and shooting nature photos and, of course, updating my blog here more regularly. I just finished reading the classic book "My Antonia" by Willa Cather. I read the 1995 Book of the Month Club publication of it (shown). The original was published in 1918. The setting is in Nebraska at that time and going back approximately 35-40 years or so back from that. I'm not doing the precise math because it doesn't really matter, you get the idea. It was a time in Nebraska where (at the start of the book) there were new settlers there including several immigrants as well as those from the eastern US who headed out that way to tickle the earth and make a living. It was not an easy way to make a living, especially for the immigrants who the book portrays as being subject to being taken advantage of by money lenders and also the discrimination against them in terms of marriage. The central immigrants surrounding Antonia's family were from Bohemia and they were Bohemians. I had to look that up and found that that was in the Czech Republic. When I thought about, and I suspect when many think about, a bohemian person, is they are a music, creativity type of person (from anywhere) who likes the arts, dresses in earthy clothes etc. Maybe you knew that, the roots of that were in the Czech republic. Bravo for you if you did. I enjoyed being enlightened about that from the reading of this book and having to actually look it up. Now I really want to go to Prague (which is mentioned in the book). I have an austrian pen pal and will certainly be asking her if she knows where Bohemia is. Books from this period from my experience can be somewhat low key or boring. Hey, that is kind of to be expected right? It was a quieter, less populous, and simpler time. However, that was not the case with this book. It certainly was not boring. I thought the characters were drawn up really good and put into the story of Antonia growing up and the narrator a boy then man from New Jersey who moved out there to be with his grandparents on a neighboring farm. Especially the depictions of the other immigrant girls and their variety of ways and ways of dressing and how they were perceived and treated in the rural community outside of (and then in, Black Hawk, Nebraska) were done exceptionally well. And, moreover, there were some quite shocking and action scenes. I'm not really one for trigger warnings, but there is suicide mentioned in the book as part of one of those dramatic scenes. These scenes and the character development really made the book for me. It was great. The book is also really short, a quick read. I read it over the course of 4 sittings of reading; a fast reader could polish off this book in maybe 2. The one criticism I have of the book is it is written by a lady and the main character is a guy. The identity of that main character was not revealed until some way into the book; and up until that point, given the way the character talked about the scenery and feelings and impressions etc gave off the vibe that the main character was a female. I wonder if anyone else reading the book had that thought too. I do not read blurbs about books or read introductions to them before they read them, so going in I am often blind as to what even the story is about other than the title and what the cover looks like. I do that intentionally so I am not influenced in my reading and thoughts on it by the thoughts of others. So I wonder if others as they read the opening thought the same. I know in literature there is always some thought of whether a man can write a woman's part good and vice versa. The writing was excellent over all and I loved the book. Part of the reason why I sailed through it in 4 sittings of reading. This is not a criticism but perhaps is just me missing something. At one point in the book regarding the marriage of Antonia and her bohemian husband, Willa wrote: "she was the impulse and he the corrective." However, then when it went onward in the story, she was the one that wanted them to fight through the hard times and stick to the plan of the farm and keep at the farming in Nebraska and not leaving like he wanted to. He was the one who would go out drinking and dancing with other women and then come back to the farm to her not saying a word about it and letting him enjoy that aspect of life. So as I went on reading and thought back to that quote I wrote, I thought did she get it wrong? an editing error? that should have read "He was the impulse and she the corrective"? If you don't read the book, you will not know why I am saying this, but today, under the law in many states to be considered the surviving spouse you would have to outlive the person by maybe 120 hours or 5 days. That will vary by state. The time which occurred in this book was certainly not within that time frame. hahaha. . . I also liked what I thought to be a certain amount of symbolism in the scene where she would look out her window and see the setting sun big in the sky with the pough big in front of it as a sillhouette. . kinda signifying the end of that era and the bringing on of the more modern farming equipment. At least I think that is what the idea was there. The immigrant idea makes this book pertinent today. It will continue to be a timeless classic. If you want to take an adventure to Nebraska corn country, I would certainly recommend this one. I am considering putting this one in my favorites of all time. There really is nothing I didn't like about the book, it was a very very enjoyable read. I am just going to wait until I work my way through more classics this year to decide. Regardless, I very highly recommend you read it if the above piqued your interest. It is the end of February and I am ready for spring so I will leave you with this quote from the book which I thought, "damn right!": |
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