This novella was my introduction to Willa Cather, and I found it to be so much more than I thought it would be. The language was simple yet powerful, the descriptions were poetic yet clear, the theme strong and touching. The story itself was not one that I thought to find in a book written 100 years ago, and so surprised me. As far as pace goes, I was not bothered at all by the time jump that seemed to irritate many people.

I really loved how beautifully, painfully, precisely Willa Cather showed how the prairie changed from it's pioneer days to it's more modern days. I don't know if I've ever before read a coming-of-age story regarding land instead of a person, but that is just what this seemed to be. The theme was so achingly apparent to me that this has become my favorite of Willa Cather's so far. ( )

My least favorite Willa cather book. ( )

1074 O Pioneers! by Willa Cather (read 7 Sep 1970) This is like other Cather novels, and only obliquely is about pioneers. It is laid in Nebraska and tells of Alexandra Bergson, a Swedish-born farmer, her brother Emil, Bohemians, French, etc. It certainly was not what I expected. ( )

I picked this up at a used book sale with no idea who wrote it (me: under rock) or what it was about other than it was considered a "classic". I was expecting a pleasant story for young adults on the level of Little House of the Prairie but was delightfully surprised to find serious adult literature that is easy to read. Stylistically it is American Realism with an emphasis on what it was like as a pioneer in Nebraska - this was the "boring part" at the beginning many people didn't like but I loved for the many small details of period farm life. Cather said of its realism: "I decided not to 'write' at all, - simply to give myself up to the pleasure of recapturing in memory people and places I'd forgotten". And at first this is what it feels like, a novel as an excuse to reminisce about what it used to be like in the "old days" (say, 20 or 40 years prior). Cather's positive ecological message is also refreshing in a book this old and as important as ever. The books drab humorless tone - practical to a fault - artistically conveys the Norwegian pioneer world, but I hope not all her books are about Norwegians. ( )

Willa Cather gives us a memorable set of archetypal characters who revolve around Mother Earth, Alexandra Bergson. Much of what happens tastes fairly bitterly of fate, and the characters are pushed into situations which force them to act at cross-purposes with happiness.

What lasts is the hard-won triumph of the titular characters, the visionary and inexhaustible Alexandra most of all. ( )