Obscure Destinies

A refreshing and very enjoyable change of pace. Three stories, two of which are novellas and one a longer short story. Great characters and a look at life a century ago in the midwest. The first one was my favorite, "Neighbour Rosicky", a rather sentimental look at the life and end of life of a Czech immigrant and his family. "Old Mrs. Harris" gave me a window on a family life I was not familiar with. It was a very good story with several well developed characters. "Two Friends" whispers from the distant past that politics does wonders for friendship. Not.

All three stories were good.

Neighbour Rosicky
Old Mrs. Harris
Two Friends

I actually quite liked these three long vignettes.  No plot to speak of, more like character studies.  I esp. liked getting to know Grandma Harris, who is the same age as the young twin boys, because the years between them were... full of trouble and unimportant;" these three people "have in common all the realest and truest things."  I also like her insight that the twins' older sister has "'got her head full of things lately; that makes people kind of heartless, "'and twins, who "resolved they would never put anything into their heads, then!""

Like everything Willa Cather wrote, this book is awesome. Well, I don't know awesomeness is true of all her books. I've only read all of her novels and several collections of her short stories. This particular volume contains one novelette, one short novella and a short story. They all involve interactions between ordinary people in the face of a crisis of some kind and how those interactions change people's perceptions and destinies.

1. Neighbour Rosicky (1928) — novelette

Story about an old Bohemian farmer. He's having some shortness of breath. The doctor says it's his heart and that Rosicky shouldn't do anymore heavy work. Rosicky started life in Bohemia (Czech). He spent two years in London in abject poverty learning to be a show more tailor. Then he worked in New York as a tailor and did well enough. But he missed the land and wanted to get away from the city. So, he moved to the mid West, took up farming, and formed a family in middle years. He did well enough. Five strong sons and a loving wife. A lot of this comes by way or reminiscing or telling stories around the table. Rosicky worries about his oldest son, Rudolph, who has married an American girl, Polly. But he has a heart attack at Polly's house and she immediately tends to him. He learns that Polly has a good heart and all will be well. Something like that. A lovely, if somewhat sentimental story.

2. Old Mrs. Harris (1931) — short novella

Old Mrs. Harris was a Southern lady, transported to the west by her daughter and son-in-law. The way she was brought up, the young people were to enjoy their youth and the old folks would run the household in the background. That's what she did. Her daughter, Victoria, was rather proud and tried to keep up appearances despite her husband's sketchy financial situation. That was fine by Old Mr. Harris, but the neighbors felt that Victoria was taking unfair advantage of her mother. Then, granddaughter, Vicki needed a bit of extra cash so she could go to college. Old Mrs. Harris had to come up with a solution that would also save Victoria's pride.


3. Two Friends (1931) — short story

Essentially, the two rich guys in a small western town—one ran a store and bank, the other had various cattle holdings—used to sit amicably together in the evenings and chat about this and that. The writer, a young boy observing them, used to love to sit off a ways and listen. Then one day, the two good friends had a falling out over the William Jennings Bryan/William McKinley match up and never talked again. show less