My Antonia

This classic is the third in a series by Willa Cather (1873-1947) set in the American west. Cather weaves her story in a sequence of incidents or sketches rather than in a traditional, continuous narrative. My Antonia is set in and around Black Hawk, Nebraska, and the neighboring prairie, some time between 1880 and 1910. The apocryphal town of Black Hawk, Nebraska, is founded on Red Cloud, Nebraska, where Cather grew to maturity. Considered Cather's masterpiece by many, her novel relates stories of an orphaned boy from Virginia, Jim Burden, and his close friendship with Antonia, the oldest girl in a family of immigrants from Bohemian. Both Jim and Antonia have come as children to Nebraska and their initial year in this environment affects them for a lifetime. Cather utilizes the pioneers who break the prairie soil as well as the fruitful, but harsh unforgiving land and climate, as powerful features to depict the deep emotion of the story. --