This was the only one of the 100 books I had brought with me to school this semester so I really had no other options when one Saturday morning I decided to check a book off the list. Here are my thoughts.
GENERAL IMPRESSIONS: Typically when a book takes place in Black Hawk, Nebraska, I won’t pick it up. Call it close-minded prejudice or husker-hatred or whatever you want. Black Hawk, Nebraska just sounds boring. This was always my impression of My Ántonia. And you know what? My impression was right. It is kind of boring. That said, I really enjoyed it. It was the kind of boring that happens in Laura Ingalls Wilder or Louisa May Alcott books. Very nineteenth century “here’s-everything-that-happened-during-my-entire-boring-day” narrative but with a twentieth century theme of nostalgia, a wonderful hint of religious apathy and just a pinch of early feminism. Plus once in awhile there’d be a just perfect sentence. Not like super beautiful literary techniques or anything an English major would appreciate but a great sentence that just ended a chapter so well that I wanted to put the book down and think about it for a minute or two before continuing. The general condemnation of eastern European immigrants was vaguely uncomfortable but the rest of the book felt contemporary and accessible. As my roommate said- “Nostalgia done well!”
SPOILER ALERTS: I typically love really happy sappy romantic endings but the fact that this book didn’t have one made it all the better.
MUSINGS: Is it wrong that my favorite character was a slutty dressmaker?
GRADE SHEET:
Narrator’s Likability: B+
Pace: C+
Readability: A
Satisfying Ending: B
Attention to Detail: A+++
Facts about extreme cold: C- (not once did she mention your breath might freeze!)
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