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3 1/2 stars

I remember reading this in school and being very impressed by it. I’m sure it was the very lyrical prose that captured me. Nobody could make rural Nebraska sound so absolutely beautiful and appealing than Willa Cather.

As for now, I’m still impressed with the book’s first part—the early childhood of Jim and Antonia on the farm and their childhood/teenage years in the town. Set in late 19th and early 20th century, it is a marvel of description of pioneering farming and immigrant experience in what was essentially still the western United States. Even though it is a fairly short novel I think Cather made it too long. Its impact trickles away and is more or less turned into a wistful happy soap opera towards the end.