Review of My Antonia

"My Antonia" by Willa Cather was a very well written book, in my opinion. I enjoyed it for several reasons. One of the first reasons was because of the characters. My favorite character in this book was Antonia Shimerda. I liked her a lot because of her characteristics. Antonia is a very independent, optimistic, hard working, adventurous woman and I think she is very admirable for that. I also liked that she was from Bohemia and I found the immigration parts of the book to be very interesting. My favorite part of the book about her was probably the way she handled herself when her fiance, Larry Donovan left her pregnant with his child. She was so strong in this situation and I loved that she kept the baby and loved it all the same. She was shameless even though she had a reason to simply give it up. "She loved it from the first as dearly as if she'd had a ring on her finger, and was never ashamed of it. It's a year and eight months old now, and no baby was ever better cared-for" (Cather, 190). Another character I enjoyed reading about was Jim Burden. I thought he was a likable character and I was pleased with the story being told from his point of view and seeing his thoughts. His relationship with Antonia was probably what I enjoyed the most. Their friendship was so honest and real that you could not help, but love it. It was encouraging to see that no about of distance between Jim and Antonia could shake their life-long friendship and sincere love for each other. This book reminded me a lot about "The Little House on the Prairie" series. These were some of my favorite books while growing up and it was nice reading something with a similar theme. The only thing I did not enjoy about this book was probably the length, which is not a big deal. It was very detailed and wordy, but I guess without it, it would not be the same book. "My Antonia" was definitely my favorite of the four books I read.

Cather, Willa. My Antonia. New York: Barns & Noble, 2003. Print.