My Antonia

After a slow start, I've finally started tearing through My Antonia. I realize this book will be over soon! I'm about halfway through the ~250 page novel and I'm really enjoying the change of pace from Middlemarch.

My Antonia is basically the memories of a boy, Jim Burden, as he grows up in the farm lands with his neighbor Antonia Shimerda. The Shimerdas are Bohemians who've recently come to America to start their own farm. The father has a difficult time adjusting to his new life in America and, during his first winter in America, shoots himself in the Burden's barn. From there, Antonia's older brother assumes the role of patriarch in her family. He uses Antonia as a farm hand while Jim, a few years younger, goes to school.

Right now, Jim's going to school in the town and Antonia is working as a helper to his neighbors, the Harlings. Antonia just exudes a good vibe in the novel and I don't quite know how Cather is able to do that since we really don't know much about her. She's passionate and childlike despite her hard life. She loves her family and the Burdens and isn't frivolous. Look at that. I guess that's how Cather got us to love Antonia.

The farmland, middle America setting is interesting as well. I've never really read many books that take place in this part of the world. I'm enjoying it. There's a sense of camaraderie and neighborliness in this book that's not stifled and overly polite like it is in Middlemarch. Everything about My Antonia feels so vast even though it focuses on so narrow a subset of people.