Coming back to read this book for a second time reminded me that when I first read Willa Cather – many years ago – she took me to a time and place I had known nothing about and she made me realise that there were more sides to classic writing than I had realised.
Before I read her books the only American woman author I knew was Louisa May Alcott ….
Enthused by my new discovery I read every single book I could find in a short space of time, not really stopping to think about the arc of her storytelling life or how one book related to another.
Now that I have come back to her work, reading all of her books in chronological order and thinking about them a little more along the way, I can say that though she hadn’t reached the peak of her powers when she wrote this, her second book, it is a wonderful work and a very fine demonstration of what she could do.
Her writing is sparse and yet it says so much so clearly. It speaks profoundly of the consequences of travelling to a new life in America, of the harsh realities of pioneer life, and of particular lives lived.
Alexandra Bergson travelled from Sweden to Nebraska as a child with her parents and siblings. Her father knew little about farming, he was ill-equipped for the new life he had chosen, but was intelligent, he saw so many possibilities, and he was prepared to work hard to make a better future for his family.
Lou and Oscar, his first two sons, had no interest in farm work and could see no potential in the land. Alexandra could, she saw the same things, she had the same love for the land as her father. He appreciated that, and when he died he left her a controlling interest in the family estate. Her brother were appalled when she invested in more and more land as other farmers gave it up to return to the city or to safer, more fertile country.
She had faith in its future.
Her faith was justified.
Twenty years later Alexandra was the mistress of a prosperous and unencumbered empire, and head of her own household. She loved being part of the pioneer community and that community had loved and respected her; she appreciated the old ways, and she was always ready to give her time and to take trouble for her friends and neighbours.
Lou and Oscar were both married and established in new lives, enjoying the fruits of the family success without really appreciating what their sister had done. It was her younger brother, Emil, who was the apple of Alexandra’s eye, her hope for the future, and she was so pleased that she was able to send him to university.
She loved the land, but she understood that the life she had chosen might not be the life that her brother would want.
Alexandra was a strong, practical and intelligent woman who had a wonderful understanding of her world and who cared deeply for the people whose lives touched hers. She loved her life but there were times when she was lonely, when she wished that she had a husband and family of her own, and when she even wondered if the struggles she had made to tame the land that she loved had been worthwhile.
She was still close to Carl Linstrom, the best friend of her childhood, but his family had been one of those that gave up the pioneering life and returned to the city, and that had taken Carl into a very different world. He understood Alexandra better than anyone else though, and was his support Alexandra the courage to face the future after something devastating happened.
It happened because though there was much that was stable and certain in Alexandra’s world, but not everything. Her younger friend, Marie, who was young and bright, who had such hopes and dream, realised that her impulsive marriage had been a mistake and that she would have to live with the consequences. When Emil came home he had changed, and his own hopes and dreams were something that he could never share with his sister.
The telling of this story is utterly so. Willa Cather painted her characters and their world so beautifully and with such depth that it became utterly real. Everything in this book lived and breathed. Every emotion, every nuance was right. I lived this story with Alexandra, Emil, Marie, and their friends and neighbours.
I can’t judge them or evaluate them, because I feel too close to them. I’m still thinking of them not as characters but as people I have come to know well and have many, complex feelings about.
The story is beautifully balanced, with many moments of happiness – and even humour – coming from successes, from the observance of old traditions, and simply from the joy of being alive in the world.
It’s a simple story with a very conventional narrative. In some ways it’s a little simplistic, but it’s very well told.
Willa Cather had still to grow as a writer.
And yet it feels completely right ….
Beyond Eden Rock 
I need to get back to Willa Cather! I was determined to read more, after Death Comes for the Archbishop, but I got distracted. This is one of the books I have on my shelves – I hadn’t realized it is such an early work.
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I think there was some published work before the novels began, but this is definitely the second of those. I’ve been distracted too and there’s been more than a year between my re-reads of her first and second novels. I hope I’ll find time for her third soon, because that was a particular favourite first time around.
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Oh i do love how you felt about this fine book! And you put it in to words so well!! To me, when the characters become real and I find myself thinking of them that way, shows much about the atuhor
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Thank you – I love it when that happens too.
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I love Willa Cather’s writing. You remind me how I would love to re-read O Pioneers – I remember how much I enjoyed reading about the Bohemian community.
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That was something I remember loving first time around, but this time it was the characters and their stories that spoke to the most. I can definitely recommend a re-read.
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Lovely review Jane – I haven’t read enough Willa Cather.
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I hope you’ll read more – she was one of my first Virago authors and she is still one of my favourites.
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I am glad you are back! 🙂
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Thank you – I’m very glad to be back!
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This sounds so wonderful, Jane. I’ve yet to read Cather but hope to remedy that fairly soon. My Antonia is on the shelf, so I’ll start there. And if I like it, which I’m pretty sure I will, then O Pioneers could well be my next.
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I hope you will, because she writes so well and there is no one else quite like her. This book and My Antonia are part of the same, very loosely linked trilogy and I think they would make interesting companion pieces.
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Wonderful review Jane! I’ve never read any Willa Cather but I have My Antonia and Death Comes for the Archbishop on the TBR mountain – which would you recommend I read first?
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I can recommend both, and I could make the case for reading either first. Probably My Antonia as it is an early work and you would see a progression if you read that first. Death Comes for the Archbishop is much later and is one of her finest works.
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Great, thanks Jane. I’ll read My Antonia first.
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I love Willa Cather’s writing. She and Edith Wharton are my two favorite American women authors.
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They’re my two favourites too.
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I have several of her books, including this one, which I’ve looked at a couple of times, but never actually got round to reading. For some reason I have it in my mind that she is a ‘difficult’ author…
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Some of her books are more engaging than others, but I’ve never found Willa Cather difficult, so I do hope you’ll try this book and the others.
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I love the idea of a chronological re-read – I really look forward to following your progress. It might also help me pick my next Cather read – I loved ‘My Antonia,’ but have to admit ‘Oh Pioneers’ really didn’t work as well for me. Looking forward to using your blog to select what to try next …
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Neither this book nor My Antonia were particular favourites first time around, but this time this book really spoke to me. My first reads were too long ago for me to draw and conclusions but this book makes me eager to go onto the next. The Song of the Lark was a favourite first time around but I know that not many think it’s the best of her work …
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Yes, O Pioneers is a great literary novel but it’s not quite up there with My Antonia. Have you read The Professor’s House – it’s wonderful!
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I’ve read all of the novels but many, many years ago, and so my memory of many of them is quite dim. I can quite believe that I have finer novels to come, and I’m looking forward to revisiting them all in time.
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I loved My Antonia when I re-read it fairly recently (well, last 5 years or so) but I’m due a re-read of this one. Like you, I discovered her and devoured her – now I’m wondering if I sit down and “do” her as my project next year …
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Well, I think chronological reading is going to be interesting but I’m going to keep the timing flexible because I have others to re-read the same way. If I have a project when we’re done with Dorothy Richardson I think it will be a theme or an unread author. Mrs Oliphant maybe …
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Ooh, I’d be up for “doing” Mrs Oliphant with you as I got over-excited and bought the collected works on Kindle fairly recently … but I promised myself I’d finish at least Barchester first …
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