Just finished this Pulitzer winning novel. As always, Cather is a wonderful writer. However, I found this to be the weakest of her novels that I have read and was surprised it was the one to win a Pulitzer. It is a bildungsroman of a young man from farm to WW1, it feels a bit disjointed and at times drags and feels too thin.
“Death Comes to the Archbishop” is a much greater work of art. Its sweeping, almost plotless sketch of New Mexico and the surrounding territory during the early years of the United States is mesmerizing, melancholy and picturesque.
“My Antonio” is also superior. It builds a picture of a Nebraska farmland and its people in the earliest years of settlement. Its characters strive for fulfillment and generally fall short. It reminds me of Elliot’s Middlemarch in many ways.
Have others read Willa lately and have thoughts?
by The-literary-jukes