My Ántonia by Willa Cather
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

There are some fantastic lines in this novel. Some great scenes. I liked the characters a lot. But ultimately … nothing happens. There’s no crisis. No villain. No problem that has to be overcome. It’s just kinda there.

What’s the story about? Well … the male narrator presents a friend with a manuscript entitled My Antonia. It’s his recounting of a Bohemian girl he grew up with. They’re friends, her grandfather blows his brains out, the girl grows up, working for families in town, loves to dance, has a passel of kids, then end. That’s pretty much it.

As I said, there are some wonderful lines and Cather does a great job of making the reader visualize the Nebraska farmland of the early 20th century. But there’s no real story.

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