• Title: Not Under 40
• Author: Willa Cather
• Genre/Subject: Essays on Literature
• Publisher: Kindle
• Publication Date: 1936
• Start date: 1/15/24
• Finish date: 1/25/24

Review:

I really enjoyed this, and I wasn’t confident that I would when starting out. This was one of the last books published by Willa Cather and it was later in her life, in 1936. So many times I find that the early stuff and the late stuff from any author is not as good as the works they published in their prime. Same holds true (usually!) for hockey players, the rookie season was awkward and the seasons played when they had been traded multiple times are also less than stellar.

In the first essay Cather describes meeting Flaubert’s now elderly niece at a resort town in Europe. This was a sweet and elegant account of the inside look inside one of the giants of 19th century literature.

Next up was an opinion piece on Willa Cather’s views on modern novels. The Novel Demeuble was just as insightful and accurate now as it was when it was first printed. Cluttered prose, excessive realism, lengthy and detailed accounts of what the protagonist had for lunch are all called out for being antithetical to literature.

The essays that follow are mostly accounts of Cather’s time and experiences with such literary lights as Sarah Orne Jewett and Katherine Mansfield. She doesn’t hold back and she never engages in unjustified flattery.

All that said I will reiterate what I said at the start of this review, this is good reading and it was enjoyable. It’s not fair or accurate to measure it against O Pioneers or My Antonia, fiction versus essays and late life writing versus prime publishing years. Highly recommend to any Willa Cather fans.