Tag: American literature
-
In the Beauty of the Lilies
Review: The title of this book sounded interesting so I grabbed it off the shelf, so having said that I had no idea what to expect. That’s two random selections in a row. I see a pattern here. But on with the review. This was good, and John Updike is a great writer, great as… Read more
-
Icy Sparks
Review: Meh. This is a woman’s book. It’s good and the writing is excellent but I could not identify with the woman protagonist as I am not a woman. Male characters were women with moustaches. Sort of 2-D cardboard cut-outs of what the author thinks her men would be like, not how they really are.… Read more
-
Shadows on the Rock
Review: Like all Willa Cather novels the prose is exquisite. Unlike most Willa Cather novels this was not set in the Great Plains. It was a novel of 17th century Quebec. Go Canada! Had to dust off my French skills as there were quite a few bits and pieces en français with no translation. Usually… Read more
-
Death Comes for the Archbishop
Review: I held off on reading this for a long time. I’m nearly done the complete works now and decided not to put it off any longer. This is because: But I was wrong in putting this one off for so long. There is a reason that this is one of Cather’s most recognized and… Read more
-
A Lost Lady
Review: Post operative I really needed this. I was reading a collection of Ray Bradbury’s short fiction and bailed on it. Not that I don’t love Bradbury but I needed a novel to identify with the characters, to feel and see the scenery from a different time and place. To take me out of myself… Read more
-
One of Ours
Review: Obviously I’m biased, being a Willa Cather devotee. But I believe that objectively this is a really good novel. Also it’s set in and around the Great War so again I’m almost bound to like it. This is the story of Claude Wheeler, from small town American whose life and the lives of all… Read more
-
My Ántonia
Review: One of the last “best known” books by Cather. So now I can say I have read all of her most recognized books. Beautifully written, like all her novels. Now where is the however pivot? However. <– there it is! Nothing happens throughout the novel. I mean, people live and grow old and have… Read more
-
My Mortal Enemy
Review: Another excellent novel from Willa Cather! The ending kind of left me hanging. Like, no real resolution, none of the ends tied up. All Jews in Cather novels are bad guys. She has a lot in common with all 1900 and on novelists. See Edith Wharton for the correct usage of Hebe in a… Read more
-
The Song of the Lark
Review: “Here were the sand hills, the grasshoppers and locusts, all the things that wakened and chirped in the early morning, the reaching and reaching of high plains, the immeasurable yearnings of all flat lands.” I cannot express how magnificent this book is so I’m not going to even try. This book made me want… Read more
-
O Pioneers!
Review: Absolutely magnificent. The more of Willa Cather I read, the more she speaks to me. And not just speaking like to someone waiting for the bus, but speaking at a primal emotional level. Like the rich prairie soil she so beautifully describes. “The gold flecks in her irises were like the color of sunflower… Read more