A Novel of Contrasts, from Cather

Published in 1925, Willa Cather's The Professor's House is a character study of Professor Godfrey St. Peter, the book's protagonist.  St. Peter is a scholar and a family man with two married daughters, very stuck in his ways.  Even though his family moves into a new house, he continues to work in the study of his old one.  The novel is divided into three sections - the first and last focus on St. Peter and we learn through this lens about one of his most brilliant students, Tom Outland, who was also engaged to one of St. Peter's daughters before Outland's untimely death.  The second section of the novel focuses on Outland's story of discovering the remains of a cliff dwelling city in New Mexico, and for me was the most beautifully written part of the novel.  The themes of the novel are many, but the most interesting to me is the that of embracing modernity and change versus holding on to the beauty of nature's simplicity and a lost era.  While this is a departure from Cather's rural novels mainly set in Nebraska, I enjoyed the exploration of life in a small university town.  For me, this doesn't hold a candle My Antonia, which for me thus far is Cather's greatest masterpiece.  

Some of my favorite quotes:

"...the muscular, many-lined palm, the long, strong fingers with soft ends, the straight little finger, the flexible, beautifully shaped thumb that curved back from the rest of the hand as if it were its own master.  What a hand!  He could see it yet, with the blue stones lying in it."

"St. Peter was so pleased with his flowers that it hadn't occurred to him to get more; but all his life he had regretted that he didn't buy two bunches, and push their fortunes a little further."

For the Love of Nebraska

Having read Willa Cather's Prairie Trilogy, I have become very intrigued with the setting of her novels - rural Nebraska.  Therefore, I was excited to learn about Pamela Carter Joern who also focuses on the Nebraska landscape as a backdrop for some of her work.  In fact, her novel The Floor of the Sky takes its title from a Willa Cather quotation.  The Floor of the Sky, set in modern day in the remote Sandhills region of Nebraska, focuses on the story of Toby, an older widow, and her pregnant granddaughter, 16-year old Lila.  The novel weaves together stories of Toby's past and Lila's new life in the small town and on her grandmother's ranch.  With a range of characters, including Toby's embittered sister Gertie, the quiet but loyal ranch hand George, and Lila's cousin Clay who is going in a bad direction, there are interesting perspectives and meta-stories within the novel.  However, for me the setting is not as prominent as it is in Cather's works, and in fact seems like it could be a small rural town anywhere in the U.S.  The writing style reminds me more of Kent Haruf than Willa Cather.  Ultimately, while I liked the focus on inter-generational relationships and the multiple perspectives, I did not feel connected to the characters and this is not one of those books that will resonate with me for very long. 

Lost and Found

I'm on a reading roll with Willa Cather!  Once again, she does not disappoint.  While A Lost Lady (published in 1923) is not as epic or sweeping as Cather's Prairie Trilogy works, it is an intriguing character study and intimately explores the relationship between the protagonist, Marian Forrester and her relationships with the men and boys who live in Sweet Water, a Western town along the Transcontinental Railroad during pioneering days.  We mainly see Mrs. Forrester through the eyes of Niel Herbert, who we first meet as a young boy going fishing at the Forrester's creek with his friends, but who becomes a friend and confidant of Mrs. Forrester even as Niel becomes a young man.  He is drawn to Mrs. Forrester's laugh, twinkling eyes, and charisma.  However, after her husband Captain Daniel Forrester has a stroke and his health continually declines, Mrs. Forrester also declines in her own way.  Eventually she moves away (first to California, then to South America) and marries again.  What Cather captures in this short novel are some very warm and heartening scenes that seem to exude the essence of small town life. 

Hatchet and Hope

There is something about survival stories that draws me in, and I think it is about reducing (or expanding?) to the basic elements and needs of life - shelter, warmth, food, and the human instinct to survive.  Gary Paulsen writes young adult fiction that often focuses on coming of age stories in the wilderness.  Hatchet is Paulsen's 1987 Newbery Honor-winning novel that tells the story of thirteen year-old Brian Robeson.  Brian is the only passenger of a small plane flying from New York to Canada, to visit his father.  His parents have recently divorced, which Brian is grappling with as he flies toward his father's home.  While in the air, the pilot has a heart attack and dies, and Brian is left to figure out how to land the plane and then survive in the wilderness.  The novel tells of his despair, resourcefulness, and self-sufficiency.  Brian comes up against many challenges of the natural world, such as sharing his new environment with wild animals (beavers, moose, bears, wolves, skunks, etc.), weathering a tornado,combating loneliness, and making it through each day with enough food and a well stoked fire.  While there is something rather formulaic about fictionalized survival stories, I enjoyed the novel and found each challenge that Brian must face to be interesting and I was always wondering how he would overcome everything thrown at him.  After nearly two months in the wilderness, Brian reflects that he becomes a new version of himself.  I am not ultimately a huge fan of young adult fiction, but this is a readable and engrossing tale.

Introduction to Henry James

The Turn of the Screw is a novella published in 1898 by Henry James, and is considered to be a kind of old-world, old-fashioned, even gothic, ghost story.  A young governess watches over two cherubic children, Miles and Flora, at the Bly Estate, in the countryside.  Along with Mrs. Grose, the estate housekeeper, the two women must care for the children without involving their uncle who has expressly asked to not be involved in the children's lives.  What starts out as an idyllic story with two children who couldn't be easier to care for, quickly turns into a subtly sinister tale of supernatural occurrences and strange relationships.  The ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel seem to haunt the house and to specifically seek out the children, who are aware of their presence.  Things quickly unravel and end on a disturbing note.  While I enjoyed this introduction to Henry James, the writing is somewhat dense and the plot moves rather slowly, though I do love an old-fashioned tale.  Thus, I was left with mixed feelings about James.  Perhaps I will read another novella to get a better sense of his breadth. 

O Willa!

One of Ours, published in 1922, is Willa Cather's classic Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that explores the life of a young man who grows up on a farm in Nebraska and eventually becomes a soldier in World War I.  Claude Wheeler hopes to someday leave the farm, but his father's plans for him conflict with this, resulting in him staying in Nebraska and marrying a woman he has known since his childhood.  While friends of his are content with their farming lives, Claude is "unable to conceal his discontent" and is unable to "subdue his own nature," despite "resisting unalterable conditions."  Claude lives with "the conviction that there was something splendid about life, if he could but find it!"  He sets off to Europe with high hopes of finding a sense of purpose and seeing more of the world, but quickly must face the harsh reality of the violent life on the frontier.  I love Willa Cather's writing and I was very engaged with the first two-thirds of the book, but I did not enjoy the final part of the novel which focuses on Claude's life at war.  This was not my favorite Cather novel, but I still want to read all of her other novels, because she has such an engaging writing style.