My Antonia

 I just finished reading My Antonia by Willa Cather. This was a book I had on my shelf for many years but never read. My mother had told me it was a favorite of hers, so I had picked up a used copy. I just never got around to opening it, and it joined the many books I gave away, unread, when I made my big move. Recently it turned up in a Free Little Library box, so I decided to get past my reader's sloth and crack it open. I enjoyed it. The descriptions of the seasons resonated with me, after twenty-eight years of living in the Midwest. Cather's work was successful in her lifetime, but critics and literary historians have been divided on her legacy: those who admire the modernists saw her as old-fashioned. But Lee Isaac Cheung, director and author of Minari, writes movingly about how he was inspired by My Antonia and Willa Cather to write what he remembered of growing up on a farm. I gather that Judith Butler has written about Cather in Bodies That Matter. I should look for that.

The edition I found also had these lovely illustrations by WT Benda that Cather commissioned and always insisted be included when the book was reprinted, often having to fight to have her wishes fulfilled.