Photo by szlea
Time for another visit to the literary United States! This week we are embracing the great state of Nebraska, and I have chosen Willa Cather’s My Antonia. The first time I read this novel I couldn’t help but compare it to the adult vision of Little House on the Prairie. Cather’s love for the vast prairies of this state is incomparable and expressed powerfully and with tremendous imagery. Here are a few passages:
As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of wine-stains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running…Perhaps the glide of long railway travel was still with me, for more than anything else I felt motion in the landscape; in the fresh, easy-blowing morning wind, and in the earth itself, as if the shaggy grass were a sort of loose hide, and underneath it herds of wild buffalo were galloping, galloping…
Photo by jakesmome
I kept as still as I could. Nothing happened. I did not expect anything to happen. I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.
All those fall afternoons were the same, but I never got used to them. As far as we could see, the miles of copper-red grass were drenched in sunlight that was stronger and fiercer than at any other time of the day. The blond cornfields wer red gold, the haystacks turned rosy and threw long shadows. The whole prairie was like the bush that burned with fire and was not consumed. That hour always had the exultation of victory, of triumphant ending, like a hero’s death — heroes who died young and gloriously. It was a sudden transfiguration, a lifting-up of day.
Photo by JanTik
Whew… every state should have such an tribute…
Curious about the other states we’ve covered?
Photo by marxchivistFirst, from Melanie Jones:
- Alabama: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (check out my To Kill A Mockingbird Sample Kit!)
- Michigan: The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides
- Alaska: The Man Who Swam With Beavers by Nancy Lord
- Arizona: The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
- North Dakota: Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
- Vermont: The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- Hawaii: Heads by Harry by Lois-ann Yamanaka
- Georgia: Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones
And I went out on my own for…
- Florida: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Nora Zeale Hurston
- Minnesota: In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien
- Wisconsin: When Madeline Was Young by Jane Hamilton
- Louisiana: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells (Jones’ pick) and The Awakening by Kate Chopin (my pick)
- Colorado: Plainsong by Kent Haruf
- Maryland: Anything by Anne Tyler
- Georgia: Awakening by Kate Chopin
- Ohio: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- Arkansas: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Wondering where your state is? Coming soon… In the meantime, weigh in on future picks!
Pingback: 50 States 50 Books List | BOOK CLUB CLASSICS!