📚 🚶Introducing My Ántonia
Thoughts, links & tickets for our February book | March tickets now on sale
Dear walking book clubbers,
I feel late to the game with this one. Some of you read My Ántonia years’ ago and are excited to revisit it; others have been getting stuck in over the past few weeks, greatly enjoying it and some of you have even gone on to read other books in Cather’s ‘Great Plains’ trilogy. I’m looking forward to sharing our thoughts!
Please read on to find details of our February events, introductory thoughts about the book, and links to explore further.
Our February My Ántonia events
Emily’s Regent’s Park Walking Book Club: Friday 23rd February, 12-1.45pm, setting off from Daunt Books, 84 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW, £8-15 N.B. There is an excellent, fully accessible path throughout, so good for those who don’t fancy the mud.
Emily’s Hampstead Heath Walking Book Club: Sunday 25th February, 11.30-1pm, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB, £8-15
Emily’s Zoom Book Club: Monday 26th February, 8-8.40pm, £1-10 Feel free to tune in even if you’ve not read the book - our zooms are open to all.
On Our Reading Radar: Us and the Land Friday 1st March, 1.30-2pm. Hosted here on substack - the link to join will arrive in your inbox. Join this month’s discussion thread to share your cultural highlights from the month, as well as your recommendations on the theme of US AND THE LAND- What have you read or watched that has opened your eyes to our relationship with the land?
Introducing My Ántonia by Willa Cather
There is so much to find in this dearly-loved classic - the humbling descriptions of the American landscape, evocative renderings of immigrants working hard to tame it, a moving portrait of a friendship and growing up; somehow, beyond all this, the book captures something very pure and essential about being human.
Cather’s story, Jim’s story, or Ántonia’s story?
Willa Cather made the same journey, aged nine, that her character Jim Burden makes aged ten. Born in Virginia, Cather’s family moved to Nebraska, settling in a house in Red Cloud - on which she based ‘Black Hawk’. As a young adult she left Nebraska for Pittsburgh and then New York City, but her childhood on the plains continued to fuel her writing. What do you make of Cather’s decision to give her novel a male narrator? And what do you think about the ‘my’ in the book’s title?
The immigrant experience
Ántonia is from Bohemia (now part of Czech Republic); her family are one of many first-generation European immigrants portrayed in the book, settling on the plains. How do you find the contrast between the old world and the new? Are you impressed by the tough determination of many of these immigrants? As we gathered from last month’s book, The Ginger Tree, many of us book clubbers are living abroad, or have lived abroad - can you relate to this experience of fashioning a new life for oneself in a culture that is not your own? (Do have a look HERE at January’s excellent edition of On Our Reading Radar with Eland’s Barnaby Rogerson for more recommendations of books about living abroad.)
The land
Her descriptions of prairie landscape are astonishing; somehow Cather captures the vastness along with such detail. Did the book transport you there? Did you feel that the land was a character in and of itself? Don’t forget our next live discussion thread, on 1st March, in which we’ll be sharing our recommendations for other books that explore our relationship with the land.
The universal in the particular
Perhaps what makes this book quite so meaningful to many people is that Cather finds something universal through capturing a particular time and place so well. Her description of happiness - “to be dissolved into something complete and great”, engraved on her tombstone (and see the Marginalian link below) - touches on the very essence of what it is to be human, which she captures through Jim lying in his grandmother’s garden in the Autumn sun. Did you find other profound moments or any striking truths in the book?
I hope these few pointers help to get your thoughts flowing! Look out for more in my webcast coming your way next week.
Reading (and listening) on …
THIS short piece about My Ántonia by Xan Brooks for the Guardian is a great introduction.
HERE is a beautiful and personal take on the book on Booksnob.
Hermione Lee talks about My Ántonia with John and Andy on the wonderful podcast Backlisted HERE. She’s especially good on the literary context.
The excellent website The Marginalian has a host of fascinating Willa Cather (pictured above) delights. I’m so glad she pulls out the description of happiness in My Ántonia and EXPLORES IT alongside other attempts to articulate happiness. There is THIS great description of a walking (!) interview with the notoriously reclusive writer, in which she talked about deep creativity vs superficial culture. THIS is also inspiring about Cather’s eventual decision to choose creativity over productivity.
HERE is NPR’s You Must Read This explaining why My Ántonia bears periodic re-reading.
There’s a wealth of resources available on the Willa Cather Foundation’s website, HERE.
March * tickets are now on sale! *
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
Jane Graham - 27, unmarried, pregnant and kicked-out-of-home - retreats to a dingy boarding house in West London. In this collection of misfits and outsiders, she discovers friendship, love and happiness; vitally, she finds that self-respect is always worth fighting for. N.B. This was written in 1960 and contains offensive language that reflects the attitudes of the time.
Why did I choose it? This is another hark back to my bookselling days, when a particular colleague loved this book so much she insisted a stack of it remained on the till at all times. It’s in a similar vein to two of our popular previous picks: Margaret Drabble’s The Millstone and Barbara Comyns’ Our Spoons Came from Woolworths, and I’ve been waiting for the right moment to add it to our repertoire.
You can watch the trailer for the award-winning 1962 film adaptation, starring Leslie Caron HERE.
In Regent’s Park with The Daunt Books Festival: Friday 15th March, 10-11.45am, setting off from Daunt Books, 84 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW, £8 (please note the earlier start time)
On Hampstead Heath: Sunday 17th March, 11.30-1pm, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB, £8-15
On Zoom: Monday 18th March, 8-8.40pm, £1-10
On Our Reading Radar: Friday 22nd March, 1.30-2pm: London Join this month’s discussion thread to share your cultural highlights from this month, as well as your recommendations on the theme of LONDON - Which books and films do you think capture the spirit of the city?
Buy The L-Shaped Room from Daunt Books HERE and receive 10% off using the code WBC at checkout, or just tell them you’re in the group if you’re buying it in the shop.
Happy reading,
Emily