Personal Narrative: My Antonia
After a while, good but not excellent books lull me into a false sense of cozy comfort. I’m content with my reading, the calibre of books I’ve been choosing, and it’s that warm mush feeling that sates but does not inspire. Then a book falls into my hands that reminds me what great literature is. A book that smacks of talent, whose prose rings with such descriptive brilliance it demands to be savoured. The writing, so simple yet poignant, a book that paints glorious pictures without becoming muddy in its prose. My Ántonia is the book for me. The storyline is simple, lacking in the one large conflict. It is instead a set of metaphors about America, its women and their rights, loves and longings. It is a story as much about the landscape as it