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Title: O Pioneers! and Other Tales of the Prairie (New York Public Library Series) by Willa Cather ISBN: 0-385-48720-7 Publisher: Doubleday Books Pub. Date: 19 October, 1999 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: Love, Murder, and Hard-won Triumph
Comment: This compelling saga of torrid passion, blood-curdling murder, and greed immediately seized my attention, and I am convinced that Willa Cather's adroit rhetoric will have the same effect on all the other skeptical readers out there. Ingeniously composed O Pioneers paints an ineffable vignette of the backdrop of the enigma more commonly known as the prairie. Growing up in this environment is Alexandra and her three brothers, who have struggled against the hardships and toils of the untamed land all their lives. It is through these afflictions and all of life's tribulations that the Bergsons grow robust in the soul as well as in the body.

The realistic fiction novel begins thirty years ago in the provincial town of Hanover, anchored on the outskirts of the Nebraska tableland. Here, two protagonists are introduced: Alexandra, a headstrong adolescent and her frail, five-year-old brother Emil who, at the time is fully dependent on his sister. The latter shows so much compassion for a kitten clutching the top of a pole in fear that he brings his tender heart and vulnerability into awareness. The sister on the other hand is completely different. " . . . His sister was a tall, strong girl, and she walked rapidly and resolutely, as if she knew exactly where she was going and what she was going to do next." When the father, John Bergson dies, it is with this sort of resolution that Alexandra makes the fateful decision to purchase two homesteads by the money collected in selling their cattle and crops. "Under the shaggy ridges, she felt the future stirring."

It is now sixteen years after John Bergson has died, and the white shaft beside his grave signifies that his wife now lies beside him. Were he to rise from the shaggy coat of the prairie, he would not know the "country under which he has been asleep" for it has vanished forever. " . . . One looks out over a vast checkerboard, marked off in squares of wheat and corn; light and dark, dark and light . . . The rich soil yields heavy harvests; the dry, bracing climate and the smoothness of the land makes labor easy for man and beasts." The previous passage conveys the effect that barely two decades makes on the unpredictable land as well as Cather's virtuoso storytelling skills and unique way of adding life and color to her words. The inevitable time takes its toll on the inhabitants of this country as well. Emil Bergson is now barely recognizable for his stormy gray eyes peer out from under an intent brow. He is not quite the delicate child he was years ago, because now he is a splendid figure of a boy, with a body as stocky and built as a young pine tree. Though caught up with Emil's transformation, one should not forget Alexandra, though she has changed very little. In spite of turning into a sunny, vigorous woman, one can sense in her eyes that she is still the deliberate and placid girl she used to be. Marie Shabata was once Emil's favorite playmate in their childhood, and their friendship has remained even after all those years. Jovial Marie's dancing tiger-lily eyes and delightful nature has earned her the adoration of all that knows her. Formerly Marie Tovesky, the cheerful girl is now married to Frank Shabata. Though quite a handsome man, even in his agitation, Frank is a rash and violent man and altogether the contrary of his charming wife. In this section of the book, we are also introduced to a long-lost friend, Carl Linstrum, who is travelling back from St. Louis. Out of the group, this young man is probably the most changed. One distinctly recognizes the many rings under the boy's eyes, marking trouble and desperation. Carl almost appears to "shrink within himself" as if to hold something back that is too painful to be divulged.

Throughout the book, the reader may sense an obscure barricade between Marie Shabata and Emil Bergson that are restraining them from one another. That certain barrier is Frank Shabata. It is not difficult for one to conjecture why that barricade is there in reading this passage: "Marie, when she was alone or when she sat sewing in the evening, often thought about what it must be like down there where Emil was . . . 'And if it had not been for me,' she thought, 'Frank might still be free like that . . . Poor Frank, getting married wasn't very good for him either . . . It seems as if I always make him just as bad as he can be.' " Willa Cather has such an extensive knowledge of life's inexplicable emotions that she makes this novel all the more realistic. The author portrays such tenderness, desperation, and resolution, and she words her passages so powerfully and effectively that a reader is fully convinced by the end of the book that the events actually took place. So what happens at the end of this highly esteemed novel? One might be pondering after reading this review: How does Frank react to Emil and Marie's bond? What becomes of them? Well, patient reader, the conclusion of O Pioneers! Is up to you to unravel, and do not be surprised if it catches you off guard.

In conclusion to my book review, I would like to quote my favorite lines from the novel. "They went into the house together, leaving the Divide behind them, under the evening star. Fortunate country, that is one day to receive hearts like Alexandra's into its bosom, to give them out again in the yellow wheat, in the rustling corn, in the shining eyes of youth!" This fictitious anecdote of French, Bohemian, and Swedish settlers in America is truly appealing. It draws its readers into the world of farming and frontier life, while offering an authentic and at times amusing glance at the dynamics of pioneer life. While providing a historical background, O Pioneers! Also relates to the turmoil of one's mind in troublesome times and predicaments. I can relate to and learn valuable lessons from this book though it takes place approximately one hundred years ago. This quality makes the novel so much more realistic and engrossing to read. Willa Cather stressed much of the book into analyzing the differences in personality in each of the characters as time went on. Now, I understand the purpose of this - indistinguishable "gears" are silently turning to lead up to the explosive culmination of this saga. Packed with warmth and poignancy, both children and their parents are privileged to step into the rich world of the Bergsons as the hardships they endure strengthen their souls. Filled with moving descriptions, vibrant settings, and strong characters, O Pioneers! will be the ideal book for readers of different styles. Seldom can one say that a book is destined to become a classic, but in O Pioneers! 's case, that problem is not presented because a classic is what it already is!