47  Nebraska – Willa Cather – Oh! Pioneers (Score 8.84)

My  Kindle Version of this book has an introduction by Vivian Gornick, the American critic. It is well worth reading if you can find it, or if it’s in your version.

Hanover, Nebraska, a poor, desolate sort of place, connected to the outside world by occasional trains. When we get there, there are hints of an oncoming winter with serious falls of snow. We meet Alexandra Bergson, her brothers Emil (8), Lou (5), and a kitten, a neighbour Karl (15), Joe Tovesky, her cousin and his wife Marie.

John Bergson (46), the father, is dying.

Drought comes and people start to leave their farms and their land, going back to the towns. Karl’s family prepare to leave too, but Alexandra intends to stay and make a success of the farm. The boys enjoy listening to Alexandra reading “Swiss Family Robinson”. That was one of my favourites when I was a child, read time and time again because we couldn’t easily get to a bookshop except when on holiday, and we had no local library until I was 13.

Cather’s writing is beautiful, with phrases like “He wandered in the fields until morning put out the fireflies and the stars.

We follow Alexandra’s trials and tribulations, joys and sorrows, failures and successes as she improves and extends her holdings. I don’t want to go into any more detail as it could spoil your enjoyment of the book.

If you only have time to read one book this year, do make it this one. It is magnificent. I couldn’t possibly score it any less than ten.