I wonder why Willa Cather chose to write about her own experience from the point of view of a boy. It seems to me that the experience she had growing up on the frontier of Nebraska would be pretty different from the experience a boy would have. Perhaps that isn't true, but it just strikes me as odd that the book is so close to autobiographical except for that one glaring difference. Laura Ingles Wilder did not choose to write her experience as a boy. Did it have to do with targeting readers at that time? Or was it Cather's way of exploring her own experiences through the eyes of someone else.
Either way the imagery in the novel is sublime. It makes me want to visit Nabraska! Which is not a place I've ever considered worth exploring. I have to say though, so far, the book reminds me of every other novel that bemoans the hardships and relives the joys of trying to survive on the American frontier. What makes this one so great? Was it the first? or just the most loved? And perhaps it will become more clear to me as I read further.
Stay tuned!
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