Tuesday, August 02, 2016

Teaser Tuesday 322: O, Pioneers!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Jenn of Books and a Beat. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few "teaser" sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!



At end of June, I fit in a re-read of O, Pioneers! by Willa Cather for a group read. I had not read this since college, and while I remembered liking it, I was hazy on the ending. I can honestly say that I enjoyed it even more the second time around!


One January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away. A mist of fine snowflakes was curling and eddying about the cluster of low drab buildings huddled on the gray prairie, under a gray sky.

(Opening lines)







ABOUT THE BOOK:

"The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman," writes Willa Cather in O Pioneers! The country is America; the woman is Alexandra Bergson, a fiercely independent young Swedish immigrant girl who inherits her father's farm in Nebraska. A model of emotional strength, courage, and resolve, Alexandra fights long and hard to transform her father’s patch of raw, wind-blasted prairie into a highly profitable business.

A gripping saga of love, murder, greed, failure, and triumph, O Pioneers! vividly portrays the hardships of prairie life. Above all, it champions the belief that hard work is the surest road to personal fulfillment. Described upon publication in The New York Times as "American in the best sense of the word," O Pioneers! celebrates the men and women who struggled to build a nation that is both compelling and contradictory.





6 comments:

Lea said...

I vaguely remember reading this many years ago. Perhaps I should read it again, too.
Hope you are having a great week!

Beth @ PlantPostings said...

That's a classic. Willa Cather is one of my favorite authors. We re-read (aloud) "Death Comes for the Archbishop" as we drove out to New Mexico. Great American author!

Heather said...

Lea: It was well-worth the reread. I'm glad I decided to delve into it again.

Heather said...

Beth: That's one of her's I have not read, but it's one that's been on my "to read" list quite a while.

Alice Audrey said...

That sounds just like Nebraska to me. It's been a long time since I was there, but I remember a heavy sky.

Heather said...

Having only driven through there once as a little girl, I'll have to take your word for that. '-D