O Pioneers!

O Pioneers!

by Willa Cather

I just couldn’t put this book down.  I started last night and finished while on the elliptical this morning at the gym with a marathon session – longest time on an exercise machine in years!  The book, O Pioneers! by Willa Cather, tells the story of the protagonist, Alexandra Bergson, and the struggle of being raised in the western frontier part of the US during the early 1900s.  The Bergsons, an immigrant family from Sweden, lived on a large farm in Nebraska.  Before Alexandra’s father died when she was in her teens, he asked her to run the family, which included two elder brothers and a younger brother, Emil.  When the land turns into a dust-bowl because of the lack of rain, it appears that the family will go broke; but under her steady guidance, they purchase more land, and when the weather changes three years later, Alexandra has built a fortune.  She dedicates her life to her family and always stays solo while her two older brothers marry and have children. She devotes a great deal of time to educating her younger brother who goes away to college. He eventually comes back and falls in love with his childhood love, Maria, who is married to the always-jealous and angry Frank.  Meanwhile, Alexandra welcomes an old beau, Carl, back home, but her older brothers believes he has only returned to take her money.  Like most good novels, the unexpected happens and it appears all is lost.  I won’t divulge the ending – it is sad has yet has a closure that the reader can respect.  The early stages of seeing women as heroines in early twentieth century literature.  You won’t be disappointed with this easy-to-read book, I promise!