Books

My Antonia

Loving portrait of a young immigrant girl growing into adulthood on the frontier.

The narrator is an orphan who moves to the frontier around the same time as Antonia, and falls in love with her. You will, too. She’s tough, charming, and overflowing with life. 

The book is also a portrait of Antonia’s time, place, and people. It works well on all those fronts as well. Wonderful anecdotes, wonderful characters.

The prose leaned more poetic than was good for it at times, but that’s my only quibble. 

Reading this felt like being initiated into something secret and beautiful. I love this kind of love. 

Recommended for anyone.

Lord Jim

Young Jim, who is not really a lord of any sort, grapples with his past. 

You can flip this book open to any page, read a few paragraphs, and know you’re reading good writing. But if you don’t keep your head in the game, the entire book will feel like that. 

The narrative structure is not ergonomic, and the majority of book kind of obliquely looks at its actual subject. So it’s not an easy read. 

But Conrad is a master at conjuring a mood, and if you put in the work that this book asks of you, you’ll find a meaningful coherence beneath its seemingly disjointed narrative. Worst case, it’s a bunch of compelling short stories. 

Don’t run to the library this moment, but if you get a chance to read it, don’t turn it down. Cautiously recommended.