MyAntonia by Willa Cather

My Antonia by Willa Cather was a book club read and one I might not otherwise have picked up. While I was not overly enamored with the story line, I was intrigued by the way of life and struggles of early immigrants to Nebraska from Scandinavia, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia and Russia. The fictional town of Black Hawk is based on Red Cloud, Nebraska (where Willa Cather lived) and set in the late 1800s.

Jimmy, age 10, is the novel's narrator who is sent to Nebraska from Virginia as an orphan to live with his paternal grandparents. There he meets an immigrant family from Bohemia and helps Antonia to learn English.

Life was harsh in Nebraska with people often living in mud houses, but many had escaped even harsher conditions.  The Scandinavians and eastern Europeans were eventually successful because they sent their eldest daughters to live and work in the town which brought in an income for the family while the other family members worked on the land.