O Pioneers! is the story of the Nebraska prairie at the turn of the century. It follows Alexandra Bergson from a young lady, whose father leaves the failing family farm in her hands, to a successful, mature business woman. Along the way, the author describes the people who settled and tamed the land. The story is uplifting and tragic at the same time. Cather writes some strong, yet flawed, female characters. I felt if I really knew the characters, even those with smaller rolls in the novel. I definitely recommend the book to anyone with an interest in American history and westward expansion.

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Willa Cather is actually a pioneer. One of the first highly acclaimed female authors of our time, her words are jewels and reading her work is a slow, sweet pleasure. This is a book I cannot give up, so it lives in my "secret stash" and will be re-read from time to time. If you have never read this, you MUST.

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I so wanted to like this book as I have had people tell me for years what a great book it was. Just did not do it for me.

The 1988 foreword added to the 1913 book almost made me just toss the book. Doris Grumbach wrote the foreward and I found it to be long, boring and filled with unneeded information (at least for me) about Willa Cather's method of writing characters and novels.

I did not see anything out of the ordinary about the novel itself. Any family that has had immigrant farmers in their family history know a similar story of the struggles to survive and if lucky to prosper.

Alexandra Bergson was the only daughter of a Swedish family trying to make a living on the plains of Nebraska. Her father realizes that she better than her 2 older and 1 younger brother was the one who needed to manage the farm after he passed. Alexandra is an excellent stewart of the land and often over the many objections of her older brothers she over the years grows the investment of the family and herself, becoming very prosperous.

The summer her younger brother returns from college things change. Emil is a hard worker but he wants to do more than farm and live on Alexandra's homestead. An old friend of Emil's and one of Alexandra's come back into their lives and nothing will ever be the same again.

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A very good classic, Cather is an amazing author. Its been awhile since I've read this book but I will always remember its entrancing family values.

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Cather's classic novel of a young woman who takes over the family farm after her father's death, is a beautifully-written paean to the European immigrants who brought America's midwest into bloom.

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