One of Ours

By Willa Cather

 

Cather’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel explores the life of Claude Wheeler, a young Nebraskan who refuses to settle for a life others have imagined for him. Alienated from his parents and rejected by his wife, Wheeler finally finds his destiny on the bloody battlefields of World War I.


I cannot tell you how frustrated I was reading this book. Now, I liked it, but I was so sucked into the character's lives that I wanted to shout at Claude frequently...."NO! You stupid idiot! Don't marry her!" He frustrated me to no end, but I couldn't hate him, much as I sometimes wanted to. This book, like all of Cather's works is a great character central book, and deals with being true to yourself and not just folding in to percieved duty and responsibility. This book won a pulitzer, mostly because it was thought patriotic, having been placed at the time of World War I. Frankly, I was much more interested in the story before Claude goes to war, when he gets to France my interested waned quite a bit as I read. The ending was awesome though.

I give it a 3 3/4 out of 5