I greatly admire Cather's My Antonia, and Death Comes for the Archbishop, and many of her short stories. As a longtime student of WWI, I wondered how I missed this one, especially as it was written so immediately after the war. Hemingway hated it (which is often a strong indicator for something I will like...). Had to settle for a Gutenberg e-book, as it wasn't easily available in my regional library system in print.

What a disappointment. Claude Wheeler, the protagonist, is a mopey, discontented bore, though well-intentioned and VERY hardworking. Two thirds of the book were him sweating resentfully on the farm, wishing he was somewhere else, and when he was, he wasn't happy there either. He inexplicably decides to marry a prim local girl, who doesn't really want to marry him, but she wants a house of her own so... On the wedding night it's made clear he won't be sleeping with her, understandably increasing his misery. He decides the war is the answer to his problems, so he enlists. He quickly makes lieutenant, befriends a bunch of cheerful, pleasant, noble guys; many of whom die on the troopship on the way Over There (the flu is just getting started), but no one seems too fazed by it. France turns out to be picturesque, with quaint, charming girls and kindhearted farmers... until there's an attack and everyone dies. The End.

It feels empty and devoid of much serious emotional effect, all rather an "exercise" in a wartime novel. Plenty of Cather's lovely writing describing nature and surroundings, but the people are puppets and characters with little complexity or interest. I kept going, hoping for better, but it never arrived. I guess the Pulitzer folks went with topical that year. ( )

this read much faster than i expected for its length and topic, and the writing is often really nice. not my antoniabeautiful, in my recollection anyway, but still. i felt easily taken with the story and found that far more pages would go by before i realized it. but at the same time, i'm not really sure i like that she's given such a view of war - one that seems to really solidify many men's purpose - and how she depicts being over in france - almost as a series of small trips or vacations punctuated with spots of battle. i know that war can actually be a highlight for people, but showing it this way didn't feel right to me. she also didn't tie up the loose ends between claude and enid, or with any of the rest of his family. i don't know, i think i liked this well enough when reading it because her language and descriptions carried me along, but the more i think about it, the less i think i did actually like it.

"'You Americans are always looking for something outside yourselves to warm you up, and it is no way to do. In old countries, where not very much can happen to us, we know that,--and we learn to make the most of little things.'" ( )

Summary: The story of Claude Wheeler, raised on a Nebraska farm, longs to live his ideals and find his purpose and does so in the First World War.

This is my last read in what I might call “The Year of Willa Cather.” I discovered her fine writing this year (how did I miss her so long). This work, a later one, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1923. Yet I found it the least satisfying of the works I’ve read.

The story is in two parts. In the first, Claude grows into adulthood on a Nebraska farm. Unlike his father and older brother with minds for business, Claude is something of a romantic, his mind filled with heroic ideals from conversations with his mother, a stint at a Christian school and his association with the Erlich family, culturally refined freethinkers. Called back to help on the farm, Claude faces the death of his romantic visions, even while still cherishing something of the pastoral beauty of the land. After an accident, he is nursed by the beautiful Enid, whose aspirations are more toward missionary service than love. Claude ardently seeks her hand in marriage, hoping that in love with such a perfect soul, he’ll find purpose. Despite warnings and the attentions of the more worldly Gladys Farmer, he marries Enid, only to find her uninterested in his affections. When her sister, a missionary in China turns ill, she leaves Claude to nurse her and take her place. His hopes dashed, he closes up the house he lovingly build to return home to his parents.

And so it might have ended were it not for the war. One of the great “might have beens” is what might have happened if he would have gotten together with Gladys. Instead, the war intervenes, he enlists and becomes an officer. Cather describes the horror of a plague ship as the flu of 1918 strikes his troop transport. Heroically he assists the doctor in caring for his bunkmate, and many other soldiers, some who do not make it but are buried at sea. He experiences something of the “band of brothers” solidarity with his company of solders, including a fellow officer, Gerhardt, with whom he is billeted.

It seems he finds the fulfillment of ideals and purpose in the Allied cause, during a series of battles. But I wonder whether this is really so, or rather, does he achieve a sense of worth in acting with courage, something he has always lacked? I find myself struggling with Cather’s portrayal of war–at times startlingly real in describing the realities of trench warfare, and at other times, creating an ideal, at least in the mind of Claude, that seems to idealize a terrible war. Sergeant Hicks seems more realistic, wanting to retreat to the “logical and beautiful inwards of automobiles for the rest of his life.”

What Cather does capture is the reality of wars that usurp the lives of so many young still trying to make sense out of life, leaving them cynical and traumatized, offering brief shining moments to others, and snuffing out the lives of too many too soon. She alludes to the number who return who take their own lives, which may be one of the early instances of writing about the inner wounds of war. And she leaves us wondering about all the “might-have-beens” of the beautiful-souled character of Claude. ( )

One of Ours has been my favorite Cather novel for some time now. I feel an affinity with Claude and admire how compassionately Cather details his feelings of discontentment, how she takes her time to show what it's like to feel like you don't fit in one's community, family, or even in one's own skin.

I don't know of another novel that so painstakingly and patiently presents the pain of a young person's struggle to find a place where he belongs and a sense of purpose. I was thinking that usually such characters end up becoming rebels without a cause. But Claude is certainly no rebel. He isn't strong enough or knowledgeable enough to break free of his family or community until the US enters the war. The war is raging for three years by the time the US enters and by then Claude has the familial and social backing to leave. He finds freedom in the military, as many young people still do today. Had Claude stayed in Frankfort, it's pretty clear he would have ended up one of the walking dead that Gladys describes. Or, perhaps he would have eventually committed suicide like his mother fears he would have had he come home from the war. He was already becoming disillusioned and had he not joined the military it's clear that life in Frankfort would have crushed his soul.

This is the first time I've read the novel since I started reading more about World War I. Several years ago a friend and I had our own WWI study group that grew out of our mutual appreciation for All Quiet on the Western Front. The first time I read One of Ours I had no reference point for the Claude's war experience other than having felt that sense of general excitement and sense of purpose that my own military service had given me back in the 80s. From talking with combat veterans, current service members, and reading military fiction and nonfiction, I know the excitement and sense of purpose is even more profound during a time of war. The reading I've done about WWI had made One of Ours seem even more realistic and "true" what the experience may have been like for some. But this is the only novel that I know of that details why the war could be so exciting and liberating. ( )

3.5 stars, rounded up.

The first half of this novel is Willa Cather in her element. She knows the plains and its people, and as long as Claude was on the farm and in his small town, I found each word true and compelling. The second half of the novel, which takes place in France during WWI, does not ring as true and loses its grip on the characters somewhat. The horrors of the trenches of WWI are well-known and any idea that a man could feel happy to be there seems far-fetched. Happy to go, yes, happy to stay, no. With so much death and destruction around you, how could you not look back at your life and family with a bit of longing and nostalgia. As a matter of fact, I should have thought that Claude would find a much deeper appreciation of his life in the States by being in France at this moment in time.

Cather won the Pulitzer for this novel, and I think it is one of those selections that must be put into the context of the time. Having recently emerged from WWI, I think the world was anxious to look at the war as something worthwhile and the men who died there (and those who came home in pieces) as having been enhanced by the experience. This novel might be more of a case of how we “want” to see things than a case of how they actually were.

I did enjoy this story, found it particularly appealing as a coming of age tale in the portions that take place before the war. I would have liked a different ending or at least one that made a different statement. But, this is Cather’s tale, not mine. When I had finished, I went and pulled a photograph of a WWI soldier that I happen to have in my possession. I looked at his face and those of his simple, farming family. He stands proudly in his uniform, and I tried to impose Claude’s thoughts onto him...it wouldn’t work for me. I think Hemingway got the war right; I think Cather did not.


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