In 1923 Willa Cather won the Pulitzer Prize for One Of Ours. Is it her best book? Not in my opinion. Peter argues that Pulitzers are often awarded for a book when the author's previous one, or ones, may have been better.
The protagonist in Ours, Claude, is an incorrigible idealist. Born into a wealthy agricultural family in Nebraska he's perpetually disappointed in himself and others. He, and others, never live up to the standards he holds. German pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was in charge of a clandestine seminary in Nazi Germany. He wrote a small book for his students called Life Together. In it he wrote that "God hates visionary dreaming." His argument that idealist pastors will be disappointed by their parishioners failures. Then the pastor becomes the parishioners accuser before God, rather than their defender. "The best is the enemy of the good." Voltaire
Claude only finds himself engaged in an enterprise he feels is worthwhile when, after his voluntiary enlistment, he is fighting with American Forces in France during WW I. When he dies in that war his mother, grieving his death, realizes that he would have been disillusioned by the peace subsequent to the war.
As are all of Cather's books, Ours is rife with profound insights about life and relationships. Likely my opinion that it's not her best is related to my inability to a significant bond with an idealist. It's certainly worth reading.
Takk for alt,
Al
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