One of Ours
Willa Cather · 1873–1947 · United States
Why it matters
Claude Wheeler, a frustrated Nebraska farm boy, escapes stifling prairie life by enlisting in the First World War, finding on the French front the purpose home never gave him. Cather's Pulitzer winner turned her pastoral gaze toward war and disillusion, dividing critics ever since.
At a glance
war novelbildungsroman
Difficulty 4/10medium pace400 pagesClear, controlled prose stays accessible despite its structural break between prairie and battlefield halves.
Deep dive
A Nebraska farm boy finds in the First World War a sense of purpose and even beauty his prosperous, suffocating prairie life never gave him — and Cather refuses to say whether that's tragedy or the one clean thing that ever happened to him.
Where to go next
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Mark Twain · 1884Adventures of Huckleberry FinnLvl 5Fast paced
James Baldwin · 1956Giovanni's RoomLvl 5Medium pace