What Do I Read Next?
In The American (1877), Henry James explores the conflict between an aristocratic French family and a wealthy, self-made American. This novel marks his initial examination of the contrast between the naive, innocent American and the cultured, corrupt European.
Franz Kafka's unfinished novel Amerika (1927, translated 1938) narrates the adventures and challenges faced by a young European in a surreal, expressionistically depicted America.
Sarah Orne Jewett's The Country of Pointed Firs (1896) features a collection of tales and sketches loosely connected by a thin plot, portraying a Maine seaport town through the eyes of a summer visitor.
Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie (1924-25 in Norwegian; 1927 in English) is a stark and realistic novel by Norwegian-American author Ole E. Rolvaag. It details the mental and physical hardships of a small group of Norwegian farmers who, along with their families, leave Minnesota in 1873 to settle in the then-unopened Dakota Territory. This book is the first in a trilogy that also includes Peder Victorious and Their Father's God.
Sinclair Lewis' Main Street (1920) serves as both a satire and a heartfelt depiction of Gopher Prairie, a typical American town likely inspired by Sauk Centre, Minnesota, where Lewis was born.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850), Hester Prynne undergoes a transformation through the shame of her punishment, wearing an embroidered scarlet letter "A" on her chest as a symbol of her adultery.
O Pioneers! (1913) is Willa Cather's second novel and her first set in Nebraska. Alexandra Bergson, deeply connected to the land, assumes responsibility for her family after her father's death and successfully establishes a prosperous farm.
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) is one of Cather's novels set in the Southwest. It describes the missionary efforts of French bishop Jean Latour and his vicar as they work to establish a diocese in New Mexico.
The most vehement piece of fiction Willa Cather ever wrote is My Mortal Enemy (1926). Myra Henshawe, feeling betrayed by life, dies of cancer, alone and embittered.
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