Chasing Bright Medusas

September 4, 2023
Memoirist Taylor (Here We Are) examines in this solid critical biography the ideas and passions that animated the life and work of novelist Willa Cather (1873–1947). Taylor emphasizes the importance of place to Cather and contends that her family’s move to Red Cloud, Nebr., from Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley when she was nine proved “profoundly” formative, inspiring the setting for several of her novels and exposing her to a diverse array of immigrants who led her to view America “as a gathering of peoples from elsewhere.” Taylor offers a matter-of-fact overview of Cather’s career, noting that The Song of the Lark (1915) fictionalized the life of singer Oliver Fremstad while dramatizing Cather’s own artistic aspirations and that A Lost Lady (1923) marked the maturation of the novelist’s style, defined by psychological depth and “meanings evoked but not belabored.” Taylor demonstrates a willingness to take Cather to task for her antisemitism and astutely contextualizes Cather among her contemporaries, arguing that she stands out among the era’s modernists, who wrote skeptically about the “deceptiveness of ideals,” because of her “unguarded admiration” for the “antique virtues: valor, loyalty, fulfillment of some high destiny.” It’s a strong overview of Cather’s bibliography that’s as concise as her best novels.

September 15, 2023
A study of the intellectual and spiritual coordinates of a great American author. In 13 short chapters, Taylor, the author of Here We Are: My Friendship With Philip Roth and The Hue and Cry at Our House, provides a remarkably revealing account of the life and creative output of Willa Cather (1873-1947). The author argues for Cather's essentially religious sensibility in a skeptical age, focusing on her "antagonism to the times in which she lived" and affirmation of "the antique virtues: valor, loyalty, fulfillment of some high destiny." Taylor pairs informed appraisals of his subject's upbringing, the conditions of her ascent to literary stardom, and the intellectual milieu in which she lived with subtle, edifying analyses of major works, including The Song of the Lark and My �ntonia. The author also elegantly summarizes Cather's understanding of the nation's enduring possibilities for self-invention. Taylor's connection of Cather's personal life and her literary inventions is consistently astute, and the exuberant force of her imagination emerges vividly. Also satisfying is the author's examination of Cather's descriptive genius, illustrated by a generous selection of quotations. Ultimately, we gain a clear sense of how Cather's artistic sensibility took shape, including how her copious journalistic work generated for her "a lasting frame of reference." Other peculiarities in her attitudes, from her distaste for modern technology to her oscillation between antisemitism and philosemitism, are placed in useful relation to her fiction. In a work as brief as this, readers may wish for extended analyses of key topics. For example, Taylor may have profitably elaborated on his insights regarding Cather's complex sexual and gender identity and its relevance to her fictive worlds, her fascination with forms of self-violence, or her relationships with literary contemporaries. Nevertheless, the author presents a rewarding and perceptive portrait, providing a valuable assessment of Cather's intriguing character and the enduring importance of her oeuvre. Keen, insightful commentary on a literary master.

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October 1, 2023

Author of the multi-best-booked Proust, Taylor takes to Chasing Bright Medusas as he revisits the life and work of Willa Cather, arguing that her work should be sought out more vigorously today. Prepub Alert.

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Starred review from November 1, 2023
Born Wilella Sibert Cather in 1873 in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, the future literary giant would, at age nine, move with her family to the plains of Nebraska, a setting that influenced much of Cather's writing. Young Willa had planned to study medicine until a teacher secretly submitted one of her essays for publication. Seeing her name in print had a hypnotic effect, and she endeavored to be a writer forthwith. Writing helped her find her identity. Taylor's deep reading and extensive knowledge of Cather's work, from her poetry, letters, and stories to her classic novels, allows him to fluidly and expertly use quotations from Cather's writings to illuminate her experiences and evolution. Cather found the modernist movement lacking; instead, she favored characters rendered beautifully, with splendid psychological insights, such as Georgiana from the story "A Wagner Matinee," in which an old farm woman rediscovers her love of music: "It never really died, then--the soul which can suffer so excruciatingly and so interminably; it withers to the outward eye only; like that strange moss which can lie on a dusty shelf half a century and yet, if placed in water, grows green again." Taylor's stunning achievement should similarly renew enthusiasm for Cather.

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