A beautiful little essay at the New Yorker discusses Willa Cather and O Pioneers! on the occasion of the book's 100th anniversary.

This line intrigued me, as I had never considered this idea before: "Cather was fundamentally a Platonist; she believed that vision was more real than reality."

The essayist writes, "Others of Cather’s books—for example, “The Professor’s House”—are sadder than “O Pioneers!,” because, being less romantic, they are harder to regard as a fiction. But this is the one that takes a knife and stabs you through the heart, by its joining of such ravishment with such pessimism."