CHASING BRIGHT MEDUSAS

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 Ántonia. 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.