A few times she made us grayish overalls, sturdy enough to survive all sorts of backyard games. My brother and I wore them too, but my mother also sewed clothes for us.

Like many others, my grandmother pinned a little electrical resistor on her sweater: a symbol of “resistance.” It was a time of shortages, and many children in Poland wore “z darów” clothes, i.e., items collected by humanitarian aid organizations somewhere in Western Europe. My father helped at a local parish distributing food from international aid.

This was not the Stalinist period-people could talk about politics rather freely without worrying that their children might repeat things at school. There was a sense that we-my family, but also a large part of society-were discontented with the conditions of the period. Jacek Dehnel: Fortunately, when one comes into the world one is not yet burdened by knowledge which precedes you! Though, of course, early on I understood I was growing up in unusual times. You were born in Gdańsk, Poland, in the watershed year of 1980-the same year that witnessed massive country-wide strikes and the creation of the independent self-governing labor union “Solidarity” in that same port city. Aside from a prejudiced portrait of a mulatto pianist, this paean to 19th-century prairie life remains fresh and worthy of one’s time.Ellen Hinsey: Jacek Dehnel-you are a poet, novelist, prose writer, and visual artist. Seen through the admiring eyes of narrator Jim Burden, her story, his, and those of the other main characters are delivered with fine shading by Slade. Ántonia is one of American literature’s most striking heroines – strong, independent, spirited, and motherly, she survives and prevails. His storytelling manner gives a sense of reality to this immigrant story about foreign families settling in Nebraska, where their new lives require hard work and they sometimes receive a cool reception.

He delivers the voices of Bohemians, Norwegians, and Russian immigrants with subtlety and captures the cadences of young and old. Slade narrates this classic with warmth and wit. Titles by Willa Cather Titles by Willa Cather My Ántonia (unabridged) O Pioneers! (unabridged) Reviews

My antonia audio