Willa Cather's novels always reflect her fierce passion for the midwestern plains, where she moved with her parents at age 9, but she uses the land not as a character, but as a backdrop for her characters and their search for meaning in life.
Claude Wheeler is a college-age man unable to find his place in life in the 1910's. He is intelligent, strong, and very competent, but he feels unfulfilled by his life as a farmer and searches for meaning or a cause to which he can devote his life. After marrying Enid, a long-time friend, he realizes that life is still unsatisfying and that marriage has provided none of the contentment and sense of purpose that he had expected.
Claude finally discovers his passion when he enlists in the army in World War I. Enid has left him (supposedly temporarily, although she is never heard from again in the novel) to nurse her ailing missionary sister in China and when war is declared Claude enlists and is sent to France. It is during this time, despite being surrounded by influenza, battles, and loss, that he seems to discover his true self and finally become an independent man devoted to what he sees as a noble cause. Claude is a young man born after the vanishing of the American frontier, seeking a solution to his restlessness and his own frontier to tame. In WWI he finds the inspiration and purpose that eluded him in Nebraska.
We discussed One of Ours at our Vintage Book Club in November. This novel provided a great opportunity for conversation and an interesting array of characters (most of whom I have not mentioned in this review). Overall, I think we would all recommend it as a thought=provoking character study.
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