Alexander's Bridge - Willa Cather

Back in 2009 I read the classic by this author, My Antonia, a wonderful story of pioneers in America.  This book is her first story, written in 1912.  It's a beautiful hardback book, with several black and white photos of the times, helping to set the stage for the story.  It tells the tale of Alexander, a bridge builder, as his life unwinds when he reignites an affair of his youth.   At one point he reflects:

"After all, life doesn't offer a man much.  You work like the devil and think you're getting on, and suddenly you discover that you've only been getting yourself tied. up. A million details drink you dry.  Your life keeps going for things you don't want, and all the while you are being built alive into a social structure you don't care a rap about."

The story is not the same caliber as her later works yet it paints a picture of the upper class in Boston at the turn of the century and their struggles with life that are not that different from today.  

I found this book an one of my estate sales in a library that was obviously well loved and carefully cataloged. I'm glad it was saved for this reader.

Publication: 1997 compilation version (written 1912)  Read: July 2013  Genre: Fiction