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    The Song of the Lark
    The Song of the Lark
    The Song of the Lark
    Audiobook16 hours

    The Song of the Lark

    Written by Willa Cather

    Narrated by Pam Ward

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The daughter of a Swedish minister growing up in Colorado, Thea Kronborg's musical talent sets her apart from her contemporaries. Driven by her determination to satisfy her artistic impulse, she moves to Chicago, where she falls in love with a wealthy married man. The novel follows Thea's growth from provincial midwesterner to acclaimed international opera singer. Her ability to resolve the tensions between her personal and professional lives and to communicate through her art makes her an unusual and thoroughly modern heroine.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateNov 2, 2010
    ISBN9781400189786
    Author

    Willa Cather

    Willa Cather (1873-1947) was born in Virginia and raised on the Nebraska prairie. She worked as a newspaper writer, teacher, and managing editor of McClure's magazine. In addition to My Ántonia, her books include O Pioneers! (1913) and The Professor's House. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for One of Ours.

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    Reviews for The Song of the Lark

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    • 4/5
      This is the second work of Willa Cather's that I've read (previously read O Pioneers!) but it convinced me to read all of Cather's works (My Antonia is next). The theme wasn't quite as strong as in O Pioneers, but there were moments that were so insightful, beautiful, and touching that it was very much worth the reading. I love how all of the feelings and emotions are described and explained. The sentiment mixed with duty (whether to others or oneself) is tangible. How Thea's journey to unleash her artistic side is so intrinsically tied to her memories of home makes for a deeply touching story.
    • 4/5
      Published in 1915, this is a beautifully written novel about the life of Thea Kronberg, a feisty female protagonist who overcomes the social restrictions of the time and eventually makes her mark as an opera singer. It opens in the 1890s, when Thea is eleven years old. She is one of seven children born to a Scandinavian immigrant family in the small (fictional) town of Moonstone, Colorado. She learns piano and gives lessons. She eventually moves to Chicago to pursue vocal performance education. This book is the second in the Great Plains trilogy (along with O Pioneers! and My Antonia), Willa Cather’s narratives of strong women in the American West, but it can easily be read as a standalone. One of Cather’s strengths is the ability to vividly depict the landscapes of the places Thea visits. It is an early example of relationships in which the men in the story admire the woman for her ambition and talents and help her achieve her goals. It has aged well. I can see why it is considered a classic.
    • 5/5
      I fell in love with The Song of the Lark the first time I read it about twenty years ago. I was in my twenties and read it for a graduate seminar. As a budding feminist, I was captivated by the depiction of a young girl who has talent and passion and who pursues her dreams into adulthood, eventually achieving great success in her field. She didn't give it all up to get married or die tragically young. I admired how Cather slowed the action down to detail the influences in Thea's younger life, her hard work, and the sacrifices that she made for her art. My favorite part of the book remains Part IV: The Ancient People. I think it's one of the most beautiful and unusual pieces in American literature and I've often re-read that section just for the pleasure of it.

      With this reading I was blown away by the character of the tramp. It's not that he commits suicide by drowning himself in the well and contaminating the town water supply with typhoid that captured my imagination, but the fact that he performs as a clown. As someone who used my high school math classes back in the early 80s as time to read the latest Stephen King novel, I can't believe I didn't pick up on the utter creepiness of the tramp as clown in my earlier reading. From the first scene where Thea watches him walk into town and can smell him from the safety of her porch, it's pretty unsettling. You know he's a bad omen. But then Thea catches his smell and covers her nose with her handkerchief: "A moment later she was sorry, for she knew that he had noticed it." The tramps notices her disgust, looks away, "and shuffled a little faster" past her house. In a horror novel, Thea would have been a marked woman. A few days later Thea sees him performing in front of one of the saloons: "his bony body grotesquely attired in a clown's suit, his face shaved and painted white,--the sweat trickling through the paint and washing it away,--and his eyes wild and feverish." Part of me feels compassion for the man, but I also hear horror music screeching in the background. Cather so gracefully creates a powerful, yet subtle aura of horror with this character. It makes me wish she would have tried her hand at the ghost story.
      More interested than ever to see this.

      Overall, however, I admit that it was hard for me to get through The Song of the Lark this time. Part of the problem was I started reading it in ebook format and that was just not a good fit for me with this novel. Once I switched over to a hard copy the reading went a bit better, but the book still wore me out at times. I'm still pondering whether that's due to the variety of literary styles and imagery Cather used or whether it boils down to the fact that I no longer admire the myth or archetype of the Great Artist who gives up their humanity for their art.

      One of the big discussions that I recall from the seminar where I first encountered Thea, was whether or not Thea is selfish, and whether we'd even ask such a question if the story were about a man. From my twenty-something perspective, I did not think Thea was selfish. I thought her drive and self-discipline was admirable. I was excited by her commitment to her passion and figured her mom understood why Thea did not come home to visit when she was on her deathbed. And it's not like she's begging Dr. Archie and Ottenburg to flutter about like they do. With this reading I saw the older Thea not so much as selfish, but as heartless and cold.

      In her preface to the Autograph Edition in 1937 Cather wrote that she was portraying one type of artist, the type whose "personal life becomes paler as the imaginative life becomes richer." I was relieved to read this because it means that perhaps there are healthier and happier ways to be an artist. One doesn't have to end up a washed-up alcoholic like Wunsch, or be driven periodically insane by one's passion like Spanish Johnny, or live in emotional isolation like Thea. Or--shudder--end up completely mad like the clown.
    • 4/5
      This was certainly a dating book for 1915. Thea Kronberg is a minister’s daughter in a small, provincial Colorado town who has talents and dreams that her hometown cannot fulfill. With the help of Dr. ARchie a local doctor who acts as her mentor and Ray, a railway worker who is in love with her, she heads to Chicago to pursue a musical career as a pianist.Once there, her teacher, Mr. Harsanyis, tell her that her real talent is not the piano, but her voice and that she should pursue a career as an opera singer. Through Harsanyis, Thea meets Fred Ottenberg the heir to a t. Louis beer family, who further encourages her efforts. When Thea becomes ill, Fred tells her to spend the summer in Arizona with fiends of his, the Bitmers. Thea learns to love the high desert and the ancient cliff dwellings. When Fred joins her in July, and after the two of them are trapped in a storm, they realize their feeling for one another. Fred then suggests that they go to Mexico City before she leaves for further vocal training in Germany.In Mexico Fred confesses to Thea that he has been married for 8 years, but has been living apart from his estranged wife. Thea says she understands, but since he’s married she cannot continue their relationship or take any financial help from him for her studies. She writes to Dr. Archie who finances both her passage across the Atlantic and her studies in Germany.The scene then shifts to ten years later both Fred & Dr. Archie are in New York to hear Thea perform. She is rising star singing Wagner. When she performs Sieglinde she proves that their trust in her and all her hard work have paid off. Thea has followed her talent and established a successful and independent life for herself and found happiness and contentment.This book was ahead of its time and can be an excellent roadmap for young women today.
    • 4/5
      [The Song of the Lark] is about a young woman, Thea Kronberg, growing up in the West who is a talented musician with dreams of success. She'll have to leave her town of Moonstone to be in the spotlight. She moves to Chicago and ultimately to Europe, but is still drawn to the beauty of the American West. The book is a portrait of an ambitious artist and the ups and downs of that sort of life. I enjoyed this. I thought that Cather did a really good job exploring what it's like to learn a craft like being a successful professional musician. I found it much more realistic than other books I've read on this subject. I also liked that it wasn't overdramatic - this isn't a [[Thomas Hardy]] novel where everyone fails and/or dies. There's some sadness and nostalgia and typical life questions about whether chosen paths were really the best. But in the end, Cather does what I think is harder to write - creates a character with great depth and subtlety. I don't think this novel stands out for me as much as [My Antonia] or [O, Pioneers], but I would recommend if you enjoy Cather and haven't read this yet.
    • 3/5
      "You can't try to do things right and not despise the people who do them wrong."

      The story of a young girl who parties on the Mexican side of town in Colorado and grows up to become a true diva.

      If only she saw the look on Spanish Johnny's face at the end...
    • 5/5
      New lady crush: activated. Cather has written a beautifully compelling Kunstlerroman (coming of age of the artist, in layman's terms) that is also deeply unsentimental and blunt. I cannot recommend it enough.
    • 4/5
      Cather vocalizes the vivacity and torment of raw talent - from a very few others recognizing a non-specific light, self-realization, the quest for knowledge & refinement, discovering you have no peers (at least not in geographic proximity or possibly even contemporary), the balls-out energy required to deliver your talent to the masses, and the consciousness that still only a few truly appreciate it.
    • 4/5
      Primarily an exploration of the artistic drive but also a description of a time (1890 to 1920) and places (Colorado, Arizona, Chicago, and New York City)
    • 4/5
      I am writing this review almost two months after reading the story so I will just provide some general observations, as memory serves. The Song of the Lark is Cather’s third novel, and is considered to be the second book in her Prairie’s Trilogy. The story itself is straightforward. Readers follow Thea Kronberg as she grows from a young girl with a beautiful singing voice to a woman who’s focused ambition leads her to become a prima donna singer. Not a “rags to riches” story. Thea’s story is one of how no matter how high your ambitions or how far you move away from your home, one never really leaves their past behind them. Thea is a strong woman, but she does have her flaws. I found it hard to emotionally invest myself in Thea’s character. Her driving ambition, at the expense of her relationship with her Swedish Methodist family, is laudable as it does achieve its end goal, but at an enormous cost, IMO. As with other Cather novels I have read, the setting – and Cather’s wonderful descriptions – play a key role in our heroine’s character development. Different aspects of Thea’s character come forward in different settings. Cather’s beautifully descriptive, straightforward prose makes this story a joy to read, although I did find the characterization to be more forced/contrived than I have found in other Cather novels I have read. I struggled with the last section. While it brings closure to the story, I found it came across as something that Cather may have rewritten a few times, never fully satisfied with the result. Even with these less than perfect aspects, I loved this story, as I have with the other Cather novels I have read so far.
    • 3/5
      Loved the beginning. Thea's growing up in Colorado and the adults who helped her along the way. I loved the section on Thea's time in Arizona. It was beautifully written and made me long to be in those canyons and cliff dwellings. The ending bored me. I felt I needed to know German or more about opera.
    • 4/5
      The Song of the Lark is the story of the making of an artist. Thea Kronborg is transformed from a minister's daughter living in a small Colorado town to a world renowned opera singer. Cather's protagonists tend to be strong, industrious women and Thea is no exception. Once Thea recognizes that her voice (not her piano playing) is a gift and that she has the stuff that artists are made of, there is no stopping her. Thea is fortunate to have the support of several good men in her life (Ray, Dr. Archie and Frank) who encourage her and provide her with the means to pursue her dream. I did not like this book as well as O Pioneers or My Antonia but I still enjoyed it.
    • 3/5
      I was disappointed in this second of Willa Cather's Prairie Trilogy. While the writing is very good, I disliked Thea, the main character. There is a richness in the description of life in Colorado and New York during those times and the characters are very well drawn. The story takes a fairly long time to unfold and I sometimes found my attention wandering and decided the story itself just didn't grip me as much as it might have. I will go on to read the third and final book in the series, My Antonia.
    • 5/5
      Cather is an interesting storyteller. This story leaves you wondering what else will happen.
    • 3/5
      Not my favorite of Cather's books, but I did enjoy this one. My favorite part was the beginning when Thea is still at home and the whole world is new. Some great characters, but it was very slow.
    • 3/5
      What a disappointment this book was. I've loved just about all the Cather I've read, even minor works, but this seemed endless, and after about 80% I realized I just didn't care what happened to the characters and so quit.
    • 4/5
      Song of the Lark by Willa Cather was an interesting read that had a autobiographical feel to it as the subject matter was about a young girl developing into an artist, in this case a singer, and is set against the backdrop of the American West. I couldn’t help but wonder if the author implanted some of her own traits and feelings into Thea as she grew up knowing herself to be different from the rest of her family and the people of the small Western town of Moonstone, Colorado.Willa Cather writes with great authority and this story details Theas’ determination and strong work ethic as she strives to reach her goals. Originally training to be a piano teacher, when her instructor hears her voice she is told that her voice is worth all that she can put into it. Through the course of the book, Thea learns to put her art first, and although there are setbacks, she eventually finds that her singing is what she gets the most pleasure from.What made this book come alive for me were the various characters that Thea met along the way, and the author’s descriptive writing that makes the American West come alive on the pages. This was a book that, didn’t entirely sweep me away, but was still a very good read. I did appreciate how the book came full circle with Thea, her friends and even with its’ ending back in Moonstone, Colorado.
    • 4/5
      Our title “lark” is Thea Kronborg, a young girl growing up in Colorado in the late 19th century. Even at a young age her musical talent is obvious. She learns how to play the piano and her ability soon out shines the resources available in her tiny hometown. Thea’s story is told in six sections which chronicle her struggle to become an artist. We watch as she befriends the community doctor, teaches piano lessons, loses a good friend in an accident, discovers the Mexican community in her town, and more. As she grows up she begins the lifelong battle to find a balance between ambition and family, a desire to succeed and her personal relationships. Her journey is a long one, taking her at times away from her goal or into lonely places to improve her talent. The message that seems to echo throughout time is that you can have success and glory or you can have a life filled with family and friends. So often the two seem mutually exclusive. The closer Thea got to her dream, the farther she was from the people who loved her most. When Thea heads to Denver to study music it's a lot like a freshman leaving for college for the first time. They ache for the life they are leaving, but when they return home everything feels different. But in reality she’s the one who has changed, and her experiences are making her see her family in a whole new light. They have completely different in goals and values and she has a hard time reconciling her feelings with this new discovery. As her priorities shift, she can’t relate to her family in the same way she used to. They have so little in common and a shared childhood can only get you so far. Their intolerance of the Mexican people makes no sense to her and only drives them further apart. I think many people have the same realization when they leave home in those formative years. As you discover more about the world around you and the views of other people, you begin to question the things you took for granted as fact in your youth. Thea’s talent is both a gift and a curse. Life is almost simpler for those who aren’t endowed with natural abilities that shine so brightly. Less is expected from them and they are able to choose their path with lower expectations. * This is technically the second novel in the author’s Prairie Trilogy, but each novel works as a standalone.BOTTOM LINE: Cather’s writing is beautiful and I can’t wait to read more of her work. I didn’t love it quite as much as “O Pioneers!” but Thea’s struggle resonated with me. She learned so much over the years. She had to make difficult decisions about her future. As we grow up we are shaped by our experience and the paths we choose. That still remains true a century after the book was first published. “There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.”“People live through such pain only once. Pain comes again—but it finds a tougher surface.” “Art is only a way of remembering youth. And the older we grow the more precious it seems to us."
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. I was first introduced to Willa Cather as a teenager when my mother urged me to read My Antonia. Over the years I have randomly picked up other novels by Cather -- Sapphira and the Slave Girl, O Pioneers!, Shadows on the Rock, Obscure Destinies, and the odd short story that has been anthologized in lit. textbooks. This is my favorite.The Song of the Lark, a kunstlerroman, chronicles the adolescence and growth into artistry of Thea Kronborg, the daughter of a Methodist minister in a small northern Colorado town who becomes a renowned opera diva.Thea, a middle child in a large Swedish family, seems destined for something larger, even as a young girl. She is noticed by the town doctor, adored by a young railway man, provided with piano lessons by her mother, and driven to hard work and accomplishment by her piano teacher. Eventually she makes her way to Chicago to study piano, and her voice is discovered. Thea's journey is fascinating, but it is her surroundings (her kith and kin, if you will) that make the book so rich and resonant. Cather captures the life and landscape of growing up in a small Plains town vividly: the relationships among the siblings in a large family, the small town scrutiny of the preacher's daughter, the uneasy relationship between the "American" side and the "Mexican" side of the town, the central role the railroad played in the settling of the West, and most importantly the natural landscape, both of Colorado Plains and later of the Arizona cliff lands. Cather herself grew up in Red Cloud, Nebraska, in similar circumstances, and much of Thea's childhood draws from Cather's -- down to the description of the prized bedroom which she claimed for herself in her teens. We went to Cather's childhood home in Red Cloud a couple of years ago, and the bedroom remains preserved as it is described in The Song of the Lark.Cather's characterization of Thea is unsentimental, recognizing the hardness that one must develop in order to achieve great artistry. In many ways, this is an old-fashioned book -- full of wonderful characters and unashamed of its values.
    • 4/5
      Some of the elements are familiar--the misfit child in a backwater who by dint of energy and talent rises to international fame--the changes it puts her through. Is it talent or drive or a unique combination of the two? She gets some breaks, but she seizes and uses them. As her fame rises the old town of Moonstone and its characters fade and dissipate, leaving only a few characters to see the whole story. Cather was criticized for the epilogue, but I think it was brilliant.
    • 3/5
      After finishing O Pioneers and loving it, I thought I'd pick this up next and read the Prairie Trilogy in order. I won't say I regret doing that, exactly, but there's definitely a reason this book isn't as well known (or as widely praised) as O Pioneers. The show-to-tell ratio in this book is, unfortunately, much lower than in its predecessor. Either through her narration or, more tediously still, through her characters, Cather gives voice to a number of philosophical declarations, especially about the nature of being an artist (not to say the nature of art, really). Some are interesting, some are not, but few are very enlivening, and whole sections of the book are mired in these discussions. Apart from that, it's not bad, and there's plenty to like as well. The characters, despite their occasional roles as vessels for Cather's philosophizing, are relatively well fleshed out and interesting. Still, I expect to enjoy the last Prairie novel (My Antonia) more, and I certainly did O Pioneers.
    • 3/5
      Interesting book about the creation of a true artist, in this case, an opera singer. Lots of poignant description of Colorado small-town life during the late 1800's - early 1900's when telegrams and railroads ruled the day. We learn the price of artistry when approached as an all-consuming quest, although it is difficult to define what the quest is actually seeking. I enjoyed the setting early in the book, felt a little burdened by the constant philosophizing about perfecting ones 'art,' and felt completely over my head with all of the specific operatic references and the German song lyrics that peppered the entire book. Never really liked the main character all that much, although that was likely the point. All in all, a very mixed bag yielding my 3 stars. Interesting edition utilizing the original 1915 text, which had different uses of contractions that i had been otherwise unfamiliar with. Ok, but not great for me.
    • 4/5
      [The Song of the Lark] is [Willa Cather]'s third novel, apparently written between [O Pioneers!] and [My Antonia]. It demonstrates the surprising range of her writing beyond the prairies of Nebraska. This one is about a small town Colorado girl, Thea Kronborg, possessed of a compelling musical gift, and her determination to experience it fully.Thea grows up in a large household in Moonstone, Colorado, headed by her highly organized and insightful mother. "Mrs. Kronborg's children were all trained to dress themselves at the earliest possible age, to make their own beds - the boys as well as the girls - to take care of their clothes, to eat what was given them, and to keep out of the way. Mrs. Kronborg would have been a good chess-player; she had a head for moves and positions."But Thea can feel herself being called away from the predictable life waiting for her. "Thea got her music book and stole quietly out of the garden. She did not go home, but wandered off into the sand dunes, where the prickly pear was in blossom and the green lizards were racing each other in the glittering light. She was awakened by a passionate excitement. She did not altogether understand what {music teacher} Wunsch was talking about; and yet, in a way, she knew. She knew, of course, that there was something about her that was different. But it was more like a friendly spirit than like anything that was part of herself. She brought everything to it, and it answered her; happiness consisted of that backward and forward movement of herself."She can only learn so much in Moonstone, and eventually is sent to study with a music teacher in Chicago. He turns out to be just what this talented, but naive and largely untrained, girl needs. "It was like a wild bird that had flown into his studio on Middleton Street from goodness knew how far! No one knew that it had come, or even that it existed; least of all the strange, crude girl in whose throat beat its passionate wings." How far can she travel on those passionate wings?The book is divided into three parts. The first, set in Moonstone, will feel familiar to those who have read the more famous Nebraska novels. But Thea is a fish out of water in many ways, strikingly illustrated by an evening she spends in the Mexican part of town, enchanted with music, as she sings with Spanish Johnny and others. Her family, except for her mother, finds it scandalous. Her mother understands her, and essentially asks the others what their problem is. The last two parts of the book chronicle Thea's learning about her craft and living in the city, as well as her breakthroughs, as she rises in the world of music. She is spiky and not always likeable, but there is no deviation from her integrity, charisma or passion. In another lovely section of the book, a paramour invites her to spend her summer at his ranch in northern Arizona, where she spends nearly all her time exploring Panther Canyon and the ruins of the cave houses and "rock-rooms" of the long gone ancient Cliffdwellers. There her mind empties and the way forward becomes clear. The book is filled with vibrant, real characters, many of whom try to help her on her way. That she will continue to fight to realize her gift, and the rewards of performance, is never in doubt. "As long as she lived that ecstasy was going to be hers. She would live for it, work for it, die for it; but she was going to have it, time after time, height after height." I'd love to know more about where in Cather's experience this all comes from,; it's a fascinating and rewarding read. We accompany Thea as she struggles to make herself a successful artist and person, to surmount her small town ignorance and limitations, and to attempt to become a big city and international presence. Yet that small town upbringing remains ever in her thoughts, and a guide for her actions. The book title comes from a painting of a girl working in a field that she sees in the Art Institute of Chicago. When she sees it, it simply strikes her as"right". "The flat country, the early morning light, the wet fields, the look in the girl's heavy face - well, they were all hers, anyhow, whatever was there." It's the transformation of that girl, along with what will never be transformed, that makes for such an captivating reading experience.
    • 4/5
      A classic of course. A lovely glimpse of life in “Moonstone,” a small town in Colorado around the beginning of the twentieth century. Since most reviewers have emphasized the artistic, operatic themes of the book, I’d like to mention her sense of place and background. Thea, the singer, develops an international career and leaves behind the conservative attitudes of her childhood. She becomes sophisticated, hardened, practical, and she is a wonderful character. Yet what I most enjoyed is that at the height of her career she finds comfort in remembering the home of her childhood, her family, and in the steadfast support from her old friend Dr. Archie. She braces herself against these memories and values. As she says to Dr. Archie, “…I always measure high buildings by that Moonstone standpipe. There are standards we can’t get away from.”
    • 4/5
      I love Cather and this book is very good, it just seems less unified than some of her other books. Also, I found the ending unsatisfying. I thought she was trying perhaps a bit too hard to weave in her philosophy of art.
    • 4/5
      The Song of the Lark is the story of Thea Kronborg, a small town Colorado girl with a big dream of developing her natural musical talent into something extraordinary. Thea is fortunate that several of the adults in her life recognize that she has a combination of raw talent and strength of will to do something great. Her mother, Doctor Archie, piano teacher Professor Wunsch, and her great admirer Ray Kennedy provide nurture and guidance through her adolescent years. When Thea has absorbed all that Moonstone has to offer her, she leaves to study music in first Chicago, then further afield. Although Thea leaves Moonstone behind, it never leaves her.I have mixed feelings about this novel. The first half is outstanding, but the second half is mediocre. As soon as Thea leaves Moonstone for good, the novel seems to lose its bearings. The rest of the novel seems to wander. The dialogue becomes lackluster. Perhaps Cather intended this, though, to illustrate how large a role Moonstone played in Thea's identity. Readers without knowledge or love of music may find it difficult to stick with this book all the way to the end.
    • 4/5
      1077 The Song of the Lark, by Willa Cather (read 19 Sep 1970) I wasn't going to read any more Cather, but I read her short story, Old Rosicky, and was so moved that I decided to read all her work. This book, The Song of the Lark, was published in 1915. it is not one of her best, but it had its moments. It tells the story of Thea Kronberg, of Moonstone, Colo.. A Methodist preacher's daughter, she becomes a great opera singer. It is sort of women's fiction, but better. Yet the theme seems diffused in a way. But I am not sorry I read it.
    • 5/5
      Ranging from Arizona cliff dwellers, Moonstone to Chicago, New York and beyond this book tells of Thea Kronborg’s voyage of discovery. She was destined to become a Wagnerian soprano and the book chronicles that journey and the characters she encounters en route. The relationship between herself and the places she travels are described and reflected upon, her work, her being and the places she inhabits are inextricably intertwined. With a forward by A.S. Byatt this Virago edition of 1982 was originally pared down in 1932 by Cather herself. Apparently it was originally two hundred thousand words long but she cut it savagely by about ten percent. The writing is often moving and at times rhapsodic (to quote Byatt). A delight to read, this rags to riches journey of self discovery also related to the artistic ambitions and self discovery of the author herself.
    • 5/5
      Cather's book is so consistently wonderful. The development of a young girl into an acclaimed opera singer and all the people and experiences along the way combine for a fabulous, sweeping story. From a small town in Colorado, to Chicago, to New York, to Europe and back, the reader journey's through the triumphs and losses of this memorable character, Thea Kronberg. There were some moments which made me cry, and others which made me chuckle. Most of all, a bittersweet feeling permeates the book, full of the poignant relationships which keep Thea going on her life journey.