Finished: So Big (Ferber) Pulitzer Price winning novel from 1925 which I had put off reading, but am oh so glad I did! It was a really great story of Selina Peake, a vivacious young woman raised by her gambling father in Chicago in the late 1800's. They go through rich times and poor times, and all throughout, he teaches Selina to explore and enjoy all walks of life...to make every life experience an adventure. When Selina is nineteen, her father is killed, and she must now make it on her own. She decides she'll be a teacher, but must make her start as a farm teacher, miles from Chicago proper into the Dutch farming community. Selina lives with, and becomes close to, the Poole family at first. She's particularly close to their twelve year old son, Roelf, who must now fore go schooling to work on the farm...but who is artistically gifted and who devours all the books Selina brings to the house. The farm life is brutal, especially in the cold months, and especially for the woman of the house who never seems to quit working. Selina is determined that this will just be a phase in her adventurous life, but she doesn't count on falling for the young, handsome gentle giant, Dutch farmer, Pervus DeJong. They fall in love and are married two months after they meet. Unfortunately, Pervus' farm is one of the poorest in the county, and Pervus doesn't want to listen to any of Selina's improvement ideas. Soon, Pervus and Selina are parents to a son, Dirk DeJong. However, Dirk's nickname for most of his life is Sobig...due to the baby game that Selina constantly plays with him, whether working in the run down farmhouse, or out in the fields putting calluses on her once refined hands. Selina never misses a moment to hold her arms out wide and ask the baby "how big is baby?" and answer with "sooooooobig". By the time Dirk is eleven, the farm is barely scraping by and much as he loves his wife, Pervus will still not listen to what a woman has to say about improving farming techniques, laughing at her ordering and reading of various farming books to educate herself. When Pervus dies of a sudden illness, Selina is left to drive their vegetables to market day in Chicago by herself, with only her young son along. Never really accepted by the rest of the farming wives, Selina is now truly shunned, because no woman has ever taken the vegetables to market! It's a man's place. While in town, very few people buy from Selina and she's at her wit's end. She decides to take her produce to the rich side of town and go door to door. In doing so, she runs into an old schoolmate and best friend she'd lost touch with. Her best friend insists that Selina talk with her own father, a successful pig butcher turned richest packer in the country. In turn, the father insists on investing in Selina's farming ideas, as she shows a plan for turning her farm around within two years. She will accept only a loan, and in the two years time, is not only making a comfortable living for herself and her son, but she's able to pay back her loan...AND...her "nonstandard" vegetables like asparagus, become the much desired vegetables of many Chicago restaurants and upper crust families. So, as time goes on, Selina's only desire is to provide for Dirk so that he will never have to be a farmer if he doesn't want to (which he doesn't) and so that he can go to college to become what he wants to. She's disappointed in him, though, when he doesn't really show a passion for anything but picking a profession that will make him rich. We then follow Dirk as he becomes an architect, but one with a low paying salary. After several years of not being able to make the money he wants, he gives up architecture to become a bonds salesman. Selina is dismayed, but Dirk is finally rich. When Dirk meets an eclectic, vivacious artist, Dallas O'Mara, he realizes that her viewpoint on life is far more like his mother's...find the beauty in the world and the various people in the world...not money. As it turns out, Dallas knows the now famous sculpture Roelf Poole! Yes, that Roelf. He'd finally left his parents' farm when he turned seventeen, his mother, the hardworking Mrs. Poole, died in childbirth, and his father remarried a rich widow. Roelf has finally realized his dream of becoming an artist and his work is coveted to boot. When he comes to visit Dallas, who Dirk can see is crazy about Roelf, Roelf realizes that Dirk is Selina's baby boy grown up. Roelf insists they drive out to Selina's farm so she can meet Dallas and so Roelf and Selina can be reunited. Dirk is a bit disgruntled, but goes along. There is a glorious reunion, and Selina adores Dallas. The books ends with Dirk pondering his life and wondering if chasing money was truly the right decision for him after all. So Big is such a good book. Ferber delves deep into the characters, the land, the farming life, the century, etc. Now, to figure out where to put this book in my top 100! :-)