I avoided reading this book for a while because the premise seemed like such a downer. When Audible had the audiobook on sale, I thought now might be the right time to give it a listen. While I prefer most of my book consumption to be actual reading and I usually only audiobook longer novels, I’m pretty sure that if I had picked up a physical copy of this, I wouldn’t have made it through. The subject matter is serious. Depressing, repetitively so. That said, once I started the audiobook, I had a hard time stopping until I was finished. I also spent a lot of time googling the Dust Bowl era – the 1930s between the market crash in 1929 and the beginning of WWII a decade later when agricultural mistakes in farming caused the soil on the grasslands of the Great Plains to turn to dust which led to a decade long severe drought and constant dust storms.
If you’re unfamiliar with this book, it follows a woman named Elsa living in northern Texas in the early 1930s. Raised believing that she was ugly for being tall and thin, she gets pregnant and is forced to marry the father – an 18 year old Italian living on a wheat farm on the great plains. This new family learns to love her and after having two children, the hardship of having a farm during the Great Depression and what became known as the Dust Bowl caused the father of her children to flee the family. Eventually, in 1935, she takes her two kids and moves to California for a better life. Instead of a job and a new home, she finds herself living in a migrant community struggling for food and water. Also in California are members of the Communist and Socialist parties who fight for workers rights. Elsa and her daughter, now a teenager, who struggle in their relationship to understand each other, end up leading a strike against corporate farms and finally find the understanding they had lacked.
Like I said. Depressing subject matter all around. This book is one hardship after another. Dust storms. Bad marriages. Starvation. Racism. Corporate greed. The Great Depression. A sad, violent history told through the eyes of one family. And yet, the parallels that this novel has with our current political climate cannot be understated. Capitalism is great for corporations, but terrible for workers. Pay is not enough to live off of for lower income folks and is often designed to keep the worker dependent upon the system that keeps them from getting ahead. Irresponsible farming methods causing ecological disasters and drought – and global warming in modern times. Migrants are treated like they aren’t human. Drains on the system even as they do the work many upper class American’s wouldn’t even think of doing. I think the saddest part of this novel is how nothing has really changed except now we have the internet.
Themes of family – husband/wife, mother/daughter – and female friendship run throughout this book, woven into the external plot devices with delicate precision. The arc of Elsa who grew up feeling as though she would never fit in or be good enough for anything is truly something to observe as she finally finds within herself the courage to lead even though it was there all along. That is the true strength of this story and probably the reason I made it through.
What I find so interesting about Kristin Hannah’s writing is that she can spend pages talking about the mundane motions of everyday lives – laundry, jobs, dinner, cleaning, sweeping up all that dust – and it’s still somehow an interesting read. How these characters can find accomplishment in simple tasks as the think through the harsher facts about their lives is truly amazing. Hannah always writes with care, populating her stories with women who are sometimes imperfect but always genuine. Their relationships a web of heartbreak and love.
This book won’t be for everyone. I had a hard time with the communists in this even if their intentions were better than those of corporate farmers. Maybe it’s because I grew up during the cold war. Maybe its because I associate communism with regimes who don’t have their citizens’ best interests at heart. And, as I said, this book as a whole is a huge downer. While the daughter makes it to college in the end, getting there was one terrible thing after another. If you like Kristin Hannah’s writing, give this one a go but know that the themes about struggle making us stronger aren’t for the faint of heart.
4 out of 5 stars.
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Becky Tyler Art and Photography 
I avoided reading this book for a while because the premise seemed like such a downer. When Audible had the audiobook on sale, I thought now might be the right time to give it a listen. While I prefer most of my book consumption to be actual reading and I usually only audiobook longer novels, I’m pretty sure that if I had picked up a physical copy of this, I wouldn’t have made it through. The subject matter is serious. Depressing, repetitively so. That said, once I started the audiobook, I had a hard time stopping until I was finished. I also spent a lot of time googling the Dust Bowl era – the 1930s between the market crash in 1929 and the beginning of WWII a decade later when agricultural mistakes in farming caused the soil on the grasslands of the Great Plains to turn to dust which led to a decade long severe drought and constant dust storms.
If you’re unfamiliar with this book, it follows a woman named Elsa living in northern Texas in the early 1930s. Raised believing that she was ugly for being tall and thin, she gets pregnant and is forced to marry the father – an 18 year old Italian living on a wheat farm on the great plains. This new family learns to love her and after having two children, the hardship of having a farm during the Great Depression and what became known as the Dust Bowl caused the father of her children to flee the family. Eventually, in 1935, she takes her two kids and moves to California for a better life. Instead of a job and a new home, she finds herself living in a migrant community struggling for food and water. Also in California are members of the Communist and Socialist parties who fight for workers rights. Elsa and her daughter, now a teenager, who struggle in their relationship to understand each other, end up leading a strike against corporate farms and finally find the understanding they had lacked.
Like I said. Depressing subject matter all around. This book is one hardship after another. Dust storms. Bad marriages. Starvation. Racism. Corporate greed. The Great Depression. A sad, violent history told through the eyes of one family. And yet, the parallels that this novel has with our current political climate cannot be understated. Capitalism is great for corporations, but terrible for workers. Pay is not enough to live off of for lower income folks and is often designed to keep the worker dependent upon the system that keeps them from getting ahead. Irresponsible farming methods causing ecological disasters and drought – and global warming in modern times. Migrants are treated like they aren’t human. Drains on the system even as they do the work many upper class American’s wouldn’t even think of doing. I think the saddest part of this novel is how nothing has really changed except now we have the internet.
Themes of family – husband/wife, mother/daughter – and female friendship run throughout this book, woven into the external plot devices with delicate precision. The arc of Elsa who grew up feeling as though she would never fit in or be good enough for anything is truly something to observe as she finally finds within herself the courage to lead even though it was there all along. That is the true strength of this story and probably the reason I made it through.
What I find so interesting about Kristin Hannah’s writing is that she can spend pages talking about the mundane motions of everyday lives – laundry, jobs, dinner, cleaning, sweeping up all that dust – and it’s still somehow an interesting read. How these characters can find accomplishment in simple tasks as the think through the harsher facts about their lives is truly amazing. Hannah always writes with care, populating her stories with women who are sometimes imperfect but always genuine. Their relationships a web of heartbreak and love.
This book won’t be for everyone. I had a hard time with the communists in this even if their intentions were better than those of corporate farmers. Maybe it’s because I grew up during the cold war. Maybe its because I associate communism with regimes who don’t have their citizens’ best interests at heart. And, as I said, this book as a whole is a huge downer. While the daughter makes it to college in the end, getting there was one terrible thing after another. If you like Kristin Hannah’s writing, give this one a go but know that the themes about struggle making us stronger aren’t for the faint of heart.
4 out of 5 stars.
Discover more from Becky Tyler Art and Photography
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
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