It’s the 1930s, and the Great Plains are hit simultaneously by both the Great Depression and a massive, multi-year drought. Elsa and her family must make a choice: stay and try to survive in the dust bowl, or leave everything behind, and try to head west to California. As always, Kristin Hannah does a fantastic job of bringing a slice of history to life. Unfortunately, the characters in this one didn’t feel particularly life-like, but it’s still a very worthwhile read.
This book has several deeply memorable parts. First, it does an amazing job of depicting the dust bowl: what it did to the land, the crazy dust storms, how it was caused by irresponsible farming practices, how the farmers refused to believe they were the cause and how reluctant they were to change their practices, and so on. To this day, people are in denial that humans can cause climate change, even though we have well-documented examples of just how much damage we can do to our ecosystems.
Second, the story does a great job of showcasing the anti-immigrant backlash in California. Back then, it was a pushback against immigrants not from other countries, but other US states. The vitriol against “Okies” and “them” was something to see. It was wrong then, and it’s wrong now, but somehow, we never seem to learn.
The only weakness of the story was the characters. I found Elsa and her daughter to be hard to believe or relate to. To be fair, they were faced with brutal situations and impossible choices that I can probably never fully appreciate but somehow, they never acted quite like real people. It’s a shame, as Kristin Hannah often has fantastic characters in her stories. Even in this one, Elsa’s parents in law, the Martinelli’s, felt like deep, real people, far more so than the protagonists.
Nevertheless, it’s a solid book, and well worth reading just for a taste of what the US was like during the turbulent 1930s.
