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erinbrenner's review
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
A powerful, thoughtful story of what it was like to watch your farm literally blow away, move to California to start again, starve, be looked down on, be cheated, and still find a way to survive.
Babb's novel is an intimate, personal look at these events and her characters are so real, I want to look them up and see how they survived after the last page.
This should have been published in 1939 and Random House was set to do so until Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" became so popular. The world "didn't need" two books on the Dust Bowl and Depression. I call BS. They didn't want a woman upstaging a successful man. Otherwise why wait 40+ years to publish?
But go read this book and decide for yourself.
Babb's novel is an intimate, personal look at these events and her characters are so real, I want to look them up and see how they survived after the last page.
This should have been published in 1939 and Random House was set to do so until Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" became so popular. The world "didn't need" two books on the Dust Bowl and Depression. I call BS. They didn't want a woman upstaging a successful man. Otherwise why wait 40+ years to publish?
But go read this book and decide for yourself.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage and Classism
Moderate: Pregnancy
Minor: Antisemitism, Racism, Misogyny, and Death
alex2teeuw's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
As a fan of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath I felt obliged to read Babb's (very) similar novel, Whose Names Are Unknown. I was not disappointed. The novel is a great read: chillingly authentic (based on Babb's own experiences) and informative. I find it more reflective of the hardships endured during the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma. Dust, and dust storms specifically, feature far more than in Steinbeck's novel (which focusses more on displacement to California). This, among other things, makes Whose Names Are Unknown more of a historical text - or a source - than Steinbeck's far more polemic Grapes of Wrath, whose intercalary chapters lucidly introduce more theoretical ideas (capital accumulation, alienation, surplus production and deception; although Babb manages to articulate socialist themes far more fluently within the main commentary itself). Both are brilliant books. And both have plenty in common. Too much in common? Yes - some passages in Steinbeck's The Grapes appear to be plagiarised from Babb's Whose Names.
Above all, then, I was impressed by Babb's novel. It's not a masterpiece. But it deserves far more recognition. It needs to be published more. It needs to stand next to The Grapes of Wrath in bookshops. The Rosalind Franklin of realist literature deserves the full credit subsumed by Steinbeck.
Above all, then, I was impressed by Babb's novel. It's not a masterpiece. But it deserves far more recognition. It needs to be published more. It needs to stand next to The Grapes of Wrath in bookshops. The Rosalind Franklin of realist literature deserves the full credit subsumed by Steinbeck.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Violence, Classism, Grief, Racism, Xenophobia, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, and Racial slurs
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