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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
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