Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Whose Names Are Unknown by Sanora Babb

7 reviews

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.

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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. 


 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Violence, Classism, Grief, Racism, Xenophobia, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, and Racial slurs

mondovertigo'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Classism, Suicide, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Racial slurs

theirgracegrace's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Pregnancy, and Vomit

This book was originally written in the 1930's and was only published recently, so approach with caution with that in mind.

mitrabird2010's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Xenophobia

manarnia's review

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

The subject matter of this book is dark and bleak, but the book is compellingly written, with highs and lows and beautiful moments of hope and companionship.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Suicide, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Grief, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Violence, and Xenophobia

Minor: Animal death, Blood, and Gore

skudiklier's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

I never read The Grapes of Wrath, and I pretty much knew nothing about this book going in, besides that it wasn't published for a long time and John Green likes it. The characters, story, and writing are all very good. It was sad and hard to read at times, and there were some especially dark passages that I wasn't quite prepared for. It's easy to connect these people's struggles to the state of our world now, and makes me tired to think about. But it's a very good book and I'm glad I read it. My favorite line was "What's the matter with me? Picking at death like an old hen pecking apart something too big to swallow."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Racial slurs, and Suicide

Moderate: Cursing, Death of parent, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Xenophobia

Minor: Sexual content

Moderate: Suicidal ideation