A review by giovannnaz
So Big by Edna Ferber

4.0

I had thought this book took place in the twenties when I grabbed it off my shelf--but really it's earlier, the late 1800s. Selina, the heroine, has a change in fortune when her father dies, and must leave the rich life for a job teaching in High Prairie (present day Roseland, outside Chicago and next to Pullman) teaching Dutch truck farmer's kids. The story follows her life for the next 30 years or so, as she optimistically perseveres in her new lot in life. Against a backdrop of booming Chicago, and with Selena navigating between her life with the farmers and the rich upper crust city dwellers, the book felt surprisingly current.