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A review by cupcakegirly
All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky by Joe R. Lansdale
4.0
"The wind could blow down a full-grown man, but it was the dust that was the worst."
This was a pleasantly surprising story of adventure and camaraderie found in the midst of heartbreaking loss during The Great Depression.
Jack Catcher has recently lost both parents, the money's gone, the dog's gone, the food's gone and soon enough the family farm will be gone too thanks in part to the Oklahoma dust storms that have killed anything and everything edible. (Sounds like a bad country music song, doesn't it?) There's nothing left for him in the only place he's ever called home except memories and those aren't even worth sticking around for.
All he wants to do now is get out of Oklahoma but he has no idea how to accomplish that. Enter Jane Lewis and her younger brother Tony. Jane and Jack used to go to school together, until the Depression hit and Jack had to stay home and help his parents out around the farm. Jane and Tony are orphans now too with their father having had his unfortunate tractor accident and their mother running off with the Bible salesman, but they've managed to survive the storm somehow.
Jane has big plans to get to Texas and won't let anything stand in her way. She and Tony have already planned to steal a car from a dead neighbor (he won't mind since he's dead and all) and the fact that neither can drive doesn't seem to faze Jane. She's a pro at telling tall tales so she knows she'll be able to convince someone to drive them. Jane ends up enlisting Jack's help, assuring him it will be a way for all three of them to start fresh and he just expects to find a way out of his desolate life but what he gains is an adventure that he, Jane and Tony won't soon forget.
They'll encounter people they've only heard stories about, do things the never imagined (when's the last time you jumped a moving train?) and maybe even find love along the way. Jack especially will be forced to learn some hard lessons about honesty, integrity and plain 'ole common sense but the most important lesson he learns is how to hope again.
(This story definitely gives the reader a new appreciation for all things "clean" and meals that contain beans.)
This was a pleasantly surprising story of adventure and camaraderie found in the midst of heartbreaking loss during The Great Depression.
Jack Catcher has recently lost both parents, the money's gone, the dog's gone, the food's gone and soon enough the family farm will be gone too thanks in part to the Oklahoma dust storms that have killed anything and everything edible. (Sounds like a bad country music song, doesn't it?) There's nothing left for him in the only place he's ever called home except memories and those aren't even worth sticking around for.
All he wants to do now is get out of Oklahoma but he has no idea how to accomplish that. Enter Jane Lewis and her younger brother Tony. Jane and Jack used to go to school together, until the Depression hit and Jack had to stay home and help his parents out around the farm. Jane and Tony are orphans now too with their father having had his unfortunate tractor accident and their mother running off with the Bible salesman, but they've managed to survive the storm somehow.
Jane has big plans to get to Texas and won't let anything stand in her way. She and Tony have already planned to steal a car from a dead neighbor (he won't mind since he's dead and all) and the fact that neither can drive doesn't seem to faze Jane. She's a pro at telling tall tales so she knows she'll be able to convince someone to drive them. Jane ends up enlisting Jack's help, assuring him it will be a way for all three of them to start fresh and he just expects to find a way out of his desolate life but what he gains is an adventure that he, Jane and Tony won't soon forget.
They'll encounter people they've only heard stories about, do things the never imagined (when's the last time you jumped a moving train?) and maybe even find love along the way. Jack especially will be forced to learn some hard lessons about honesty, integrity and plain 'ole common sense but the most important lesson he learns is how to hope again.
(This story definitely gives the reader a new appreciation for all things "clean" and meals that contain beans.)