A review by bookedbymadeline
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is my second book from Hannah, technically, but the first one that I finished! It had a slow start but around the 60 page mark I got more into the story. It’s an emotional story with a lot of trauma these characters are put through.

Hannah does a good job of describing the atmosphere of the time period, for the most part. The novel taught me more about the Dust Bowl than I ever learned at school! We were taught about the dust storms and how it made living in the region dangerous, but I never learned just how intertwined the Dust Bowl and Great Depression were. It was eye-opening and I want to read more about the subject, especially since this is only the beginning and a lot was left out.


We read the novel through the perspectives of Elsa and her daughter Loreda. I really enjoyed the switching perspectives but they often felt repetitive and didn’t add many new things in each chapter. I didn’t love the characters, they felt a bit flat. I would’ve liked more character development especially from Loreda who blames her mom for literally everything. Elsa I liked a tiny bit more because for me, I read the repetition of her character as just trying to survive day to day for her kids and not having room to do/think about much else.

Themes of the book still felt very relevant to issues we still face today like the treatment of migrant workers and how many people are “othered”, the fight for worker’s rights, the lack of social support, and environmental disasters.

I think another reviewer mentioned the unfortunate lack of historical accuracy surrounding the striking/workers rights events as Hannah created a fictional event to center “Okies” (white migrant farmers) when a very real event took place around the same time involving Mexican migrant workers. The lack of diversity was disappointing, especially as Mexican and Black migrant workers were also central to this time period. It also became an issue as it was very white washed, I understand it’s historical fiction and you can’t fit everything into one book-but at 450 pages and repetitive dialogue, you could at least acknowledge certain aspects.

The talk about the Martinelli’s land (and Texas in general) is talked about in a “manifest destiny” sort of way. Elsa’s grandfather “fought to get this land”…failing to mention the Native Americans it was taken from. In fact, there is never any mention of them, the land just appeared magically apparently. The erasure of certain parts of history and minority groups, in favor of centering on white migrants (while conveniently ignoring their own white privilege) is at best irresponsible and at worst dangerous. Hannah chose to focus on an ugly part of history while conveniently taking out the marginalized communities mainly affected.

And the constant repetitiveness of “bad thing bad thing, but this is America” “ooh bad things are happening. In America” “this isn’t who we are in America.” YES IT IS! The constant pushing of this narrative when it is America and always has been, just not for middle class white people up until the Great Depression, was frustrating and inaccurate. It’s a real white woman moment for Hannah to have her characters constantly saying these things, ignoring history, and comparing themselves to slaves?! You may be getting paid an unlivable wage BUT YOU ARE GETTING PAID AND CAN LEAVE 😬

I was loving this book and feeling like it would be at least 4 stars, right up until this slave comparison/“oh my god how can this happen in America” nonsense. As if America is the pinnacle of freedom and there’s no way anyone could be so mistreated (except for the Native Americans, Black people, Jewish people, poor people, Mexican migrant workers, immigrants, etc etc) 🙃

Bare minimum was for Hannah to have addressed this history that she omitted in her afterword and explain why she did not include it, but instead she used that space to glorify and praise the white pioneers who reaped the benefits of the genocide.

Overall it was an interesting story that held my attention and taught me that I should look at the subject further. But the repetitive writing, lack of character development, and historical erasure was a bit disappointing. I’ll give Hannah’s books one more chance as I enjoyed this one well enough and DNFd one other, (plus I already have two more of her books on my shelves) so maybe lucky number 3 will be better!


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