Kristin Hannah
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah is set during the Great Depression.
The novel opens in 1921 in Texas with a young Elsa, marginalized by her abusive family and suffering from low self-esteem. She becomes pregnant, marries the father of her child, and moves in with his family. She quickly adjusts to farm life and gains acceptance and love from her in-laws. Elsa feels she belongs for the first time in her life. But then disaster strikes.
Severe draught and unrelenting dust storms plague Texas. The depression hits. Life becomes a grinding nightmare. Elsa’s husband abandons her and their two children. When dust inhaled in her son’s lungs causes his serious illness, Elsa decides it’s time to leave Texas. She takes her two children to the greener pastures of California. But reality soon hits. Her meager funds leave her no choice but to live in a make-shift camp with hundreds of others who, like her, have come to California hoping to find work. She becomes a field laborer, is exploited and castigated by landowners and town dwellers. The novel concludes with Elsa’s involvement in organizing a workers’ strike, an activity which leads to her ultimate demise.
The novel is weak in several areas. Its only strength lies in the detailed description of the dust storms and draught that plague the landscape. Hannah immerses the reader in howling winds and raging dust that get into every nook and cranny of the house and cover every inch and crevice of the body and clothing. Unfortunately, that is the only redeeming quality of the novel. The characters are flat, one-dimensional types with little depth. They never emerge as well-rounded, interesting individuals. The prose loses energy by suffering from too much telling and not enough showing. Attempts to manipulate emotions are blatantly transparent. The reader is constantly told what to think and feel, which is not the same as experiencing a feeling generated by descriptions of the situation. The contrived ending left a lot to be desired and was another obvious attempt at emotional manipulation.
Suffice it to say, the novel was disappointing. It just wasn’t for me.