“Apparently you couldn’t stop loving some people, or needing their love, even when you knew better.”
Elsa is out of place in her own family. After getting Scarlett fever at 14, the doctor told her she could never exert herself, so her family treated her with kid gloves. On top of that, she was too tall and skinny and “not pretty.” No one would marry her. So, one night, she runs out, determined to have a normal night, listening to music and enjoying the company of adults. She runs into a man who changes the entire course of her life, Rafe. A unplanned pregnancy forces her to marry him and join his family after being disowned by her own. In quick time, a bond is formed between Elsa and her mother-in-law that will never be broken.
I’ve read several of Kristin Hannah’s books and have always enjoyed them. When I saw she had a new one out, I quickly put The Four Winds on my holds list at the library. I waited almost two months before the ebook was available to check out.
The first few years of living on Rafe’s family farm are good and then the drought comes. Nothing will grow and their food supply dwindles. There is talk of jobs out West, but Rafe’s parents will not leave the land and Elsa doesn’t want to take their two children away from their heritage. One night, Rafe leaves and the family has to struggle against the thirst, starvation and dust storms without his help. When Elsa is finally forced to take her children out West for their health, she runs into living conditions even worse than she had in Texas. They are looked up as dirty and ignorant by the native Californians and find themselves being taken advantage of by employers at every turn.
The Four Winds tells so much about life in America in the 1930s without sounding like a history book. The Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, the need for unions, the resentment toward the poor looking for work, the hopelessness many men (and women) felt. I learned a lot about how people truly dealt with this trying time in history. The only way to survive was for people to help each other and to maintain one’s dignity.
I learned about The Black Sunday Storm that took top soil from Texas and Oklahoma all the way to the East Coast. Read about it here.
What fiction book brought a historical event alive to you? Share in the comments!
Buy The Four Winds here (affiliate link).
