By the time the main character, Elsa, makes the decision to leave her land in Texas and move to California with her two kids, it is nearly impossible to not feel the family’s misery, fear, and pain. For me, the ability to make the reader feel is what makes a good writer.īeyond the book, I really enjoyed reading Hannah’s note at the end, where she explains The Four Winds took her three years to write. Moreover, as the drought begins and continues to grind on, the heat and dirt radiate off the pages. As the characters develop throughout the novel, I could feel and taste their pain. I have read other reviews by readers who have given The Four Winds a low rating score because of the fact that the book is “slow” and/ or “tragic.” I agree that the book moves a slow pace and is sad however, the parts that are long and painful are what make the book so beautiful. Women not only care for their families but also work endlessly while fighting for their incomes, rights, honor, and for their lives.
I love the way women are portrayed in The Four Winds in fact, it’s the women who show courage and strength, often taking on traditional gender roles of both males and females of the 1930s. Themes of perseverance, family ties, and women’s courage in the face of adversity are threaded throughout the novel. Two of my favorite quotes are, “Courage is fear you ignore” (403) and “Love is what remains when everything else is gone” (425). The majority of the book takes place during the 1930s, where drought-stricken farming regions of the United States suffered severed dust storms, causing many desperate families to leave their farms and migrate across the country to California in hopes of finding better farming conditions in order to make an income and survive.Īs always, Hannah’s prose is beautiful and lyrical.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah is an emotionally tragic novel about the unjust treatment of Dust Bowl migration workers in California during the Great Depression.
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