The Four Winds

The first few chapters were agonizingly slow. I found a hundred reasons to criticize the book, including some things as small as the ability of the family to eat Italian dishes during the Great Depression and the use of the words “kids” and “mom.” The people in the story just didn't sound as if they were true to the time, and that was one thing that bothered me a lot. I wanted to DNF this one.

The story picked up a lot mid-book. The setting seemed more true-to-life, and the struggles were more real.

Still, I had oodles of problems with the story. The sarcasm of the daughter would not have been tolerated among the people I knew who lived at that time (and I knew many). And was Elsa pretty? Or not? Why did Elsa's parents coddle her and then shut her out?

I gave the book generous points for the California pages, but this is, nevertheless, not a book I'd recommend. I do love reading about these times, and I'd love to read a strong novel set in the Dust Bowl. But it's not this one.