I read The Four Winds almost back to back after Firefly Lane, and these two books couldn’t be more different in terms of writing style.
Technically, Firefly Lane, published in 2008, should have been the rougher/cruder book, but I found The Four Winds (pub date 2021) more amateurish in style.
Maybe Hannah had bitten off more than she could chew with this saga of the 1930s Dustbowl and Great Depression in America.
About the Book
Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work, and drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance.
In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life.
~ Synopsis from GoodReads
Looking at this book through a critical lens
I wanted to like this book—a lot. But unfortunately, it didn’t quite work too well for me. Here are some reasons why.
Great expectations. The last/only book I read about the dust bowl was The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck – a book so sublime that I went on to read and love everything he ever put out. I know I was doing The Four Winds a disservice by reading it and mentally comparing it to just one of the all-time greatest ever. Of course, it fell short.
Overdose of tragedy. Now, I don’t mind a good tearjerker, but this was ridiculous. Everything bad that ever happened to someone during that time happened to our protagonist – Elsa Martinelli. From crappy childhood to a shotgun wedding, to runaway husband, then starvation, and whatnot. And throughout all this, she is a beacon of hope and patience. While this book undoubtedly touched my emotions, I also felt that the tragedy could have been tempered with hope. I was also, comparing it again to The Grapes of Wrath that had more range when it explored the story of the Joads.
Inconsistent pacing. The book started with a bang. I was racing along until somewhere midway through the book; it just got stuck and repetitive. There were one too many dust storms described, one too many descriptions of the camp, and before I knew it, I was getting bogged down in some of the monotonous detailing.
One-dimensional characters. Honestly, this book seemed like it was written in a hurry. It was very straightforward, and the characters all seemed more like stock tropes than fully-fleshed out characters.
Overdramatic climax. I have a personal dislike for books that seem overly emotionally manipulative. And this book felt like that for me.
That said, I think this could be my personal opinion of the book. Most other book reviewers had pretty glowing reviews. And despite these flaws (that I only felt after I completed reading and reflected a bit), I read this book in just two days.
I guess it’s like one of those pageturners where you don’t realize the issues of the book until you sit down to break it apart and review it.
For the casual reader, this would still be a must-read. So overall, I give it four stars, depending on your reading tastes.
