Books Set in North America: United States: Texas and California

The Four Winds, by Kristin Hannah (2021)

 

The novel opens in 1921 in the Texas panhandle.  The economy is booming and life is good.  Elsa Wolcott is the eldest daughter of a wealthy family.  She is, however, tall, unattractive and unmarriageable, or so her parents tell her.  When she was fourteen, she suffered an illness and now her parents keep her sheltered.

 

One night, she meets Rafe Martinelli, a young man several years younger.  She falls head-over-heels and soon her reputation is ruined.  Her father demands that she marry Rafe, then her family disowns her.  Elsa and Rafe begin their married life living with his parents on a farm.  Although Elsa had never worked hard in her life, she soon comes to love the farm.  Rafe’s parents, although disappointed that Rafe’s life has taken a turn, soon come to love Elsa as their own.  For the first time, Elsa feels love.

 

By the mid-1930’s life has changed.  Dust storms and droughts devastate farmlands.  Elsa struggles to keep life going on the farm for the sake of her two young children.  After one particularly bad dust storm, however, Elsa has had enough.  She packs the farm’s only truck and with her children in tow, heads for California.  They have heard that California is the land of milk and honey and jobs are plentiful.

 

Unfortunately, once they reach California, Elsa realizes that she has no idea where to turn to next.  The harsh reality sets in.  Californians resent the migration of “Okies”, a generic term they used to describe all migrants coming to escape the Dust Belt.  The children are discriminated against in school, and hospitals will not accept the Okies.  Eventually, Elsa gets a job picking cotton, but soon learns that she is paid on credit, and must use the company store for all her groceries and needs.

 

Workers are beginning to get restless, and the Communist party begins to organize strikes.  I learned a lot about what life was like for the migrants.  It was a fast read.

 

Read:  March 27, 2021

 

4 stars

 

Books Set in the United States: Oklahoma and California

Mary Coin, by Marisa Silver (2013)

The cover photograph is the famous photograph by Dorothea Lange entitled Migrant Mother ~ the mother and baby taken during the Depression in 1936.  At the time, Dorothea Lange was working for the United States’ Farm Security Administration and taking pictures as part of the work program.

Mary Coin is a novel based on this photograph. In the novel, Vera Dare is the photographer, and Mary Coin is the mother.  Mary was of a poor family living in Oklahoma in the 1920s, shortly before the Dust Bowl.  She falls in love with Toby Coin, and at age 17, marries him and begins her family.  Toby was of poor health and quickly dies, leaving Mary with a growing family.  She moves from place to place finding work in farms so to feed her family, ultimately finding her way to California.

The novel spans nearly 100 years, from Mary’s early life to the present day.  The novel opens in present day with Walker Dodge emptying his father’s house after his father died.  Walker is a history professor with little knowledge of his own family’s history.  He meticulously goes through his late father’s possessions in hopes of learning more of his mysterious grandfather.

Then we switch to Mary and her life.  The book describes the life of the migrant worker. One day, Vera comes across Mary as she is holding her new born, pondering how to get her broken down car started.  Vera asks to take her photograph.  Mary agrees, but doesn’t really know what she is agreeing to.

Soon the photograph is plastered in all the papers. Years later, Mary locates the photographer and, thinking Vera made money off the picture, makes a plea for funds. This briefly touches upon ownership issues of work done at the behest of a governmental entity.  It would have been interesting to have explored this issue in more detail.

The novel does, however, explore how lives touch and become intertwined.  It was interesting, but not one of my favorite books.

Read:  June 15, 2019

3 Stars