The Four Winds – Kristin Hannah
100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: [adapted from the dustjacket to avoid spoilers] Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life.
Expectation: A sprawling, heartbreaking, and utterly American story about overcoming adversity.
Reality: A sometimes rushed and emotionally disconnected narrative that’s still powerful given Kristin Hannah’s solid writing and historical research.
Recommended For: Fans of Kristin Hannah’s more recent works or historical fiction in general.
Why I Read It: “The Nightingale” and “The Great Alone” were among by top reads of 2018 and possibly of all-time.
My Take:
After falling for Kristin Hannah’s storytelling in 2018, when I devoured both “The Nightingale” and “The Great Alone” in short order, anticipation for her latest novel was high.
While “The Four Winds” ultimately didn’t match the honest emotional and, at times understated, brilliance of those two novels, it is still an expertly crafted work of historical fiction that long-time Hannah fans — and newcomers, maybe finding her through Netflix’s “Firefly Lane” — will enjoy.
Hannah has a way of hooking you with a story and characters almost immediately, and she works her magic again, as we find ourselves immersed in Texas life in 1921 through 25-year-old Elsa, viewed as her wealthy family’s disappointment due to “average” looks.
[mild spoilers ahead]
After an act of rebellion connects her with Rafe Martinelli, an 18-year-old Italian immigrant, she finds herself in the family way, disowned and forced into a shotgun wedding and life on the farm with Rafe and his parents.
Within the first quarter of the novel it feels like Elsa has already experienced enough life, and I was ready to watch things start to work out for her. But a time jump to 1934 shows there is no happy ending as the Dust Bowl and Great Depression take a stronghold over their lives.
A turn of events force Elsa, and her children Loreda and Ant, to leave Texas in search of “the land of milk and honey” in California, but the next two years will be anything but easy for the Martinelli’s.
[mild spoilers over]
That’s all the plot I want to give away, but let’s just say about everything that could happen to a person — dust storms, floods, illness, poverty, famine, a Communism subplot and discrimination — all impact the Martinelli’s.
At times this jump from one conflict to another felt rushed and a form of emotional manipulation, but it’s also part of Hannah’s modus operandi as an historical fiction writer in presenting several realities of life during the time period, even if (I hope) it all didn’t befall a single person or family.
Ultimately waiting for the next bad thing to happen distracted me from the broader story and prevented me from really connecting with Elsa and Loreda, who comes across as unnecessarily difficult. A strong editor could’ve helped tidy things up a bit, and I hope that Hannah doesn’t go the way of Stephen King and become too proud to kill her darlings.
Still, it was eye-opening to revisit the Dust Bowl era and Great Depression, beyond what I learned in high school and Dorothea Lange photos. In the author notes, she admits to accelerating a few timelines and creating an amalgamation of events that happened across the West Coast.
But, she also connects the reader with links to further reading if you want to separate reality from fictionalized accounts, which proves that she takes this work seriously and isn’t elevating the pain for cheap drama. The humanity she brings to these characters and events is one thing I’ve always appreciated about Hannah.
What was most impactful, however, was not the story itself but how relevant it is today. Even prior to the global pandemic when food insecurity, worker’s rights and the debate over government support took on new and urgent meaning, there were heated and ongoing discussions about paying a living wage, immigration and climate change — all things that factor into “Winds.”
The audiobook features a 30-minute discussion with Hannah and narrator Julia Whelan, in which Hannah said, “the past is prologue.” It really struck me that a story she started three years ago would mean more to readers/listeners today than anyone could have imagined.
It also shows the resiliency of humans as those that survived became The Greatest Generation. But it’s also a stark reality that these problems have been with us nearly 100-years and we’re well overdue to build support to solve them.
As usual, Whelan provides a phenomenal narration, and I appreciated learning more about her process in the post-script interview. Any book with her at the microphone is worth a listen.
Rating (story): 4/5 stars
Rating (narration): 5/5
Formats: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: February 9 - 21, 2021
Multi-tasking: Good to go.
