The Four Winds: A Novel

Excellent book

It's now 3:00AM and I'm sitting in my living room, and I'm so moved and ready to fight..As we enter a new year with the same pandemic and political strife, so much of this book will open your eyes to the plight of those less fortunate trying to feed their families and make a living in dire times and trying to right wrongs. Sound familiar? It's Heartbreaking that we are fighting for the same BASIC human rights as we did 90+ YEARS AGO!!!The hardships faced by Elsa are simply relentless. Kristin Hannah wrote a visceral, richly detailed and atmospheric novel that will transport us back to the Dust Bowl and to the migrant settlements in California afterward, This is such a fascinating tale filled with captivating historical detail that gets glossed over in history books, Learning about the "company store" and how American citizens were forced to be basically slaves to these large farmers was eye-opening to me and I felt the desperation and hopelessness these people must have felt because they had nowhere to go and no one to turn to.By the end of this book, I cried, I raised my fist in the air.. and I also wondered Kristin Hannah has written so many great novels that one can only ponder if she can continue on the winning streak..Her writing will break you, move you, and heal you -all at once and she offers no regrets only explanations of why, how, and when she decided to choose such subjects to tackle with the upmost of respect, dignity, and courage.Kristin Hannah began writing this novel over three years ago, before the pandemic, before the skyrocketing unemployment that would follow. And yet, this story is so relevant to our current days, the isolation, dwindling funds, people, as she says in her note at the end, frightened for their future, men in power shushing voices in order to further their own desires, wanting us to pay attention to what they say and not what they really mean or what they show by their actions. Or, as the Wizard of Oz said: ’Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.’

I bought this book for an online book club, as it sounded like a fascinating part of American history to write about, and it’s by a best selling author. What could go wrong?Elsa knows she’s ugly and not worth loving. Her rich parents and pretty sisters confirm this every day, although Elsa tries hard to be a good daughter and sister. She is so downtrodden, she prefers to spend her days in her room reading romantic novels to escape the unkindness of life. But one day she buys some silky red material on a whim, sews herself a flapper dress and wanders into town. Having been turned away from the jazz club by the doorman who knows her daddy, she bumps into Rafe – a total stranger – gets into his truck with him and lets him make love to her.When Elsa falls pregnant, she is of course disowned by the family, and daddy leaves her at Rafe’s family farm for them to deal with as they wish.This is more or less what happens throughout the book. Elsa is faced with many desperate situations, and throughout them all she trudges along, managing things in what to me was a dour, practical manner. I kind of began to understand why the family were glad to see the back of her. And when, at the end of the book, we are faced with a new, strong Elsa risking her life for a point of principle (and suddenly articulate when before she found it hard to tell her children she loved them), it was all too sudden, and too late to develop any real empathy for the woman. As for the supporting cast, including the ‘feisty’ daughter, I found them mostly to be shallow caricatures, being either good to saintly, or perfectly evil. And none of them interesting.The redeeming aspect of the book was learning more about this dreadful period of American history, and how terribly the dispossessed were treated. For the rest, I won’t be rushing to buy this author again.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Amazing. I am broken. I cried a lot ! I highly recommend this book to anyone I could not put it down I was gripped from the first page to the last. Such a heart wrenching story. I did not want it to end.

What an anti-capitalist communist propaganda piece of crap. Will never buy her garbage again. I'm sure she's donating all of her capitalist book income to the working poor.

A 21st Century masterpiece written by Kristin Hannah, an amazing depiction of life during the Great Depression of the 1930’s.We follow the story of one family in particular, the poverty and hardships endured by them, along with thousands of other migrant workers escaping the dust bowl. Blown by “…the Four Winds”, many set out for a better life in California, but instead faced unimaginable hardship, poverty and heartache.Elsa is an incredible character, strong, determined, and courageous who had enormous capacity for love and forgiveness. Elsa is ridiculed and subjected to torrents of emotional abuse at the hands of her own rich family and then disowned. Elsa grows in strength as the story progresses so too does her relationship with her belligerent daughter Loreda. The bond and relationship between Mother and Daughter was very touching, one of my favourite aspects about the book. Elsa had counted on a lifetime to teach her children what they needed to know, but from the outset she gave them the most important things of all: they were loved and she taught them to be brave. “…Find your voice and use it… take chances… never give up and be brave..”, she would say.It is a powerful and epic novel that will leave imprints in your heart for a while after reading. Not one word could have been written differently.I will never write a review with Political bias. However, climate change, transcend politics, for me and affects us globally. What is poignant about the threads in this book are the similarities between one of the greatest environmental disasters in American history and the worlds very own real experiences of what is happening in our world today.“To damage the earth is to damage your children” a simple statement from the book that packs a punch.The book is full of great characters and superb story line. Historical fiction at its best. Kristin is one of those authors that sucks you in from the beginning, keeps you wanting more and never disappoints.