THE PLOT: ‘The Four Winds’ by Kristin Hannah is historical women’s fiction about the Great Depression. It’s 1934 and on the Great Plains of Texas, Elsa Martinelli finally has the children she always longed for. Though life on their farm isn’t easy, she works hard to ensure her family has all they need. With millions out of work since the 1929 financial crash, their modest lifestyle gets squeezed tighter and tighter. But when dust rains down on the fields and heatwaves scorch the earth, the family is tempted to go West and seek their fortunes in California.

SUMMARY: First and foremost, I enjoyed this book. It helped me through a slump and it was fun to read. However, I have a lot of criticisms. The writing was lazy, the structure leaked tension and the plot was predictable. I also found it odd that the descriptions of “okies” picking cotton were completely divorced from the legacy of slavery. This is the first novel I’ve read by Kristin Hannah and, because she’s so famous, I expected more. So, why did I enjoy it? Well, it was a bit like watching a Lindsay Lohan Christmas movie. You know it’s silly but you throw yourself into it anyway. And, shockingly, I would read more of Kristin Hannah’s books. So, don’t let my criticisms hold you back from reading this book. Just don’t go into it expecting ‘The Grapes of Wrath’.

GOOD BITS:  Although Elsa’s character ‘flaw’ and ‘need’ were laid on with a trowel, I did warm to her. I was excited to get into bed each night and read about how she was faring. There was something endearing and compelling about her character arc, and I loved how she developed throughout the novel. The historical setting was also very believable and I was transported to 1930’s America.

NOT SO GOOD BITS: The sentences were not good. I’m not saying I can do better. However, I would enjoy line-editing this book. For example, the clunky sentence structure led to unnecessary repetition in each paragraph. The dialogue and interiority read like melodrama; it was an impression of what people should say and think, rather than being realistic. And don’t get me started on the structure. They spent about 100-pages deciding to leave for California (rehashing the same arguments in different sections of dialogue) and then spent only 25-pages on the journey. In fact, the journey was so easy… it was anti-climactic. The descriptions of eating cake and cooking bacon during the journey felt incongruous with the prior privation of the farm. It was just very jarring.

OVERALL: I’d recommend this series to fans of Lucinda Riley, Victoria Hislop, Delia Owens and Taylor Jenkins-Reid. I’d class these authors in the spectrum of lighter historical fiction. Although they tend to write historical settings and have emotional storylines, they all sit closer to women’s fiction (in my opinion).

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