The bigotry they face as outcast “Okies”-struggling to secure food, housing and a living wage-sounds all too familiar, as immigrants experience the same attitudes and challenges today. Like many of Hannah’s previous characters, Elsa Wolcott is a strong woman who doesn’t recognize her own power-at least not at first.įor Elsa, heartache was “the lens through which she viewed her world and sometimes it was the blindfold she wore so she didn’t see.”Ībandoned by a husband she loved but never really knew, Elsa’s search for a better life for her children drives them west to California, where they live in Hooverville shanty towns and follow the harvest for meager pay. Hannah’s newest book, The Four Winds, is a story about love, courage, tenacity and hope, told through the eyes of a woman who escapes the misery of the Dust Bowl only to experience the anguish of the Great Depression. “Never in my wildest dreams,” Hannah writes in the author’s note of her new novel, “did I imagine that the Great Depression would become so relevant in our modern lives.” history, economic collapse, massive unemployment and income inequality. I can see labor strikes happening, but the book definitely attributed that to the communist party.About three years ago, author Kristin Hannah began writing a novel about hard times in America-the worst environmental disaster in U.S. I don't know if that was the author's intent. Now, whether the communist party was active in California during this time period, I honestly can't say, but I felt that communism and the current democratic party were synonymous, as were the capitalists/republicans. They were nothing short of 'slave owners.' They were portrayed as prejudiced against the poor, were all dressed nicely and used body language to show disdain and contempt for the migrants. The 'capitalists' were not helpful at all. The communists were the good guys, who provided tangible help to the migrants by way of food and housing when the migrant camp was flooded. In the book, it mentioned communism as the precursor to organized labor unions. The co …more Great question! I found the first mention of it rather jarring. Lois Great question! I found the first mention of it rather jarring.

The four winds review