Amy Masi

Great premise but I found myself getting confused about what was happening to which character at times. I listened to this as an audiobook so I thought it was just me. Apparently not.

I’ve read and loved The Nightingale and The Great Alone. Hannah’s books deal with the suffering of female protagonists and this book has a lot of suffering in it. I listened to this book as an audiobook which is probably why I stayed with it. This is a lumbering, sorrowful book that I did not enjoy as much as Hannah’s previous works. Even as an audiobook, the historical inaccuracies (“plastic” was not in everyday use in that time period -Bakelite and Parkesine would have been-and certainly large sheets of it would not have been available to the the people in the camps to cover dwellings), and use of inaccurate idioms were noticeable, and detracted from the believability of the story. Lareda’s character seems artificial to me, but I understand that the tension between her and Elsa drives the story arc. I get it though, she represents the future, but she seems too modern in her thinking and vocabulary for that time. I do appreciate the story being told from a woman’s perspective, because Steinbeck certainly didn’t consider the plight of women at that time. Visually, I see Dorothea Lange’s images when listening to this book. Other commenters mentioned the “pro communist” and political bent to the last half of the book, without thought to WHY these workers might have wanted or needed to unionize. Unions played a huge part in improving working conditions and bargaining for liveable wages for the people who made all the consumables in America. In summary, I liked this book, but not as much as Hannah’s others, I’m glad I listened to it because it made me think and question the information I thought I knew.