The Four Winds begins in the Texas panhandle in 1921 when twenty-five-year-old spinster Elsa gets pregnant and is disowned by her parents and forced to marry Rafe Martinelli, an Italian who is part of “the other” immigrant community that Elsa’s well-heeled family dislikes. Here begins Kristin Hannah’s tale of xenophobia and Americans’ fear of newcomers. There is a gap in years, and the story picks up in 1934 and continues 1935-36. Loreda, the firstborn child of Rafe and Elsa, is bordering on adolescence, another favorite concept that the author likes to depict, and she doesn’t disappoint in this novel. Elsa has had two more children, Anthony (Ant) and one who died. Elsa’s inlaws, Tony and Rose, have accepted her into their family, and Elsa experiences familial love and enjoys the expectation that she fully participate in the chores of running the family farm.
The Martinelli farm and their community suffer from the Great Depression and the severe drought and dust storms. There are heartrending descriptions of illness, starvation, and desperation before Elsa, Loreda, and Ant take off for California. Then, the reader gets a painstaking picture of the empty promises of a better life in California. The clear descriptions of decrepit life in a tent village and the unwelcoming, prejudicial views of medical, law enforcement, educational professionals are stunning. In the face of adversity, Kristin Hannah depicts two female protagonists, Elsa and Loreda, who show courage, strength, and humility as they demonstrate an American work ethic and a determination to survive.
The Four Winds is an engaging story similar to Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. However, the language is more modern, and the everyday reader realizes that some of the current views on immigrants and newcomers repeat this horrible era in our country’s history. Hannah focuses on important family dynamics and relationships. She thus builds a plot that shows the abuse of workers and the role that strikes and labor unions played in the USA’s history. Additionally, readers get a feel for the role of religion and political ideologies such as communism and socialism in people’s lives during this challenging era.
