Walking on the Moon

I found a lot to like in Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds, a historical fiction set in the Dust Bowl. It’s pretty much impossible to take that on without inviting comparisons to Steinbeck, of course.

Hannah’s book isn’t about the Dust Bowl, but about specific characters in the Dust Bowl. Her characters are interesting and believable, though I do find them a bit broadly drawn. I find them very easy to get to know and identify with, but not unforgettable.

The Dust Bowl takes them from Texas to California along paths that many at the time were forced down. I think Hannah balances making the era come alive for readers and making the events into a story that shapes her characters. I can see the outlines of the country’s plight, but she is committed to the view on the ground and the reactions of her characters.

I like the character-driven approach and was happy to see some closure in the story. These are hard times and for much of the book sympathetic characters are taking a lot of abuse from the world and their fellow people. These folks find a way to escape the worst of the times, but in a way that’s specific to them. I want there to be answers for everyone, but that’s not this book. And probably not the real world, either.

It’s an interesting, well-written historical fiction. The hard parts are pretty bleak.

Recommended.

Greg Melville has put together a survey of historical trends tied together by the theme of graveyards. It reminded me of Loewen’s Lies Across America which did a similar thing with historical markers.

Body runs well with the idea. Graveyards are full of people so the Melville is able to touch on issues of race and class in America. They’re also public lands, which lets him talk about how we treat such lands from their landscaping to who can use them. Military graveyards are a jumping off point for wars and how we talk about soldiers.

As with Lies, Melville is surveying, not doing a deep dive. Every topic he touches on has more comprehensive and insightful works on it, but he never pretends otherwise. The result is an interesting exploration of how history ties into everything. It’s a nice doorway into how everyday things can lead one into more of the world once you scratch the surface.

Recommended.

This is a rush of shock melodrama executed really well. The first chapter could stand as a short story that hits the electric rails of unwed parents, cruel children, child murder, and a horrifying revenge. I was solidly on my heels there and there was still a book to go. Kanae Minato has set herself a lot to follow in her own book and acquits herself well.

Overall it’s an enormously exciting and entertaining story of bad acts and consequences that never holds back. The characters are certainly created in service of the plot, but are fleshed out enough to hold everything together. The plot is a cascade of transgressive actions. The characters didn’t make me feel that this could happen to anyone, but they did make me believe it could happen to someone.

It does get a lot of its juice from upping the ante on transgressive actions. It’s set in a middle school and much of the plot is students doing horrible things to students, teachers doing horrible things to students, students doing horrible things to teachers, and so on. And the things are inventive and horrible. It was just cartoonish enough that I enjoyed it, but not everyone will.

Recommended.