Book Review :: The Four Winds

This is a bit of a different type of book review post. I recently had the privilege of being a guest on Lisa Hedger’s podcast Everyone Loved it but Me about Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds. So, I’m not going to write too much; instead, I encourage you to go listen to our conversation here.

I’ve written before about my reticence to criticize too strongly any book. Typically if I truly didn’t like it, I just let it go and don’t write a review. And since Kristin Hannah has already fallen into this camp once before, I wasn’t planning on reviewing The Four Winds. (Like The Great Alone, I didn’t hate The Four Winds – I just don’t think it merits the rave reviews it has been receiving.)

However, when Lisa approached me about being a guest on her podcast, The Four Winds felt like a great book to discuss.

Our conversation covers a lot of ground, and please be warned – there are spoilers! But, whether or not you liked The Four Winds, the conversation is worth a listen. Of course we talk about the book’s shortcomings, but we also address where it has merit.

And after that, check out some of her other episodes. She’s got a two-part series on that Crawdads book. She actually refers to my review in the first part and links to it in the show notes.

In case you’re not at all familiar with The Four Winds, it follows Elsa Martinelli as she and her two children, Loreda and Ant, escape the brutal dust bowl of Texas for California. This is a path many traveled, and one that Steinbeck expertly depicts in his award winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath. (We discuss the common comparison.)

So, have a listen and let me know what you agree or disagree with in our discussion.