Sylvia

This book fits my 2 favorite criteria - historical & novel. It taught me backgound history about my country that I never learned in school, neither did my husband, nor my brother-in-law, nor my son. I'd often heard about the "dust bowl" without ever really understanding how it came about; its impact on the physical charactistics of the land or the psyche of its people. I knew that many inhabitants of the area tried to distance themselves if they were unfortunate enough to have been born there, but never understood why until I had lived with these people and internalized their everyday hardships & unbelieveable heatbreak. The author does an excellent job of intertwining the devastation of the local people, all the while giving you hope that perhaps someday things would get better. It is one of the finest accounts of American history that I have ever resd.