God, this book is upsetting. I recommend it to anyone interested in considering connections between families struggling to make it in America's contemporary economic repression/depression and families struggling to get by during the economic repressions/depressions that characterize America's past. While some elements of the Holbrook family's experiences (especially their life in a Midwestern meat-packing city) suggest that the novel's events are set during the Great Depression, other elements suggest an earlier timeframe. Regardless, the novel describes the attempts of the Holbrook family--a hardworking, child-bearing, dream-abandoning Mother, a Father unmanned by his inability to adequately care for his family, and their children, especially the oldest daughter, Mazie, upon whom the third-person narrator is most focused--to live during the hardest of economic times. Basically, the book testifies to the abject failure of a family to thrive, despite the desperate willingness to work that marks most of its members. It is a short, lyrical, and insightful read--and it will stay with you long after you turn the last page, partly because of its implicit claim that the first casualty of economic disaster is childhood. Knowing that the book is still potentially resonant makes the book a necessity, if not exactly a pleasure.
This is only getting 3 stars because it's so draining and emotionally depressing that it takes a toll on the reader. Based on Tillie OIsen's childhood, the book (despite its title) spans the 20s-30s and the physical and psychological damage poverty, hunger, humiliation, abuse, depression and neglect do to a family. This isn't a hopeful Joad family; this is a gritty and realistic look at why families fell apart and how the Great Depression wreaked havoc on family structure. Jim, the father, rapes and abuses his wife Anna, who in turn abuses her children, who then begin hitting each other. The abuse isn't meant for the reader to hate the characters; rather, it is a commentary on the frustration Jim felt at his inadequate attempts to provide for his family. Tillie Olsen isn't frequently read, which is a shame because the woman's voice is often dismissed during the Depression.
Do You like book Yonnondio: From The Thirties (2004)?
Il libro più duro, agghiacciante e lirico che ho letto da svariati anni a questa parte. Quasi insopportabile, in molti punti, per la crudeltà dell'ingiustizia che è la cifra di certe esistenze - che naturalmente non appartengono solo all'America degli anni trenta ma sono facilissimamente riconoscibili anche oggi, e anche nei ricchi paesi industrializzati in cui con tante comodità viviamo e prosperiamo gomito a gomito con chi si dibatte nella miseria e nella disperazione. La famiglia di Anna e Jim oggi magari porta altri nomi e altri tratti somatici, e forse quando si trasferisce in cerca di una vita migliore invece di ammucchiare le masserizie su un carro tirato da un cavallo si imbarca su qualche carretta del mare, ma la disperazione ha sempre la stessa faccia.
—Lucy VanPelt
I don't know what to say about this book. It's getting a 1/5 rating from me, but not the 'terrible books' tag. What that means is basically that I fucking hated it, but I guess I can see why some people think it's awesome.It's a story that takes place during the depression and follows a family as the migrate from a coal-mining town to an industrial city. As a rule, I'm way into depression era books and I'm way into books about people moving. Plus, I like books called weird things like "Yonnondio." This book though, man was it dull!In summation : Don't read it, because it's really dull and boring and you will be like, "I wish this girl would shut up and stop whining about the Depression already and go play her Wii Fit or something."
—Agnes Mack
This book is so depressing. It sucks you in its honesty and its compelling characters that struggles constantly in the adversity to consciousness… Do: take a couple of break once in awhile because it is quite emotionally draining. Remember "Reader Response Criticism"? That's the analytical tool most effective in tackling this book because it is not a stagnant reading process at all; it takes you away from your comfort zone. After all, it is a book that "places your body ain't ever been, can't ever get to go; inside people's heads; things you wouldn't ever know." (155)
—An Skywalker
