I made it over halfway through this book before throwing in the towel. I believe the book club picked this one because it was on some list of books with strong female characters, and for the life of me I can't figure out why. Maybe some of the peripheral characters are OK, but the narrator is a completely flat character, and her new best friend is as obnoxious as hell. But that is only one of the problems I have with this book.

The first thing that socked me in this face about this book is that it violates the "show, don't tell" rule of writing. The author explains everything to you like she thinks you're an idiot. It kind of feels like you're watching one of those spoof movies about another decade, where they make exaggerated jokes pertaining to that decade and do a "wink-wink" at the camera, except in this case it's painfully obvious references to conditions during the Dust Bowl. As in, it doesn't matter if the roof has cracks, because it never rains anymore, wink-wink.

Second, I feel like the dialogue sounds too modern. I had this same problem with another book we recently read for the club, Fever 1793. I've read books actually written during these time periods, and the characters don't talk anything like this. It seems that in researching background material for this book, the author read a bunch of historical documents about the Depression but failed to get any cultural or literary background on it.

Third, somewhere around the middle, the book devolves into a lame murder mystery/investigation, with the obnoxious best friend playing the part of the investigative journalist. It draaaaaags. It's not like there was really a plot to begin with; just vignettes of Dust Bowl life. But this was preferable to the latter development. I am wiping my hands clean of this book (because they're so dusty, wink-wink!).