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Tell Me a Riddle & Yonnondio
Tillie Olsen carved a permanent place in American literature on the strength of a single book, Tell Me A Riddle in 1962. This collection was widely hailed as a work of genius, in which the voices of ordinary Americans, black and white, male and female, were given their own rhythms and forms of expression. Yonnondio, Olsen's only novel, was begun during the depression and completed in 1974. It tells the story of the Hollbrooks, an itinerant working-class family in middle-America during the thirties. Brutalised by poverty, they struggle to find a space to breathe, to dream and to create a bettter life for their children. Told in compelling, haunting prose, it is a profound and timeless story of the human will to survive.
336 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 17, 2012
This book blew my mind.
Talk about a woman ahead of her time!
Tillie Olson detailed the depths of dispair of living in grinding multi-generational poverty.
While this edition includes commentary and background not only on the author, it contains three other stories. (Yonnodino takes place in the 30's; "I stand here ironing"; "Hey sailor, what ship?")
Outstanding explorations in the minds of dirt poor women in chronic poverty in the US whether in boom or bust times. While the time period environment was early 20th Century, there are many timeless truths told in her stories regarding the demands and oppression of women and children in poverty. I am not forgetting about the men, it is just that in most cases it is the mother that holds things together for what we term "home".
It addresses the deplorable environment and exploitation of the desperateness of those living hand to mouth or worse and the additional burdens that being female carries.
I found especially poignant in this current climate in America. Lack of material means is still considered a character flaw. The distance of separation for the haves and have-nots has grown so great in our late 20th/early 21st Century to almost the point of where these stories come from.
Talk about a woman ahead of her time!
Tillie Olson detailed the depths of dispair of living in grinding multi-generational poverty.
While this edition includes commentary and background not only on the author, it contains three other stories. (Yonnodino takes place in the 30's; "I stand here ironing"; "Hey sailor, what ship?")
Outstanding explorations in the minds of dirt poor women in chronic poverty in the US whether in boom or bust times. While the time period environment was early 20th Century, there are many timeless truths told in her stories regarding the demands and oppression of women and children in poverty. I am not forgetting about the men, it is just that in most cases it is the mother that holds things together for what we term "home".
It addresses the deplorable environment and exploitation of the desperateness of those living hand to mouth or worse and the additional burdens that being female carries.
I found especially poignant in this current climate in America. Lack of material means is still considered a character flaw. The distance of separation for the haves and have-nots has grown so great in our late 20th/early 21st Century to almost the point of where these stories come from.
May 2, 2025
Tell Me a Riddle made me cry.
Yonnondio was quietly tragic, the narrator being the child, the harsh realities of 1930s America, the expectations of women.
Overall, I really enjoyed this collection.
Yonnondio was quietly tragic, the narrator being the child, the harsh realities of 1930s America, the expectations of women.
Overall, I really enjoyed this collection.
Did Not Finish
September 12, 2012*sigh* Maybe I just don't care for short stories? ..
There are four stories in this book...and I only read two. The first was a shortish but poignant meditation on maternal guilt. The second was a longish but poignant meditation on alcoholism. (Fun fact: the protagonist in that one is named Michael Jackson!) After that, I just kinda lost interest.
The writing, in both stories, is lovely, though the pacing is odd and neither has much of plot. I like Tillie Olsen and I think she had a lot of insight into people. I guess I just prefer it when her work is autobiographical! *shrug*
There are four stories in this book...and I only read two. The first was a shortish but poignant meditation on maternal guilt. The second was a longish but poignant meditation on alcoholism. (Fun fact: the protagonist in that one is named Michael Jackson!) After that, I just kinda lost interest.
The writing, in both stories, is lovely, though the pacing is odd and neither has much of plot. I like Tillie Olsen and I think she had a lot of insight into people. I guess I just prefer it when her work is autobiographical! *shrug*
November 17, 2007
Crushing short stories.
January 21, 2015
I actually wrote my end-of-degree paper on this book. It is so good... It makes us understand the difficulties working-class women have to face in current societies. A masterpiece.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews