Threads: A Depression Era Tale

I really enjoyed this tale of a Michigan family of five persevering through the tough years of the Depression. The story is told through the perspectives of three daughters: Flora, Irene and Nellie. The author does a great job distinguishing their voices and personalities. Each contributes to the story, sometimes revisiting an event and providing a different point of view.

The hardships of the Depression are expertly described through the foods (or lack thereof), child labor, and the activities of the family. With each girl, I sympathized with their plight; Flora, who longs to go to the movies, but can't afford to; Irene, who works from dawn to dusk picking strawberries in hopes of helping the family pay their land taxes and save the farm; and Nellie, whose childhood imagination disappears after experiences no child should encounter.

Threading their stories together is the mystery of a baby's hand found buried on their land, a revivalist preacher, a no-good drunken neighbor, the stories of the train-jumpers, and many more wonderfully embellished characters. I read this engaging story in two days; it wasn't easy to put down!