I Will Send Rain

This book is all about the characters. It’s not exactly plot-driven, and people looking for historical fiction filled with lots of details about the events of the Dust Bowl may be disappointed here. However, anyone who enjoys books with realistic, flawed, and nuanced characters should take a look at this. One family struggles through a brutal summer—they may lose their money, their harvest, their home, and their whole way of life—and the extreme circumstances bring to the fore some of the hidden facets of their personalities. Here, pushed to their limits, these compelling characters will come to understand themselves and each other, and secrets long-buried will be pulled into the light of day. The writing is sharp, and the show more characters are vivid and feel real. A deeply emotional read that will linger even after the last page. show less

In true Dust Bowl fashion, I Will Send Rain is bleak. The Bells lead a hard-scrabble life of endless work. Thankfully, the story takes place at the very beginning of the Dust Bowl, so there is still a sense of lingering prosperity and abundance even as the weather takes a turn for the worst. The phenomenon of dust storms is new, and Ms. Meadows describes them with frightening clarity. The knowledge that the storms last for years adds a layer of despair to the shared sense of Samuel’s desperation. The touches of modernity – movies, cars, lipstick – are a clear reminder that these events occurred in the not-so-distant past and hint at the possibility of future occurrences.

It is difficult not to like Annie even if you do not agree show more with her actions. She is the anchor of the family, and the care with which she goes about her duties underlies her commitment to them and to the life she has made. Her longing for someone to recognize her as more than a wife and a mother, for someone to understand that she is a woman first and foremost, is understandable on so many levels, something which Ms. Meadows takes great care to show. One does not think less of her for her actions because the desire for her to obtain the peace and happiness she wants is so great and offsets any discomfort one feels for her illicit relationship.

The rest of the characters are equally agreeable. There is an optimism in all of the characters, a sense that happiness is theirs for the taking, which belies the stark setting. Moreover, in spite of their lack of communication, the Bells remain a family unit, bound together by hard work, mutual respect, and love. It is quite beautiful to behold.

I Will Send Rain is more than a Dust Bowl story. It is a story about family first and foremost, about the tragedies which can either tear them apart or bring them closer together. The worsening drought and increasingly violent dust storms are only one such tragedy that tests the Bells’ mettle. The family members are wonderfully real and flawed as only humans are. I Will Send Rain is a surprisingly poetic and honest portrayal of family dynamics and human emotions set against one of the most trying times the country has ever faced. show less

Set in 1930’s Oklahoma, this story follows the trials of the Bell family as they face the likelihood of ruined crops due to a drought. Additionally, each member of the family faces restlessness of some sort. Mother and wife Annie comes from a very religious background and is married to Samuel who is also very devout. Their children are teenage daughter Birdie and their young son Fred.

Annie is growing tired of struggling and feels that Samuel has grown distant from her. She begins to enjoy the attention of the town mayor and enters into a relationship with him. Samuel firmly believes that a biblical flood will occur after the drought and becomes obsessed with the construction of an ark. Birdie has the usual teenage angst and believes show more that she is in love and that she and her boyfriend will find better lives in California.

Fred, my favorite character, is eight years old, mute, and suffers from dust pneumonia. He is the sharpest member of the family and sees what others don’t.

I enjoyed this book and found it reminiscent of a John Steinbeck novel. show less

This book is all about the characters. It’s not exactly plot-driven, and people looking for historical fiction filled with lots of details about the events of the Dust Bowl may be disappointed here. However, anyone who enjoys books with realistic, flawed, and nuanced characters should take a look at this. One family struggles through a brutal summer—they may lose their money, their harvest, their home, and their whole way of life—and the extreme circumstances bring to the fore some of the hidden facets of their personalities. Here, pushed to their limits, these compelling characters will come to understand themselves and each other, and secrets long-buried will be pulled into the light of day. The writing is sharp, and the show more characters are vivid and feel real. A deeply emotional read that will linger even after the last page. show less

Life was mostly about remembering or waiting, Birdie thought. Remembering when things were better, waiting for things to get better again. There was never a now, never a time when you said, "This is it."

Rae Meadows' newest book, [b:I Will Send Rain|28514471|I Will Send Rain|Rae Meadows|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1453061476s/28514471.jpg|48671766], is an absorbing tale of of life in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl of the 1930's. Her writing is so atmospheric, I felt the heat bearing down, the wind blowing all around, and wanted to wipe the dusty grime from my clothes and face.

While the novel provides of good sense of life during this time and place, Meadows centers her story on the Bell family, and the novel is told through the point show more of view of different family members. Readers see the toll the hardships take on their bodies, minds, and spirits -- the oppressive heat as much of a burden as the "oppressive sameness" of life in what had become a God-forsaken place. The character development and relationships between family members -- husband and wife, mother and daughter, siblings -- was extraordinarily well done.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less

This is so expressively written you can't read it without feeling the electric frisson as dark clouds gather in the sky. On the surface it's a story of hard times in the dust bowl of Oklahoma back in the '30s. But deeper, it's a look at how one woman, her family, and community cope as everything they've built their lives upon literally blows away. Scenes of faith, resilience, love, loss, and regeneration unfold against a landscape scoured by choking dust storms and parched by drought. This is a powerful novel that gives a human face to a sorrowful page from our history.

I received this book for free from Goodreads Giveaways.

I finished reading I Will Send Rain three days ago and I’m still thinking about this powerful novel set in Oklahoma during the early years of the Dust Bowl. And I suspect that I will be thinking about it for a long time to come because of both the story it tells and the way that Rae meadows tells that story.

As the novel begins, it has not rained on the Bell farm in almost three months. Samuel Bell, his wife Annie, and their two children have never seen a drought like this one, but unlike some of their neighbors who have already abandoned their own farms, the Bells are determined to hang on until the rains return. Samuel and Annie tell themselves that it cannot possibly last much longer – but both know that if next year’s growing show more season is anything like this year’s they will end up dead broke and homeless.

And then things really go bad.

Enormous, choking dust storms become so common that they no longer surprise the Bells and their neighbors, and they blow so hard that there is no escape from the dust they blow. Farm animals unable to find shelter often suffocate before the air clears, and even inside the house everything the Bells own ends up covered in gritty, sand-like dust. The Bells, like their friends and neighbors, cope as well as they can, but as the drought goes relentlessly on and on, the pressure begins to tell on each of them in its own way.

Annie and her fifteen-year-old daughter begin to yearn for a way to escape the life they are living. Annie, daughter of a Kansas preacher, who at one time seemed destined to duplicate her mother’s life, begins to yearn for more than Samuel and their dying farm can offer, but she sees no way out. Birdie, Annie’s fifteen-year-old daughter, is in love with the son of a neighboring farmer and sees him as the ticket to her new life. Samuel, on the other hand, is still desperate to hold on to the farm, but when a supposed message from God leads him on an unlikely mission, he becomes the laughingstock of the whole county. Eight-year-old Fred, though troubled by the changes he sees in his family, and despite suffering what has become a chronic case of dust pneumonia through which he can barely catch a decent breath, still sees life as a series of adventures and discoveries. He is the one happy note in a family that is falling apart before his eyes – but how long can he hang on?

Rae Meadows makes the Dust Bowl period come alive in a way that no history book is capable of doing. By the time I Will Send Rain reaches its emotional climax, the reader cares deeply about each member of the Bell family and cannot help hoping for a happy ending for the family’s sake. The Dust Bowl, however, will have plenty to say about that. show less