I Will Send Rain
Annie Bell can't escape the dust. It's in her hair, covering the windowsills, coating the animals in the barn, in the corners of her children's dry, cracked lips. It's 1934 and the Bell farm in Mulehead, Oklahoma is struggling as the earliest storms of The Dust Bowl descend. All around them the wheat harvests are drying out and people are packing up their belongings as storms lay waste to the Great Plains. As the Bells wait for the rains to come, Annie and each member of her family are pulled in different directions. Annie's fragile young son, Fred, suffers from dust pneumonia; her headstrong daughter, Birdie, flush with first love, is choosing a dangerous path out of Mulehead; and Samuel, her husband, is plagued by disturbing dreams of rain.
As Annie, desperate for an escape of her own, flirts with the affections of an unlikely admirer, she must choose who she is going to become. With her warm storytelling and beautiful prose, Rae Meadows brings to life an unforgettable family that faces hardship with rare grit and determination. Rich in detail and epic in scope, I Will Send Rain is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, filled with hope, morality, and love.
My Review
I read this book in one afternoon. Although, to be honest it was more like I savored the book. It was way better then I could have imagined it to be. I love when this happens. The only person that I was not sure about in the beginning was Annie; Birdie's mother. Yet, as I got to know her story I actually came to feel sorry for her. The rest of the Bell family are fighters: Samuel, Birdie, and her brother, Fred. Even while dealing with pneumonia, Fred never gave up. He was very smart and when he "spoke" he carried wisdom with him. I thought Samuel was naïve when it came to his family but he is a simple man who loves his family with all his heart. He was not naïve, he just chose what was worth fighting for. Then there is Birdie. It was not until the end that I realized that in a way she reminded me of Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird. She may not have always known how to make sense of things but she was way older beyond her years. In addition, she already had worldly knowledge. I loved the Bell family and the lessons, heartache, and the love of family that I got from reading this book. I Will Send Rain is a must read and keeper of a book! If you check out one new author to read this year, then you have to pick up a copy of this book.
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