Yonnondio: From the Thirties depicts the harsh realities of American life during the Great Depression. The novel follows the Holbrooks family as they try to survive the era, navigating poverty, unemployment, and exploitation. The Holbrooks confront these hardships with a determined resilience, doing their best to stick together as a family unit and persevere. The novel's enduring appeal is the fact that Olsen focuses on how poverty doubly affects the women in the Holbrook family, offering a unique perspective from the time.
The novel was started in 1932 and "recovered" decades later in 1972. Olsen pieced together her notes and fragments and published the novel as we have it today in...
