As an author myself, I understand the author's desire to make history enjoyable. However, her writing style fails at that. This story is so long and drawn out that I completely lost interest after one-third of the book. Her story begins from a young girl's perspective on life and love; she eventually becomes aware of the Depression. Before the plot even begins to thicken and capture the reader's interest, though, the reader loses interest due to all the long and pointless scenes about this girl's every day life. I had a hard time getting as far as I did due to all the meaningless scenes that did not advance the plot. Somebody had recommended this novel to me, so I kept reading with the expectation that it would go somewhere, but it never did. The author could have reduced the novel to half its size without losing any of the story. The only thing that would have been lost is the meaningless rambling.