October in the Earth
When Del runs away from her husband, a snake-handling preacher whose behavior makes the reader want to root for the snake, she hops a freight train to remake her life in ways that will last. Del and Louisa, another woman who has taken to the rails, cross the country with the endless stream of other hoboes looking for any work they can find in the midst of the Dust Bowl.
Through Del’s adventures, Hawker paints a harrowing picture of the poverty of the Depression but a lyrical portrait of the great expanse of the nation observed from the top of a boxcar – from Del’s Kentucky coal country across the Rockies to Washington State. This novel is beautifully written, and if it slides occasionally into preachiness, it’s easy to forgive.
October in the Earth is a love story about an almost-love affair, and Del and Louisa are fully realized characters. The dialog between them and those they encounter on their journey is deftly written. One important plot point, however, seems implausible on the face of it, and the novel would have benefited from some explanation: Del’s husband offers a reward for her return. For the modern reader to comprehend how a husband in 1931 could enlist others to force his wife back to him, a short description should have been given of the ways in which men could institutionalize wives for causes like “hysteria,” weak-mindedness, or promiscuity.
In all other ways, this is a fully realized portrait of an era, as well as of a relationship between two women where no male heroes appear to save anyone. Del and Louisa do that themselves.
