Book Review: Whose Names are Unknown by Sanora Babb

Published: January 1, 2004
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Received: purchased through Life's Library
Read from July 19. 2021 to January 9, 2022

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Originally written and slated for publication in 1939, this long-forgotten masterpiece was shelved by Random House when The Grapes of Wrath met with wide acclaim. In the belief that Steinbeck already adequately explored the subject matter, Babb's lyrical novel about a farm family's relentless struggle to survive in both Depression-era Oklahoma and in the California migrant labor camps gathered dust for decades.

Rescued from obscurity by the University of Oklahoma Press, the members of the poor but proud Dunne family and their circle of equally determined friends provide another legitimate glimpse into life on the dust-plagued prairies of the Southwest and in the fertile, but bitterly disappointing, orchards and vineyards of the so-called promised land. Babb, a native of Oklahoma's arid panhandle and a volunteer with the Farm Security Administration in Depression-era California, brings an insider's knowledge and immediacy to this authentically compelling narrative. A slightly less political, more female-oriented, companion piece to The Grapes of Wrath.

Review:

Whose Names are Unknown was one of the Life's Library picks for 2021. The novel was meant to be published in 1939, but when The Grapes of Wrath was published, it was decided that the book was too similar, and it never went to print. It wasn't until 2004, right before Babb's death, that the University of Oklahoma Press finally published the book.

As I haven't read The Grapes of Wrath, I can't judge how similar the two books are, though I admit that it does seem strange to me that two books that focus on something so large in US history would be too similar to exist at the same time does seem strange to me.

The novel focuses on a family during the Great Depression. At the start of the novel, they're living in the Oklahoma panhandle struggling to survive despite frequent dust storms. Later on in the novel, they travel to California to find work.

While I'm not sure exactly how many years the novel covers, we're with the characters for what felt like a long time, and I enjoyed getting to see the same characters for that long. When the family leaves for California, they also leave their neighbors behind, and we don't get to hear much about those characters again, which was sad after spending so much time with them. The characters were the best part of the book for me. I felt very attached and wanted to help them somehow.

This book is far from a quick read. It took me about six months to finish, but that's not because it's long. The only plot the book has is a family trying to survive. While I was very drawn into the family's struggles, it wasn't a story where I was on the edge of my seat and desperately needed to keep reading to see what happened next. My experience felt much more contemplative, and I was comfortable reading it in small doses over a longer period of time instead of flying through it.

The ending of the book is also ambiguous. There's no real closure. At the end of the story, they're still in the midst of the Great Depression, and the characters don't know how they'll survive. You get the sense that it'll be more of the same for a while. That made the characters' suffering feel even more real because there was no easy fix to it.

I did enjoy this book as a slower read. If you want something faster paced, it probably won't be for you, but if a slower book isn't a problem for you, I recommend picking it up.