Yonnondio

From the Thirties

By: Tillie Olsen

Narrated by: Isabel Keating

Yonnondio follows the heartbreaking path of the Holbrook family in the late 1920s and the Great Depression as they move from the coal mines of Wyoming to a tenant farm in Western Nebraska, ending up finally on the kill floors of the slaughterhouses and in the wretched neighborhoods of the poor in Omaha, Nebraska.

Mazie, the oldest daughter in the growing family of Jim and Anna Holbrook, tells the story of the family's desire for a better life—Anna's dream that her children be educated and Jim's wish for a life lived out in the open, away from the darkness and danger of the mines. At every turn in their journey, however, their dreams are frustrated, and the family is jeopardized by cruel and indifferent systems.

©1974 Tillie Olsen (P)2022 Audible, Inc.

Story

Any book you read for class is undoubtedly a good book. Dark and depressing the story of a little girl and her family in the Great Depression era of America will leave you devastated in just how currently relevant it is. Both in the value of work (“work is god”), and the difficulties in obtaining an education when jumping through the hopeless cycle of failures in capitalism bureaucracy. It goes even further to demonstrate the cycles of abuse both in society and how it reflects in the household and gendered relationships; husband-wife, mother-daughter, and among siblings. While no official or satisfying ending was written, it still serves as a timeless lens into the American world.