I Will Send Rain : A Novel

Rae Meadows’ I Will Send Rain is a dour yet compassionate portrait of a family’s resilience. Mulehead, Oklahoma is inundated with dust. The Dust Bowl storms have threatened the lives of the families residing in the farming town. The rapidly growing deprivation has driven many people from the Great Plains; however, Samuel Bell is resolved to remain on the family farm after having premonitions of imminent rain. The landscape of Samuel’s marriage suffers along with the dry, dusty farm as his wife Annie begins to entertain the affections of a prominent Mulehead resident. Samuel and Annie’s mute son Fred is distressed by the harsh conditions, his lungs battered by the unrelenting dust. And their daughter Birdie is caught up in the throes of her first love, eventually becoming overwhelmed with thoughts of escaping Mulehead.

With ample detail and movingly precise language, Meadows captures the desolation of 1930s Oklahoma, although the novel’s scenery and historical context merely act as a backdrop to the Bell family drama. Though at times exhaustingly sentimental, Meadows’ haunting characters and their emotional battles are the mainstay of this novel. Through her expressive writing, Meadows’ sympathetic treatment of her tolerable characters urges readers to feel deeply, forgive largely, and honor greatly.