A flawed but worthwhile read. She really hammers on the idea (in ALL of her books) that the poor are noble and morally righteous while the rich and powerful are corrupt, evil and weak. She deals too much in absolutes to be a truly effective writer, but the scope of this novel is impressive. She actually manages to create some pretty well-rounded & sympathetic characters, too, despite the limitations of her convictions.
The 2 books before this were also pretty good (although much more intimate in scope), but after this she got even more rigid and preachy.
This book is interesting in that the young female artistic, smart character who stays true to her poor & humble origins is a heroic character, while the artistic, smart young man who leaves town to pursue fame and fortune with his art in SoCal ends up a drunken failure after he flees the real world to come back to his estranged family. In his backstory he was always sneaky and conniving, no doubt because of his artistic aspirations. Very odd coming from a woman who was able to turn her own backstory into a pretty decent artistic statement.
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