Did you know that not all the “Okies” immigrated during the Great Depression? Some stayed and bore their hardships. These were strong and resolute survivors, as author Samuel Hall describes them in his account, Cimarron’s daughterbased on the real life experiences of the author’s mother.

Claire suffers from a difficult marriage that ends a little further into the story. She works on a staff of door-to-door peddlers in the Midwest. A romance develops between Claire and her supervisor, Elmer.

After stops, starts, and challenges, not least the onset of the Depression, Claire and Elmer marry. Making a living in such difficult times is not easy, and they eventually leave sales to other ventures.

Adding to the challenges for Claire are her parents-in-law, who seem to have a habit of inviting themselves as live “guests” anytime Claire and Elmer’s circumstances improve – or theirs fail.

Throughout her circumstances, Claire struggles with skepticism and faith in God as the author draws us into a vibrant Midwestern landscape. Most of the story takes place in Ness County, Kansas and the Oklahoma Panhandle. In the first chapters, we experience the life of door-to-door selling, not from the point of view of the person who answers the door, as we are used to, but from the perspective of the person who knocks.

As Claire and her family move to other means of support more suitable for raising a family, the challenges of the Great Depression threaten to undermine their happiness.

Most remarkable was the description of the four main characters who subsist on mashed and cooked grain “earned” from the landlord’s barn. Despite their desperate and stressful circumstances, we see the characters – especially Claire – live with dignity and grace.

This is not literary fiction, like Steinbeck’s novel. And although it was published by a Christian publisher, Cimarron’s daughter Not an overtly Christian novel, but a work of realistic historical fiction written from a Christian view of the world. This novel lacks the richness of symbolism and motifs as a novel Grapes of Wrath. The characters are also less clear. Where is the author Cimarron’s daughter He succeeds in bringing the reader to the determination and perseverance of the main character by giving us the true history of a real person.

Another interesting feature of the novel is that it is the author’s personal backstory. By showing us the world, the life, and the circumstances from which it was born, Samuel Hall shows us that perseverance is a story, sometimes grueling, sometimes exhilarating and often entertaining.