A bleak (and occasionally comic) view of life in rural Nebraska before the first World War. It is grim. Hardscrabble life, insular communities, slow-moving train wrecks. You have vice in the heartland and the accompanying violence. A look at a set of families and their skeletons. Lots of social observation and a mostly harrowing plot keep this in your mind long after you’ve finished the novel. Like Steinbeck without the conscience.