This Tender Land
By William Kent Krueger
444 pages
This is the story of four orphans on the run from the authorities during the Great Depression. We hear the story through Odie- the impish protagonist of the novel. I would liken this book to Huck Finn meets the Odyssey. Only William Kent Krueger could pull that off….
What did it make me think about?
As so many good novels do- it made me think about what constitutes a family.
Should I read it?
One of my favorite books is William Kent Krueger’s Ordinary Grace. What a hard task It must be to follow up such a well-loved work. I was not disappointed in This Tender Land. The plot kept me interested and I always seem to love the characters Mr. Krueger creates. Much like Mark Twain, these characters seemed uniquely American and of a certain time and place. Sometimes I did feel like some of the passages were a little sugary-sweet, but I still bought into the story wholeheartedly. I am sure anyone who loved Ordinary Grace will be more than satisfied with this latest novel. I highly recommend this one!
Quote-
“Everything that’s been done to us we carry forever.”
“From the height of a certain wisdom acquired across many decades, I look down now on those four children traveling a meandering river whose end was unknown to them. Even across the distance of time, I hurt for them and pray for them still. Our former selves are never dead.”
