maureenstantonwriter 's review for:

The Tender Land: A Family Love Story by Kathleen Finneran

5.0

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This is a beautiful book in all ways, the writing, the sentiment, the story. Finneran portrays her family members with affection and honesty as she examines and grieves her younger brother's death by suicide. As a reader, we are brought into the family dynamics, not in a way that is intrusive, but instead respectful yet still intimate. By the end, I felt myself grieving, too, for the loss of a charming, curious, loving young man, while also astonished at how the ordinary moments of life can be brought to the page and made deeply compelling and symbolic. I've added this book to my list of favorite memoirs.