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A review by jenbsbooks
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
5.0
I liked this a lot. My original thought would have been 4* ... but as I came to write up my review, and looked over the book, thought back on it, did some additional reading (author's notes, discussion questions, which are included in the text copies ... I had this in all three formats, physical, kindle and audio) ...discussion questions really CAN make me delve deeper and increase my appreciation.
At first, I was a little put off by the similarities to Huck Finn. Until I accepted that this was basically a re-telling (the author acknowledges the inspiration). I recently read [book:James|173754979], which stays in the same time period, but shows the story from Jim's POV (and a few other changes). I've read a ton of Pride&Prejudice reimagining. As long as that was acknowledged, then it is an interesting alternate/update. With the young boy, traveling on the river with his companion(s), racial issues, encountering all the characters along the way, meeting a girl (Mary Jane in Huck Finn, MayBeth here).
I'm a Table of Contents snob ... I liked that this was neatly separated into six different parts, with headers (1. God is a Tornado 2. One-Eyed Jack 3. High Heaven 4. The Odyssey 5. The Flats 6.Ithaca) with chronological chapters (64 of them) running through. Kindle wins for the most complete TOC (headers showing). The headers didn't show in the audio, and per usual, the physical copy doesn't even deign to have a TOC. So if you're at bookclub, and are trying to look something right as "Part 4" starts, you just have to flip through the book until you find it (rather than having a TOC tell you the page to turn to).
The sign language was memorable to me ... I took ASL through the interpreting level in college, although I never really mastered the language. My sister however, is an interpreter and fluent, using sign language daily. The discussion questions (#1) made me think on this even more.
I've read quite a few books set during the depression, Hoovervilles, etc. Always interesting to see and compare what comes up in the stories set in this time period.
Some of the words I notice ~ sneaked, jerry-rig, cacophony, brusquely. 0 smirks! 5 scowls. 1 f-bomb. If a character "sings" in the book ... what does the narrator do in audio, here, he "spoke" the song (down by the riverside). The characters (except Emmy!) used a few different names throughout, so Odie is also Buck, Albert is also Norman, Mose is Geronimo and Amdacha, Mrs Brickman was also the Black Witch, One-Eyed-Jack was also "the pig scarer" then just Jack ... I just had to remind myself who was who at times.
There were times in the story that I was caught completely off-guard, didn't know where it was heading. Was connected to the characters and cared what was happening to them.
Like a few other books of late, this starts with our MC/Narrator "telling a story" ... so we know that no matter what happens, they survive to old age. It was all 1st person, past tense.
There was an opening section, and Author's note ... and the AUTHOR voiced these sections. THANK YOU! It's SO much more personal!
At first, I was a little put off by the similarities to Huck Finn. Until I accepted that this was basically a re-telling (the author acknowledges the inspiration). I recently read [book:James|173754979], which stays in the same time period, but shows the story from Jim's POV (and a few other changes). I've read a ton of Pride&Prejudice reimagining. As long as that was acknowledged, then it is an interesting alternate/update. With the young boy, traveling on the river with his companion(s), racial issues, encountering all the characters along the way, meeting a girl (Mary Jane in Huck Finn, MayBeth here).
I'm a Table of Contents snob ... I liked that this was neatly separated into six different parts, with headers (1. God is a Tornado 2. One-Eyed Jack 3. High Heaven 4. The Odyssey 5. The Flats 6.Ithaca) with chronological chapters (64 of them) running through. Kindle wins for the most complete TOC (headers showing). The headers didn't show in the audio, and per usual, the physical copy doesn't even deign to have a TOC. So if you're at bookclub, and are trying to look something right as "Part 4" starts, you just have to flip through the book until you find it (rather than having a TOC tell you the page to turn to).
The sign language was memorable to me ... I took ASL through the interpreting level in college, although I never really mastered the language. My sister however, is an interpreter and fluent, using sign language daily. The discussion questions (#1) made me think on this even more.
I've read quite a few books set during the depression, Hoovervilles, etc. Always interesting to see and compare what comes up in the stories set in this time period.
Some of the words I notice ~ sneaked, jerry-rig, cacophony, brusquely. 0 smirks! 5 scowls. 1 f-bomb. If a character "sings" in the book ... what does the narrator do in audio, here, he "spoke" the song (down by the riverside). The characters (except Emmy!) used a few different names throughout, so Odie is also Buck, Albert is also Norman, Mose is Geronimo and Amdacha, Mrs Brickman was also the Black Witch, One-Eyed-Jack was also "the pig scarer" then just Jack ... I just had to remind myself who was who at times.
There were times in the story that I was caught completely off-guard, didn't know where it was heading. Was connected to the characters and cared what was happening to them.
Like a few other books of late, this starts with our MC/Narrator "telling a story" ... so we know that no matter what happens, they survive to old age. It was all 1st person, past tense.
There was an opening section, and Author's note ... and the AUTHOR voiced these sections. THANK YOU! It's SO much more personal!