Amazon.com: Customer reviews: This Tender Land

Top positive review

Brilliant storytelling

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 19, 2023

I loved everything about this book. The atmosphere, the rich, unforgettable characters, and the way the author brought a bygone era to life. The universal truths woven into the story made me think of Somerset Maugham as The Razors Edge.
Jake Kaminski-Author

Top critical review

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Polly

Too long

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 17, 2023

Captivating and a good story line but too too many adventures. In writing as in life sometimes less is more

36,724 total ratings, 2,575 with reviews

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From the United States

Kindle Customer

Brilliant storytelling

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 19, 2023

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 7, 2023

Verified Purchase

Four members in these lives of vagabonds show the trials and tribulations they all experienced. One for and ALL for one as they experience "life". There's no understanding of it or why they experience these troubles but the lessons learned remain with them until their final days.

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Bob

Wonderful book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 13, 2023

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Wonderful realistic novel about tough times in the Depression, not only for four orphans escaping a horrible school but most everyone in general that they meet on their journey.

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Karen Franks

"We Breathe Love In and We Breathe Love Out"

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 24, 2023

Verified Purchase

Well-written, perfectly paced, thoroughly researched, This Tender Land takes you on a journey along with four children. As the children learn about the world, so will you,-learn about yourself. I am Wyandotte. This book was recommended to me to help connect me with the past, with my ancestors. The story does not disappoint on any level. It is deeply meaningful, courageous, and righteous. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

3 people found this helpful

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Marsha

Entertaining

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 29, 2023

Verified Purchase

This book has been compared to Where the Crawdads Sing. I disagree. The only similarity is that the protagonists are young and on their own. Also it is not as good as Mr. Krueger's Ordinary Grace. But after stating all of that, it is an entertaining story. It's the story of four children ranging in ages from 6 to 16 who escape from an orphanage/boarding school during the Great Depression. They meet various characters along their journey that either help or hinder them. I recommend this book with the caveat stated above.

2 people found this helpful

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Caveat Emptor.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 10, 2019

Verified Purchase

This may well become WKK's best-known book. While I admire his skills as a writer (I've read all of his previous novels), this book was not to my taste. I far prefer his Cork O'Connor mysteries. Others are likely to have a very different reaction, so I will attempt to clarify my response.

First and foremost, this is a mainstream novel, not a mystery or a crime novel. There is criminal activity but it is leveraged for the purpose of gaining some suspense. The only 'mystery' in the story is 'how it will all end' and some of that is telegraphed.

The story concerns two Irish boys who are orphaned and sent to a school for Native Americans in Minnesota. It is 1932 and the results of the great depression are everywhere. There they meet a Native boy who has had his tongue cut out and a young girl who is the daughter of one of the teachers at the school. The school is run by a sadistic monster and her weak, enabling husband. The kids call this woman the 'black witch' and she fully deserves the title. There is a kindly German man at the school who operates a secret 'still for moonshine and an awful man who is given to beating and sodomizing the children. The four kids escape and head down river toward St. Louis, where the narrator (Odysseus 'Odie' O'Banion) has a still-living aunt. She lives on Ithaca Street in St. Louis.

At this point you can see part of my problem. The book explicitly updates/leverages/mimics HUCKLEBERRY FINN and Homer's ODYSSEY. At one point they meet a one-eyed man called Jack who is threatening but a lot less evil than Polyphemus. Odie is tempted by a lovely young woman who is different, fortunately, from Circe. They visit Hoovervilles and meet a woman who is a carbon copy of Aimee Semple McPherson. Thus, Odie becomes a kind of Forrest Gump making the cultural tour of depression-era America. The author admits many of these influences in an author's note at the end of the novel. Throughout his adventures Odie and his companions are subjected to horrific suffering. At the same time, Odie narrates several of the chapters in present time, so that we are assured that he survived eventually and that we should not fear the worst. Pretty much close to 'the worst' eventually occurs, however, and we are left with the somewhat cold comfort of a faith in a 'tender land' and the strength of the human spirit that creates lasting friendships and occasional victories. I didn't expect WKK to go all Horatio Alger and turn Odie into the Governor of Missouri or the owner of Budweiser or Ralston Purina. His Aunt Julia does rebound very, very well, however and (SPOILER) one of the kids plays three seasons for the Cardinals.

The pain suffered by the kids is uncommonly harsh but they are plucky, gifted and feisty. There is, however, a great deal of melodrama and sentimentality in the telling of their tale. That, of course, is the stuff of best sellers and some 'classics'. Hence, many readers are likely to say that this book changed their lives and the plight of the characters was unforgettable.

I know what WKK can do with a mystery or crime narrative, however, and I would prefer seeing him create a small masterpiece each time out than to fashion a mainstream novel which sounds all too familiar and is a bit of a pastiche. Still and all, I did have tear-stained cheeks at the novel's end, just as I do every time I read Dickens, another influence acknowledged by WKK in his author's note.

Hence I award a somewhat reluctant four and a half stars, knowing that some readers will want to award six. I do not have the temerity to compare myself with Oscar Wilde, but it was Oscar who said that 'One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.' I am too subject to sentiment to find myself laughing but there were moments in THIS TENDER LAND when I did feel manipulated.

67 people found this helpful

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Dekel

Is there a reason to believe?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 3, 2023

Verified Purchase

Beautifully written, "This Tender Land" belongs on list of books to read when you're feeling down. A modern Buck Finn floats down the Mississippi with Odie. Most important book I've read, after "Ordinary Grace."

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Gripping story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 15, 2023

Verified Purchase

The story holds your attention the entire time- there are no slow parts. It is educational with sad situations but also many happy moments and resolutions…you are not left hanging. A great book for book clubs and those liking a good story and wanting a book that you are happy to get back to and where you recognize each character because they are all so well developed.

2 people found this helpful

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Anthony C Johnson

Excellent Book.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 9, 2023

Verified Purchase

One of the best by Krueger.

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nana

such an engaging story!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 20, 2023

Verified Purchase

From beginning to end, I was hooked. An engaging story of the stream of life we all must travel as we follow these kids on their trip downstream.

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5 star		71%
4 star		22%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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