The Tender Land (Paperback)

from stacyinthecity

As a teenager, the author's brother committed suicide. This book is the story of the family before and after that tragic event. It is told through a series of vignettes, each focusing on different family members or aspects of family relations. Through it all, the author tries to find her own way ...

from ElizabethAndrew

I found THE TENDER LAND a gorgeous and melancholic read. Finneran is deft at dream-like, associative writing that spirals around a central memory. Grief works this way, as does memory. While I occasionally wished Finneran would reach outside her small family story to bigger questions (for instanc...

from DaraLewis

This was an engaging and tragic story of a family trying to put themselves back together after a suicide.

from Donna828

I have never understood suicide or how a family can go on after losing a loved one in this way. Kathleen Finneran has written a beautifully poignant memoir about her younger brother Sean's suicide at age 15 and how it impacted her and the other five members of her immediate family. She writes wit...

from tloeffler

Kathleen Finneran's brother Sean committed suicide at the age of 15. In a funny sort of way, this book is all about that incident, and yet not about it at all. This is a family memoir, or "love story" as the subtitle suggests. We see the family before and after, some roles changing wildly, some n...