Eleanor O'Hanlon is done with her boring life in Wisconsin. When she sees an advertisement for an open call for a show in New York City, she decides to head to the big city and audition. While she is not cast in that show, her audition impresses composer Don Mannheim. He invites her to be the star of his controversial new musical "A Tender Thing." The show tells the story of a biracial couple, and 1950s audiences are furious. As tensions rise both onstage and backstage, Eleanor must decide who she wants to be as an actress and as her own person.

Emily Neuberger's love for the theatre is evident throughout A Tender Thing. Her descriptions of singing a perfect song or being exhausted after a lengthy rehearsal are excellent. But this story succeeds and fails with Eleanor. She is unexperienced but lucky in almost every way--she miraculously lands a leading role in a Broadway musical with no training, men find her intriguing, and this is the first time she sees the difference between the treatment she receives as a white woman and the treatment her costar Charles receives as a black man. This book might be a good pick for readers who love theatre, but I sometimes found it a bit difficult to read as everything consistently works out for Eleanor.

A Tender Thing
By Emily Neuberger
G. P Putnum's Sons April 2020
320 pages
Read via Netgalley

I’m judging a 2020 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

She carried heavy pails with rag wrapped handles that wouldn’t cut into her palms.

In honesty, this is not my normal genre or preferred aesthetic, I found the pacing a bit slow, but I could imagine someone who is drawn to this period and music, whose less interested in narratives of the human condition and more interested in the drama and fun of a narrative of a country girl achieving her musical dreams would enjoy this.

I am a musical theatre fan, and participated in the theatre program of my own rural high school (my mom was my theatre teacher, actually!) I enjoyed those aspects of this book, but the story felt a little cutesy or predictable to me. Fun for an easy read, not earth shattering or anything.

As someone who has never acted or been a theater kid, I found this book hard to relate to and thus become engrossed in. It had an interesting description and a good first few chapters, but ultimately I did not feel compelled to finish the book itself.

I loved this book. As an actor I truly enjoyed reading it because it felt like everything I’ve tried to explain to non theatre people. It’s a beautiful important story and I hope more people read it!

Being a Broadway aficionado, I was eager to see where this book would take me. Small town girl finds herself coming to NYC to pursue her dream at any cost. Gender roles, discussion of equality, Broadway’s Golden Age nostalgia, and drama make up all parts of this book. There are quirky personalities to cheer on throughout, and moments worth audible gasps. I would recommend this book to any historical fiction reader.

Emily Neuberger's A Tender Thing puts us in the middle of 1950s New York and Broadway's Golden Age. She delves into subject matters that would have been dangerously taboo back then, and still - to this day - are topics that are simply not understood by many. It's a beautiful story with characters that appealed to me.

"The world makes you earn your happiness"

A Tender Thing is an extremely engaging novel. In all honesty, I would have never picked this book up to read if I hadn't been given an advanced reader copy of it, but I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed it even though I'm not into musical theater or intrigued much by the 1950s. #EmilyNeuberger is a really captivating writer. I kept wanting to read one more chapter, then one more chapter, instead of going to sleep. I liked the growth of the main character, Eleanor, and the focus on the racial issues of the time period.  I will definitely be interested in reading future works by this author. I also intend to buy a copy for a friend's birthday next month as I really think they will enjoy it.

Disclaimer: The quoted text is from an uncorrected proof of this book that I received from G.P. Putnam's Sons through Shelf Awareness & NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.