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    Tucker's Way
    Tucker's Way
    Tucker's Way
    Audiobook9 hours

    Tucker's Way

    Written by David Johnson

    Narrated by Laural Merlington

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The Omnibus Edition of Tucker's Way and For Tucker

    After enduring a childhood of horrific abuse and crushing poverty, Tucker seeks refuge in her rural Tennessee home. The three grandchildren she is raising are her only connection to the outside, and her demeanor is purposefully rough. But her world is turned upside down when a new neighbor, Ella, moves into the old McDaniel place next door.

    Ella seeks solace on the same country road after overcoming cancer. Although she is Tucker’s peer agewise, she was raised in a world of privilege and opportunity. Still, Ella shares a tragic part of Tucker’s experience—she also suffered abuse. Hers was at the hands of her husband, a prominent judge in the community and Tucker’s sworn enemy.

    When Tucker finds herself at risk of losing custody of her beloved youngest grandchild and worse, the child’s mother is murdered, she draws support and strength from her new friendship with Ella. These two women from disparate backgrounds form a fierce bond, and they weather life’s storms together with faith, love, and determination.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJul 7, 2015
    ISBN9781501273926
    Tucker's Way
    Author

    David Johnson

    David Johnson has worked in the helping professions for more than thirty-five years. He is a licensed marriage and family therapist with a master’s degree in social work and more than a decade of experience as a minister. In addition to the five novels that make up his Tucker series, he has authored several nonfiction books, including Navigating the Passages of Marriage and Real People, Real Problems, and has published numerous articles in national and local media. David also maintains an active blog at www.thefrontwindow.wordpress.com. When he’s not writing, he is likely to be making music as the conductor of the David Johnson Chorus.

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    Reviews for Tucker's Way

    3.5/5

    26 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      First this book contains graphic violence and child accuse including sexual and soda abuse. Had I known how graphic it was both the violence and the sexual abuse I would not have chosen to read the book but having waited through it fair is a lot of good in it as well. My understanding is the author is also a therapist and dedicated the book to his clients who have gone through terrible things.
    • 5/5
      This book was so wonderful, I am so looking forward to the next book
    • 2/5
      I just couldn't give it more than two stars. The story was good, but the execution of it was lacking. It seemed contrived, with events forced in order to make the storyline work.
    • 4/5
      Tucker grew up grindingly poor, and horrifically abused by her father. Now, in the mid-1970s, she's raising her grandchildren, August, March, and only granddaughter April, on the same farm she grew up on. Her daughter, Mazie, is an irresponsible, mostly absent, mother, showing up for visits just often enough to disturb the peace of the little family.

      Ella McDade has her own history of abuse, at the hands of her now ex-husband, Judge Jack McDade. She's just bought the old McDaniel house, just down the road from Tucker.

      Judge Jack is Tucker's sworn enemy, the main threat to her custody of granddaughter April, who at six years old has never spoken a word.

      Social workers think April retarded. Tucker, living with April daily, can see that she's very bright, can even read--but won't speak. When the order comes down in the fall that if April isn't speaking by the end of Christmas break, Tucker knows she has to find a way to change things--and the unlikely, tentative friendship between Tucker and Ella grows stronger as Ella works to provide the change April needs.

      The conflicts between Tucker and Judge Jack, between Ella and Judge Jack, and the strained relationships between Tucker and daughter Mazie and Ella and son Cade, become sharper and more volatile, as past secrets start to find their way to the surface.

      This was an absorbing, compelling story, as the rough, uneducated, sometimes intentionally crude Tucker is revealed as a deeper, more complex character, and Ella, having lived a privileged life with the advantages Tucker never had, but also with a dependence Tucker could never afford, discovers her own strength.

      I really enjoyed this. Apparently there are more books about this pair of friends and their families. I may need to look for them!

      Recommended.

      I bought this audiobook.
    • 3/5
      This book was slow starting and I was thinking that it would be a chore but something happened along the way and I really started enjoy and like characters. So much so I may have to see where these amazing women go from here.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this story very much. The author brought the entire story into your life, making you feel that you wanted to be part of helping Tucker, to have her for a friend even though she believed she wanted a solitary life. Tucker's life was honest though very hard she endured more than most people ever will and kept working on the tasks before her. Thank you David Johnson, I will read on to see what you give us next.
    • 5/5
      Tucker’s Way was one of the best books I have read in a while. The character of Tucker alone was amazing. The big brute of a woman has a heart of gold hidden deep down. She comes off as a no nonsense person, bluntly correct and above all else honest. She had a hard childhood and several bad experiences and yet found ways to deal with it and rise above the horrible world around her. She is left to raise her own grandchildren in the best way she knows how. The simply long ago condemned shack is definitely a home, regardless of the outside appearance. Tucker indeed loves and loves hard. She befriends and un-friends the uppity lady from the city that use to be married to the judge that has caused her much grief. Together they take an unlikely stand together for the hope of one young girl’s future and they triumph.
    • 3/5
      The time is the 1970s. The place, rural Tennessee. Tucker, a proud, poor woman who talks and dresses tough, and known as the Welfare Queen, is raising her three grandchildren, August, March, and April, because their mother, her daughter, Maisy, is not capable of raising them. Tucker is ostracized by the townspeople, partly because of her own attitudes and actions. She is always on the defensive: “Trust means somethin’ bad’s gonna happen.”One day Ella moves into the house across the street. Ella wears a wig as the result of recent chemotherapy. The next day, Ella brings Tucker an apple pie as a way to meet her neighbor. Tucker’s initial reaction was not friendly. Ella shows Tucker support, appreciation and understanding, things foreign to her. The book tells their stories: Tucker was abandoned by her mother and abused by her father. Ella was married for thirty two years to a lawyer, now a judge, who presented her with divorce papers after her cancer surgery. They married while they were college students. “It was a whirlwind romance. Three months after meeting Jack, she married him. Unfortunately, the whirlwind evolved into a hurricane.” Maise’s relationship with her family and Ella is flightly. Maisy is convinced her mother has always hated her but we don’t learn why she acts the way she does or how she was raised. She comes in unexpectedly and expects her children to adore her. The older boys usually do (“In spite of not having seen her in three months, the boys fall into the false security that her arms offer.”) but her daughter seems afraid of her. The reason is not explained. When Maise learns about Ella’s connection with Jack, she has a strong reaction which is also not explained. As time passes, the two women develop a relationship friendship unlike any each had previously known. At one point, Ella insults her but doesn’t seem to realize the negativity of what she said.: “I’m not trying to be nosey, Tucker. I was just wondering about Maisy. She is a beautiful woman. Does she look like her father?”On the whole, it was well-written. I found one confusing error, possibly the result of an editing or grammatical error: The driver steadies themselves by putting their hand on the car door.” Some actions are illogical. One morning Tucker strikes March as he starts to eat his oatmeal. “I done told you kids, you supposed t’ pray afore y’ start eatin’....You too good for God? You ungrateful turd!” But there is no religion in the home.Ella’s son Cade, with whom she has a distant relationship, shows up during the night at one point asking for her help protecting him from an encounter with the law. Jack had always taken care of getting him off but couldn’t this time. After he promises to change, she reluctantly agrees to do what she could, he leaves but not before dropping a bombshell. Logically, I don’t see him either going to her–she has no connections to help get him out of his mess–or leaving. The only purpose seems to be to bring Jack into the picture, but his comments, questions, and actions are also seem forced and stereotypical. Right after Maisy’s birth Mattie, who helped deliver the baby, gave her to Tucker to nurse. Johnson writes, “As the hungry mouth....” If I remember correctly, a baby is not hungry immediately upon being born.The family goes into Maisy’s car and she drives them to Ella’s house but they live so close to each other that walking would be more logical.One character appears for a short time to do some work around Ella’s house. He has a severe speech impediment and, his words written in dialect, are almost impossible to understand. I don’t see why either he or the impediment were necessary except, possibly, to show that Tucker and her grandchildren know him and accept him and his musical ability opens a new door.David Johnson presents some interesting verbal pictures. At one point Tucker folds her arms across her chest, trying to protect her heart from this unexpected but unintentional arrow.” He lets his main characters explain themselves but made me wonder if they could have gotten more help earlier on. Perhaps it wasn’t available in that place at that time. Somewhere there is an interesting story here but the distractions hid it.This book was a free Amazon download.