Ordinary Grace

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger is anything but an ordinary book. It is filled with wonderful insight, characters that you grow to know like your own friends, lives that are rich and bountiful, despair and heartbreak, and spiritual wisdom that takes a place in your heart.The book is narrated by Frank Drum in the year 2001. It is about his memories of one summer in his life 40 years ago.Frank Drum is thirteen years old and a bit of a rebel. He is the son of a minister and a mother who loves music and did not plan to be married to a minister. Originally, his father had planned to be a lawyer but the experiences of war changed this. It is the summer of 1961 and Frank lives in the small town of Bremen, Minnesota where his father has his primary parish.Jake is Frank's younger brother who is wise beyond his years. He has a stuttering problem and does not like to speak much. People often think he's simple but he is very smart and observant.Both boys are very independent and incredibly adventurous though they are also respectful of adults. They go to three church services each Sunday because their father conducts the services at three small community churches each week. Their mother runs the choir.The book is about many things but it centers primarily on the coming-of-age of Frank Drum. The story opens with death - the death of a young boy on the railroad tracks. He was known as being simple-minded and the town is not sure whether he was murdered or just did not pay attention to the oncoming train. It is followed by the death of an itinerant man who is found by Frank. Further deaths follow and the boys try to get their heads around all this loss.Frank and Jake spend a lot of the book trying to make sense out of death and despair as there is a lot of this in the telling of the story. While Jake has a deep faith in God, Frank is not a believer. As he says, "In his sermons my father often talked about trusting God and trusting that no matter how alone we might feel God was always with us. In all that terrible waiting I didn't feel the presence of God, not one bit. I prayed but unlike my father who seemed to believe that he was being heard, I felt as if I was talking to the air. Nothing came to me in return."I thought a lot about the title of this book. Augustinian Grace is a beautiful thing, a rare gift from God to the chosen few. The Grace that Frank's father talks about is a heavy `gift'. "There was a playwright, Son, a Greek by the name of Aeschylus. He wrote that he who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain, which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God." To Frank's father, grace arrives from God and through the pain of grace comes wisdom.This is a novel that is filled with spirituality, philosophy and wonderful characterizations. The people I met will stay with me a long time and this will be a book that I will not soon forget.

I read this as assigned reading for a book group of fellow moms who have special needs children. I found it engrossing and, at times, difficult to read due to the emotions it brought forth (especially regarding certain characters with "special needs" who, in the early 1960s, were disparaged as "retarded"). The book is reminscent of To Kill A Mockingbird (the father is a hero, there are several Boo Radleys), the narrator looks back 40 years later with perspective, but places you in the action of the past. It reminded me also of the movie Stand by Me in that it is a coming of age story of 2 young brothers, both of whom I came to love quickly.The author insightfully describes flawed characters and families and the dynamics and weakness/strengths of families and the thin line between characters pulling together in love and becoming stronger and/or completely falling apart in their unhappiness due to circumstances beyond their control and the dangers of taking others down with them.It is a sad, but redemptive tale. [I would give the book 5 stars (meaning "I loved it" rather than "I liked it" 4 star) except for the fact that it was so emotionally wrenching for me personally to read as it deals with so much death/loss in just 1 year and, similarly I am still grieving the loss of my own brother, father, and mother in law in a similar time frame. Still I feel I gained comfort and insight from it.]It offers many parables that boil down to death is a part of life, tho some of those deaths are much, much harder to accept than others, we do and it is human nature to seek escapes and even laugh shortly after tragedy, to lesson our pain. There are many brilliant passages that belong on sympathy cards and in funeral services. Without giving any spoilers, I'd like to quote wise words from one greiving character trying to comfort others at the funeral of one of the story's "Mockingbirds" felled that I found, in the context of the stories surrounding it, particularly moving:"When we feel abandoned, alone, and lost, what's left to us? What do I have, what do you have, what do any of us have left except the overpowering temptation to rail against God and to blame him for the dark night into which he's led us, to blame him for our misery, to blame him and cryout against him for not caring? What's left to us when that which we love most has been taken?"I will tell you what's left, three profound blessings...faith, hope, and love. These gifts, which are the foundation of eternity, God has given to us and he's given us complete control over them. Even in the darkest night it's still within our power to hold to faith. We can still embrace hope. And although we may ourselves feel unloved, we can still stand steadfast in our love for others and for God. All this is in our control. God gave us these gifts and he does not thake them back. It is we who choose to discard them."In your dark night, I urge you to hold to your faith, to embrace hope, and to bear your love before you like a burning candle, for I promise that it will light your way. And whether you believe in miracles or not...you will experience one. It may not be the miracle you've prayed for. God probably won't undo what's been done. The miracle is this: that you will rise in the morning and be able to see again the startling beauty of the day."Jesus suffered the dark night and death and on the third day he rose again through the grace of his loving father. For each of us, the sun sets and the sun also rises and through the grace of our Lord we can endure our own dark night and rise to the dawning of a new day and rejoice...in the beauty of this morning which he has given us."Rereading those words out of context, I guess they could come out of any pulpit on any given Sunday, but within the novel the words were quite moving to me, much like Atticus' closing arguments. In short, Ordinary Grace offers wise lessons revealed through interesting characters and relationships. The engrossing story could take place in any small town USA back in 1961. It is refreshing to be placed in the "simpler" times many are nostalgic for (forgetting the awful prejudices of many toward Native Americans, the disabled, and homosexuals), if for no other reason than it is devoid of cell phones and computers and so many modern day distractions. The author paints a believable portrait full of bologna sandwiches, "jello salads" as well as forgotten chores like ironing. His peaceful descriptions include gardens, the natural beauty of a flowing river but also the excitement and tension of railroad tracks and trellises and believable characters capable of drama, secrets, prejudices and injustices--as well as compassion, love, forgiveness and the necessary acceptance of "the awful grace of God."

A beautifully written story. Both poignant and insightful. It stuck with me long after I’d finished the final page. Highly recommend.

Loved the book. Read it for a book billing and did not anticipate that it would stay with me. What interesting characters and a surprising plot.