Ordinary Grace

When I state that To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my top three all-time reads, and when I note that Ordinary Grace is similar in power, then there is no higher praise I can give! I now have four favorite books.

How I love this book...so much so that I went back to Barnes and Noble and bought the three remaining copies off the shelf in order to give them to those I think will appreciate this incredible tale.

In 1961 there is an unusually high number of deaths, murder, accidents, and suicide, with each impacting the town of New Breman, Minnesota in varying degrees of disbelief, prejudice and reconciliation.

Looking back forty years later, Frank Drum, who was thirteen years old that fateful summer, he tells a spirit filled, wonderful, show more emotional eulogy to those most impacted. There is a strong element of spirituality in this book. Without preaching, the author shines a bright light on the tragedies life brings us and the ensuing trials and testing of faith, and grace.

While there are many themes, the author paints them all with a lovely brush of color. There is the story of two brothers, Frank the older and Jake the younger who stutters his way through child hood. And, there is a story of the two brothers and their relationship, and severe grief when their beloved sister is found dead in a river. The character development is excellent.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is a moral, strong father, Frank and Jake's father is a steady light of finding grace in the midst of tragedy. He is a father worthy of respect. He is a minister of three small country churches, and we learn of his commitment through his ministry to those he helps, and to his family and friends.

Yet, to say that the father always finds sunshine would do grave dis service to the book. As their world spins out of control when their daughter/sister is found dead, and most likely murdered by someone in the town, the family seam is riven, tragically splitting, and then they eventually discover a way to sew their relationships back together.

To focus on this as only a coming of age story, would also do a dis service to the book. Too often, books are labeled young adult simply because the main character is not an adult, but has a life changing event that suddenly matures him or her. I credit the publisher and author in not making the error of pigeon holing this as a young adult book. Rather, it is a wonderful, incredible story beautifully told by a wise, sensitive young man who looks back and focuses on events that mold and shape.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED show less

New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder.

Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family— which includes his Methodist minister father; his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years kid brother— he show more finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years.

Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God. (less) show less

“That was it. That was all of it. A grace so ordinary there was no reason at all to remember it. Yet I have never across the forty years since it was spoken forgotten a single word.” (270)

New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. Frank Drum is thirteen years old and preoccupied with the innocent concerns of all young teenage boys. But the tragic summer which is about to unfold will forever change him and his family – a Methodist preacher father, a passionate, artistic mother, an adored older sister who will attend Juilliard come fall, and a precocious younger brother. It would be enough (serious understatement) for any young boy to process the several deaths that rock New Bremen that season: death by accident, suicide, natural causes, and show more murder. But Frank will also find himself caught up in an adult world incomprehensible to his young years – one of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal. And, decades later, he will clearly remember his struggle to navigate the fateful summer.

Ordinary Grace, narrated by Frank, some forty years after the summer of ’61, is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God. Krueger is brilliant, his writing beautiful – his characters unforgettable. The mystery that permeates the novel had me furiously turning pages. Fabulous read! show less

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger is a stand-alone novel rather than part of his Cork O'Connor series. This book is a wonderful mixture of a coming of age story and a mystery with an extraordinary sense of place and time. It delivers the reader to the small town of New Bremen, Minnesota during the summer of 1961 as thirteen year old Frank Drum is about to learn how secrets, lies and betrayal can rip a family apart.

Frank is the middle child of the town’s Methodist minister. His mother is a beautiful and passionate woman who is particularly proud of Ariel, his older sister, who is set to leave for New York and the Julliard School of Music in the autumn. Frank and his younger brother, Jake look forward to their long summer vacation. show more Everything changes as the two brothers find the corpse of a hobo under the railway bridge. Through a series of tragedies the story unfolds in a slow, circular manner as eventually the family experiences a violent loss of it’s own.

At heart this is a meditation on the nature of grace in a time of crisis wrapped in the guise of a mystery novel but Ordinary Grace is written with such a quiet beauty and strength that this story of family, faith and empathy is lifted to a very high level. show less

There's a lot of tragedy in this book, but so much ordinary life and love at the same time that I loved it, despite my tears. I loved the characters, who became completely real, flawed, and wonderful to me. The coming-of-age story, the friendship between brothers and sister, the friendships between other adult characters, the experiences with prejudice, and the deaths were all poignant, all important, all ordinary, all believable. A great deal of this book is about how people deal with secrets, death, and loss, which sounds too heavy, but all of it happens through the eyes of a curious and appealing 13-year-old boy (along with his sidekick younger brother).

This is in some ways a murder mystery, but the question isn't so much who did it show more as how people deal with it and how things are revealed to them. show less

The summer of 1961 in New Bremen, Minnesota, was haunted by death. It began with young Bobby Cole on the railroad tracks followed by a deceased itinerant found under the railroad trestle. These deaths were not related and may or may not have been accidental, but the next three are connected and have more sinister undertones. The 13-year-old narrator, Frankie Drum, made this book much less morbid than it sounds. Frank and Jake are PKs (Preacher's Kids) so funerals are fairly common events to them. Here are some beautiful thoughts expressed by Frank as he attends the small service for the unknown man:

"It seemed to me a good day to be dead and by that I mean that if the dead cared no more about the worries they'd shouldered in life and show more could lie back and enjoy the best of what God had created it was a day for exactly such. The air was warm and still and the grass of the cemetery which Gus kept watered and clipped was soft green and the river that reflected the sky was a long ribbon of blue silk and I thought that when I died this was the place exactly I would want to lie and this was the scene that forever I would want to look upon." (Pg. 70)

Frankie and his tag-along younger brother have the usual childhood adventures until the deaths hit closer to home and two boys are forced to shoulder responsibilities beyond their years. As Frank looks back and tells this story of a summer over 40 years ago, he relives the times when he outwitted the town bully, made friends with an Indian on the run, and learned an even greater respect for his father. There is a mystery to be solved but the book is more about the life lessons that Frank and Jake learn and the way that families stick together no matter what. This is an extraordinary book about making sense out of tragedy. The story may be set in simpler times but the events read much like the daily misfortunes that we see on the nightly newscasts or read about in the daily newspapers...those catastrophes that can strengthen or break us. show less

You could read this for the engaging plot, which - though it revolves around a series of deaths in a small town in Minnesota in 1961 - is refreshingly free of the usual tropes of the "small town murder mystery" genre (serial murderers, gruesome deaths, terrible secrets, etc.) The tone of the novel is sympathetic rather than sensational, the murders merely a structure for what turns out to be a moving and beautifully written exploration of human experiences and emotions.

Or, you could read this for the cozy nostalgia, a voyage back through time to small town, mid-century, Midwest America, where men drove Packards and Indian motorcycles, teens hung out at the soda fountain or local quarry swimming hole, and little kids read comic books show more when they weren't playing pickup softball games with the other kids in the neighborhood.

Or, you could read this for the appealing characters, starting with the story's engaging and wholly sympathetic narrator, 13yr old Frankie, son of the town's abidingly gentle Methodist preacher, plus a memorable supporting staff of townfolk (descendants of the Norwegian and German emigrees that settled Minnesota) and the area's indigenous Sioux.

But the real reason you want to read this is the tale's powerful and affecting message of the importance of extending grace to all the wounded people of the world. Because ultimately all of us are wounded in some way, Krueger suggests: by war (Frankie's father), disappointment (Frankie's mother), unrequited love (Frankie's sister), intolerance, domestic violence, physical handicaps, grief .... Through the simple of act of extending "ordinary grace" - sometimes towards others, sometimes towards themselves - Krueger's characters navigate their way through grief and despair, eventually achieving wisdom and peace.

For those who, like me, aren't particularly religious, never fear - this book is about humanity rather than spirituality. In this sensitive tale of love and understanding, it's humans who, despite their flaws, are the ultimately source of mercy and redemption. This love child of *Stand By Me* by way of *To Kill A Mockingbird* and Karan's *At Home In Mitford* manages to be simultaneously literary, lyric, and lovely. show less