Review: Ordinary Grace

Ordinary Grace, an extraordinary coming-of-age novel set in a rural Minnesotan town in the summer of 1961, is a literary departure from William Kent Krueger, the author of the Cork O'Connor mysteries (Trickster's Point, Northwest Angle, et al.), although there are still deaths and mysteries--and even a murder.

The Washington Senators have relocated to Minnesota and are enjoying their first season as the Twins, their exploits bruited about New Bremen from the barber shop to the corner drugstore. All such talk is trumped, however, when a little boy is killed while sitting on the railroad tracks. So begins the grim summer.

Frank Drum is the 13-year-old narrator of the story. Along with his brother, Jake, two years younger and cursed with a bad stutter, they are part of the family that is central to all that takes place. Frank's father is a Methodist minister, a gentle and forgiving man. His wife is artistic, not at all thrilled that the lawyer she married decided to become a minister in a small town in the southwestern corner of Minnesota. She has cast all her thwarted hopes and dreams on their 18-year-old daughter, Ariel, a gifted musician headed for Juilliard.

The boys discover the body of an itinerant by the tracks--the second death of the summer, with more to follow. At the same time, they meet Warren Redstone, who weaves in and out of the rest of the novel, with Frank prejudging, accusing and ultimately forgiving him.

By summer's end, the family is moving to St. Paul; Ariel never does get to Juilliard; and the two boys have seen and learned too much ever to be innocent children again. In Krueger's sure hands, Frank and Jake are brought to life on the page. Frank is impetuous, not always mindful of the rules, while Jake, because he refuses to talk very much, is the quiet observer who usually gets it right.

Ordinary Grace is shot through with faith, hope and forgiveness, despite the pain endured in finding the truth about all that takes place. Krueger has written a moving story, replete with authentic characters who grow in wisdom and grace and learn to accept what they cannot change. --Valerie Ryan

Shelf Talker: A mystery writer shifts gears with a coming-of-age story set in a small Minnesota River Valley community, where a family is tested in ways they could never have imagined.

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