Readers of Canadian author Alison Wearing's touching Moments of Glad Grace will understand her conflict long before the author herself does. As she embarks on a trip to Dublin with her father in pursuit of genealogical records, she envisions precious adventures with Joe, her 80-year-old father who's struggling through the first debilitating signs of Parkinson's. Desperate to learn why their ancestors left Ireland for Canada centuries ago, Joe insists instead on lugging tombstone-sized tomes and microfilm reels through the halls of the National Library. Throughout the memoir, Wearing voices her disdain for this; she does not understand genealogy's purpose. The connections to problematic, privileged ancestors make her feel sticky and deceived. Plus, for a writer naturally dependent on imagination, it's just so mind-numbingly dull.
Of course, anyone else can see this mission isn't really about genealogy at all--it's about Wearing making peace with her little family and the time it has left. She and her father make no grand discoveries, nor is there much of anything compelling to be found in their long lists of daily activities. Moments of Glad Grace does not thrive on plot. But its characters are lovely. Joe is a tender, triumphant hero, a formerly closeted gay man who now celebrates his sexuality with admirable enthusiasm. He's hilarious, and you can feel Wearing's love for him in every page. Wearing's own evolution is what makes the book more than just sentimental, however. Slowly, she begins to understand her complicated relationship with Joe, the legacy of her lineage, and the importance of small moments in the making of who we are. --Lauren Puckett, freelance writer