As an Amazon Associate, I may earn a small amount from qualifying purchases at no cost to you. Frank Drum, 13, is as restless as any other. But Ordinary Grace, a new novel from William Kent Krueger, is both, and it is affecting. This post may contain Amazon Affiliate links. Not often does a story feel at once fresh and familiar. Ordinary Grace (Atria Books, March 4, 2014) is available through: This book goes in my permanent collection and makes it to my “all-time favorite” book list.
The overall message about God’s love, grace, and forgiveness is meaningful and not at all offensive to this agnostic. This is a mystery in which the endpoint is deducible, but the suspense, the climax, and how the characters learn of and handle the solution is fascinating. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited. Krueger’s writing is exquisite, bringing me to tears on occasion. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. The novel captures both Frankie’s innocence and his creeping awareness of adult issues: secrets, lies, premarital sex, teen pregnancy, adultery, racial issues (particularly prejudice against Native Americans), PTSD and other psychological issues. The book is narrated by middle child Frank Drum. As the summer progresses, Frankie’s family and New Bremen are beset by multiple tragedies, death in many forms. The plotcenters on a quartet of deaths that take place in and around the town over the course of that summer. Set in New Bremen, Minnesota, in the summer of 1961, Frankie starts that summer a normal kid who adores his older sister, Ariel, and is adored in turn by his little brother, Jake. Ordinary Grace is a beautifully written coming-of-age story, told in retrospect from a distance of forty years and from the point of view of thirteen-year-old Frankie Drum.
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