Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

 "It seems to me that when you look back at a life, yours or another's, what you see is a path that weaves into and out of deep shadow. So much is lost. What we use to construct the past is what has remained in the open, a hodgepodge of fleeting glimpses.... So what I recall of that last summer in New Bremen is a construct both of what stands in the light and what I imagine in the dark where I cannot see."

                     -Frank Drum, from the novel

I have forgotten who recommended this book for Page Turners but what an amazing novel! It had me mesmerized; I did not want to put it down! 

Forty years later, Frank Drum, narrates the story of the summer of 1961 in the small town of New Bremen, Minnesota, when he was 13 years old and saw way too much death. It is very much Frank's story of a confusing and tragic time in his young life, along with his younger brother Jake. It seemed so real, so detailed and so emotional, it could have been a memoir. 

This novel is a page-turner from the get-go. The prologue begins "All the dying that summer began with the death of a child..." and then we learn there are several other deaths to follow. Foreshadowing is used to great advantage. It turns out the child mentioned first was killed by a train. Strangely, I had a classmate in third grade who was killed in a train accident.

The time period intrigued me with mentions of newly-elected President Kennedy, TV shows I remembered seeing like "Have Gun, Will Travel," and other cultural happenings. As a former teacher of pre-teens, I found the boys believable and simpatico. By turns the novel was humorous, poignant, and even profound. I give it a 5 rating and highly recommend it! I look forward to seeing what our Page Turners think when we meet to discuss it. More after that.....

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The group met today to discuss Ordinary Grace. The average rating was 4.4 and, to be honest, I was a little disappointed. But that does tie with American Dirt for our highest-rated book of the year so far. One class member, the one who suggested the book, reread it and said she liked it even better the second time. We discussed some of the red herrings surrounding the central mystery; many of us were misled by them but one person said she figured it out early-on. We felt the author purposely left some mysteries unresolved to be realistic---that's just the way life is.

When a question was posed about the title, we thought about the occasion of Jake's saying grace before a family meal. The narrator, Frank, tells us it was an ordinary grace but so special he still remembers it after 40 years. We felt it was actually extraordinary because it caused some miraculous changes for the family.

Several of us appreciated Krueger's power of description, his use of figurative language often very poetic. A few of us plan to read more by this author. This was no ordinary novel!