by
William Kent Krueger
ISBN:
1-978-4516-4582-8
A
March 2013 Atria release in
HC
and as an e-book.
To
maintain complete transparency, Mr. Krueger and I are long-time friends, we
frequently travel together as the Minnesota Crime Wave, and I received a
pre-release copy of this book at no cost to me.
“Ordinary
Grace” is a standalone novel, a project the author has long desired to write.
The book is significantly different from his multiple-award-winning Cork
O’Connor series. Yet there are links to the thoughtful, carefully structured,
series of crime novels. In one sense, for those so inclined, a case can be made
that here, Krueger addresses the ultimate mystery. “Ordinary Grace” benefits
from everything the author has learned over the years writing the O’Connor
novels. It is directly and powerfully written, wasting no words, yet always
moving the story ahead at appropriate pace, depending on the actions of the
characters and the plot. “Ordinary Grace” is a novel that will affect readers
in unusual, interesting and, quite possibly, surprising ways.
Set
in a small community in southern Minnesota in 1961, this is how the story
begins: “All the dying that summer began with the death of a child, a boy with
golden hair and thick glasses, killed on the railroad tracks outside New
Bremen, Minnesota.” The narrator is an adult white male, son of the Methodist
minister in town. Frank is recalling the momentous events of that bygone summer
when he was but thirteen years old, a teen-ager on the cusp of young maturity.
The death of that child sets in motion events and revelations of suppressed
attitudes that alter the lives and futures of many people in the town. Some of
the people affected are important and wealthy, others, as plain and ordinary as
one could imagine. Yet everyone in the novel is required to come to terms to
greater or lesser degree, with who they are and how they must relate to family,
friends, members of their faith, and how they function in the wider yet limited
community. What Frank learns that summer, and equally importantly, how he sees
and interprets the evil and the grace of that time, will affect him for his
entire life. It’s an important lesson.
Krueger’s
writing, as always, is smooth and strong and the logic of the plot is easy to
follow. While the story has many layers, there are no convoluted or tricky
passages readers will have to struggle to interpret. That’s part of the book’s
charm and its strength.
The
novel explores faith, mysticism, and rationality in thoughtful, even-handed and
open ways that lend itself to recollection and continuing reflection,
regardless of readers’ experiences in those areas of life. The characters, and
there are many, are carefully and consistently well-drawn. This is a novel of
discovery and exploration, for the author and for readers. A well-done reading
experience for anyone.
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