Matt Ritzert
St. Jane de Chantal Writing Group
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger is a novel that does not fit neatly into a single genre. It is a mystery story. It is a coming-of-age story. It is a story about death, murder, suicide, grief, and, in the midst of suffering and grief, the struggle to find comfort in the grace of God.
Ordinary Grace is set in a small Minnesota town in 1961. The story is told by Frank Drum, the family’s middle child. As an adult looking back some forty years, he recalls the tumultuous summer of his thirteenth year when a series of deaths plunged him from carefree adolescence into the trials and tribulations of adulthood.
Frank’s father is a Methodist minister, a man of steadfast faith haunted by his experiences in World War II. His mother is a talented musician who resents her husband’s constant reliance on God to deal with any and all problems. Frank’s older sister is also a talented musician, a teenager in love and with a secret life. Frank’s younger brother is an innocent but perceptive child, always tagging along with Frank as the tragic events unfold. The summer begins when a young boy about Frank’s age is killed when struck by a train. It is the first in a series of deaths that rock the town and rip into the heart and soul of the Drum family, testing relationships among family and community members and their faith in God.
The mystery story buried inside Ordinary Grace is full of colorful suspects, false leads, and a twist at the end that leaves the reader with conflicted feelings about the culprit. The coming-of-age story depicts the many real and sometimes amusing ordinary graces a thirteen-year-old boy confronts about adult behavior, sex, and family life. Ordinary Grace, however, is far richer than a mystery or coming-of-age story. The heart and soul of the story is how the Drum family and town come to grips with suffering, death, and grief. Krueger writes of the events as “the terrible price of wisdom. The awful grace of God.”
John Vianney wrote, “There are two ways of suffering—to suffer with love, and to suffer without love.” In the First Letter of Peter, the author writes, “And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.” In Ordinary Grace, we witness suffering with and without the love that Vianney wrote of. And we walk with the family and community on the long and twisted journey that can bring a person from the awful grace of God to the grace of God described by the First Letter of Peter that supports and strengthens.
The father’s faith never wavers; he prays often; he reaches out to others. The mother sits in the dark, withdraws, and runs. Frank questions and searches for answers, recalling, “In his sermons my father often talked about trusting God and trusting that no matter how alone we might feel God was always with us. In all that terrible waiting, I didn’t feel the presence of God, not one bit. I prayed but unlike my father who seemed to believe he was being heard, I felt as if I was talking to the air.” Without being sentimental, condescending, trite, or simplistic, Krueger captures the raw emotions and spiritual struggles we all face when confronted with the unwanted, unexpected, painful, and inexplicable events of life that Krueger calls the “awful graces” of God.
I find very little that I don’t like about this story, though I found the father too quick to expose his sons to the unseemly side of life in their small town and the character of a police officer is a bit over the top with his unprofessional behavior. Those are minor issues. I recommend Ordinary Grace to anyone who enjoys a good mystery and anyone who enjoys a good read about the difficult passage through adolescence. The book is easy to read, the dialogue is natural, the story flows well, the character development is excellent, and the story line provides a realistic examination of the varied ways we deal with tragedy and grief. I strongly recommend Ordinary Grace to anyone interested in a realistic and heartfelt examination of how we deal with the awful and ordinary graces that flow into our lives.