Ordinary Grace

Ordinary Grace (#607) by William Krueger is anything but an ordinary coming-of-age story.  Told from the perspective of an adult Frankie Drum, it looks back over forty years to the pivotal summer of 1961, when he was thirteen and there were five deaths in the town of New Bremen, Minnesota.

Since Frankie's father was the Methodist minister in town, Frankie was used to his father's involvement when a death occurred.  What was different that summer was the impact each of those
deaths had on his own life, and how profoundly changed he emerged from those exposures.  In fact, in some ways, it seems a miracle that Frankie himself survived that summer.

His mother makes no secret of the fact she despises her husband's occupation.  His older sister Ariel is enormously gifted as a musician and her mother's favorite.  His younger brother Jake, is Frankie's shadow and a stutterer. Frankie in the middle walks to the beat of a different drummer and is constantly landing in hot water. But the seemingly accidental  death of a boy his own age forces him to question his own beliefs and to look with fresh eyes at those around him.

There are mysteries wrapped up in this summer tale and Frankie becomes the catalyst for unraveling many of the tangled threads.  Yet seeing Frank begin to appreciate the "ordinary grace" in his own life and how it works in the lives of those around him is what makes this story compulsively readable.  Of course, you want to find out the answers to the mysteries as well  These are but two of the reasons to pick up Ordinary Grace and be transported to another time and place. Highly recommended.