This is a touching coming-of-age story which illustrates what growing up in small-town America was like in 1961. When Frank's sister Ariel goes missing, it looks like Bremen is not the safe little town everyone thinks it is. It begins with the death of a small boy who has fallen off a high trestle bridge just outside of town, and then an itinerant man is found dead on that same bridge. Ariel, who is 18 years old, is an accomplished pianist who is planning to go to Juilliard in the fall. Lots of pickup ball games, hot summer nights and treks into the country for the two boys. It starts out as an ordinary summer for Frank and his younger brother Jake and their sister Ariel. The time is summer 1961, and Kreuger's writing skills helps to place the reader right into his chosen place and time. The story is told from the perspective of 13-year-old Frank Drum, a precocious boy who's father is the preacher in the small town of Bremen, Minnesota. I have just discovered William Kent Kreuger and I love his Cork O'Connor series, so I decided to rad this stand-alone book of his. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God. Told from Frank's perspective forty years after that fateful summer, it is a moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. At heart, it's the story of what that tragedy does to a boy, his family, and ultimately the fabric of the small town in which he lives. On the surface, "Ordinary Grace" is the story of the murder of a beautiful young woman, a beloved daughter and sister. When tragedy unexpectedly comes to call on his family, which includes his Methodist minister father, his passionate, artistic mother, Juilliard-bound older sister, and wise-beyond-his years kid brother, Frank finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a summer in which death assumed many forms.
It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were at the ready at Halderson's Drug Store soda counter, and "Hot Stuff "comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. From "New York Times "bestselling author William Kent Krueger comes a brilliant new novel about a young man, a small town, and murder in the summer of 1961.
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