by William Kent Krueger ★★★★★
It's the summer of 1961, in New Bremen, a small town in Minnesota. Frank Drum, narrating the story (from 40 years in the future), is the 13-year-old son of a preacher. His younger brother, Jake, is his constant shadow. He lives a straightforward small town 1960s life, with his parents, his brother, and his older sister, Ariel.
The novel opens with the death of one of Frank's classmates, Bobby Cole, who was playing on the train tracks outside of town and was cut down by a speeding locomotive. Bobby was slow, but there's still speculation that there could have been something untoward with his death. Before long, another body turns up, this of an "itinerant", a vagabond unknown to those in town. As Frank says at the end of Chapter 4, "There'd been two deaths already that summer, and although I didn't have a clue, there would be three more yet to come."
Five deaths in one summer is a lot for a small town! But lest you get the wrong impression, this isn't some sort of serial killer / slasher novel. There are mysteries surrounding some of the deaths, which builds some tension and a whodunit undertow to the read, but this is primarily a character study, and Krueger does a wonderful job creating characters who I will remember for a while. Whether it's Frank's father, who became a preacher to try to quiet the demons from his time fighting in World War II, or his father's best friend Gus, who served with him in the war and soothes his own demons with alcohol, or Doyle, the local deputy with a mean streak, or Morris Engdahl, the town bully from the wrong side of the tracks, the characters Krueger plants in Frank's orbit have a lasting impression on him and on the reader as well.
They all serve as examples, both good and bad, as Frank grows up during that summer of 1961. He tries to navigate tragedy and loss while he's still mostly a boy, but dealing with those events also have him trying to find guidance and examples of what it takes to be a man. Krueger does a great job of balancing the natural curiosity of a child, which spurs Frank to investigate and snoop around the events of the summer, with moments where Frank, in some cases out of necessity, is forced into adult situations. The tone is just right throughout, and the characters are nuanced and imperfect.
Perhaps it's that it was set in the mid-20th century, but portions of Ordinary Grace reminded me a bit of one of my favorite novels of all time, Snow in August by Pete Hamill. Both are about boys starting to inch toward manhood, who find themselves dealing with challenging situations that breed maturity, who are also long for role models they can model their own growth against.
I really enjoyed this one.