BOOK REVIEW: A Peculiar Grace

Sometimes perseverance does pay off. When I picked up A PECULIAR GRACE by Jeffrey Lent, I was intrigued by the comparisons of Lent to authors Cormac McCarthy, Pat Conroy, and William Faulkner. You have to agree that that is pretty heavy company to be in. The trouble is that Faulkner is very hard for me to read--his sentences tend to get too long.

The first chapters of A PECULIAR GRACE were very Faulknerish and I almost gave up. Soon the characters became so real to me that I would have felt disloyal to them not to finish their story.

Hewitt Pearce is in his early forties. He lives very much alone in the family home in Vermont. He has little contact with other people and even the customers who are willing to pay for his brilliant pieces of custom ironwork are also willing to wait because he gives no guarantee of timing. In addition to his work he is responsible for the art collection that his late father had left in the house and with a family secret.
His hermetic life changes with the arrival of Jessica, a troubled young woman and at the same time he learns the news that the love of his life, Emily, is now widowed.

The actual story line of the book is much more complicated then that, but what made this such an outstanding read turned out to be the style of the author. He covers the New York art scene in the 1940’s, through commune life during the seventies, and rural New England today.

Once I got into the author’s rhythm, I found myself rereading passages of description to savor the changing of the leaves in Vermont or the loneliness of the empty house.

I enjoy an author who can not only create main characters, but surround them with believable neighbors and friends. From Hewitt’s war damaged friend to his strong Irish-American mother, these were real people.  The characters, the use of words, and the situations that are faced would make this a great read for discussion groups.

Personally I would add John Steinbeck, a personal favorite, to the above list of authors. Hewitt should become one of the fictional characters who stay in your mind for a long time. My perseverance means that I have found an other author to add.