I wanted to keep one Anthony Doerr book in reserve – I really enjoyed his books and his writing style, and it is good to have one more out there that you can break open if you are having a bad day/week/year. But talking with my mom about some of his other books she made me realize that I had in fact missed a book, so I read this (his first) to bring the remaining books back down to one.
Since this was his first novel I wasn’t sure what to expect – was his writing always good or did it start out rough? Quickly I found that yep, it was always good. Something about the prose streaked with poetry makes it easy to read but also fires images in your mind.
I liked the slow pace of this book – it was sometimes hard to reel myself in and keep myself from speeding through it. But taking time pays off and we can really get a sense of the places that the characters visit. Places like St. Vincent, Alaska, and Cleveland. Three places I’ve never been but I can almost taste the air and feel the vibes of each location.
The story of this book starts with a hook – dreams of the future – but one thing that bothered me was that this linchpin for the plot fades away towards the middle and near the end. I think in his later books he hides more skillfully the elements that hold everything together.
I recently read the nonfiction book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek that focused on nature – but About Grace also does a great job of writing about science and nature, in a completely different way. I’m glad I was lucky enough to read these two books close together.
Next I am reading The Voyeur’s Motel by Gay Talese.
