Ms. Hen reviews About Grace

 

About Grace

Anthony Doerr

Scribner

2004

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because earlier this year, she had read another one by this author, ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, and she thought it was fantastic. She had high hopes for this book, because the other one was so great. But not everything turns out the way we plan.

This novel is about David Winkler, a man from Anchorage, Alaska, who has dreams that come true. He discovers this at a young age, and it scares him. He dreams that he meets a woman at the supermarket, and he does. Sandy is married, and they start an affair. She gets pregnant, and she knows it is David's, since her husband is infertile. They run away together.

They get married in Ohio, even though she is already married, and have the baby. David dreams that his daughter dies in a flood, and wants to prevent it. A flood comes, and he cannot bring himself to go back to his house to see if the baby, Grace, is alive. He drives away, and goes to Pennsylvania, and then New York. He takes a ship to South America, and ends up on the island country of St. Vincent, in the Caribbean. He stays there for twenty-five years, and does not know what happened to his daughter.

This is a novel about families, which usually interest Ms. Hen, but this story seemed unbelievable to her. Her issue is with the character, David. It's never explicitly said that he has a mental illness, but he seems demented to Ms. Hen. He's sad and pathetic, and Ms. Hen wants to know why he waited so long to find his daughter, and why he stayed in St. Vincent for so long without going home.

Ms. Hen thinks that he might have undiagnosed autism, because during the era he was born, the 1940s, not a lot of diagnoses were made of that condition. It's difficult for Ms. Hen to have sympathy for this character because he is weak. He's a decent man, but she wants to tell him to get a grip on his life.

Sometimes Ms. Hen reads a novel, and she respects it, but it's not what she likes. The writing is beautiful in this book, and the idea that someone could have dreams about the future is exciting, but she thinks that what this novel lacks is drive, a reason to love this novel, which she cannot find. 

She is disgusted by David Winkler, and pities him. Even though this is a novel, Ms. Hen knows there are people in the world like this character. Nobody is perfect, but we should be inspired to be the best person we can be. This novel does not evoke this philosophy.