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    A Peculiar Grace: A Novel
    A Peculiar Grace: A Novel
    A Peculiar Grace: A Novel
    Audiobook13 hours

    A Peculiar Grace: A Novel

    Written by Jeffrey Lent

    Narrated by Todd McLaren

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Jeffrey Lent's previous novels have earned him comparisons to Cormac McCarthy, Pat Conroy, and William Faulkner, and his book In the Fall was hailed as one of the best of the year by the Christian Science Monitor and the New York Times. In A Peculiar Grace, Lent has delivered a book that takes his oeuvre in a new direction, a brilliant portrait of love, destruction, and rebirth in modern-day Vermont.

    Hewitt Pearce is a forty-three-year-old blacksmith who lives alone in his family home, producing custom ironwork and safeguarding a small collection of art his late father left behind. When Jessica, a troubled young vagabond, shows up in his backwoods one morning fleeing her demons, Hewitt's previously hermetic existence is suddenly challenged-more so when he learns that Emily, the love of his life whom he'd lost twenty years before, has been unexpectedly widowed. As he gradually uncovers the secrets of Jessica's past, and tries to win Emily's trust again, Hewitt must confront his own dark history and his family's, and rediscover how much he's craved human connection. The more he reflects on the heartbreaking losses that nearly destroyed both him and his father, however, the more Hewitt realizes that his art may offer a deliverance that no love or faith can.

    Set in the art scene of postwar New York, a commune in the early seventies, and contemporary small-town New England, A Peculiar Grace recalls Kent Haruf and Wallace Stegner. It's a remarkable achievement by one of our finest authors and an insightful portrait of family secrets, with an unforgettable cast of characters who have learned to survive by giving shape to their losses.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateOct 1, 2007
    ISBN9781400175437
    Author

    Jeffrey Lent

    Jeffrey Lent was born in Vermont. He studied Literature and Psychology at Franconia College in New Hampshire. Lent currently resides with his wife and two daughters in central Vermont.

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    Reviews for A Peculiar Grace

    3.5/5

    46 ratings5 reviews

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    • 1/5
      The long winded, overly complex sentences with awkward phrasing made the book difficult to read. The random unrelated details and incidents slowed down a slow story about a wrought iron artist living alone in a rural setting. The unexpected arrival of a bipolar? wandering miscreant introduced a possible distraction, but when the 40ish male protagonist reveals he still pines on his love from 20 years ago (a woman who was right to dump him) I had to roll my eyes. When he feels compelled to drop in on her a week or so after her husband dies in a car crash, and when she eventually lets him in to her kitchen and confesses he died after hitting a cow because he was driving drunk after being with her sister, I got bored. What a ridiculous soap opera with excessive drama and emotions. It felt like I had been reading the book for ever and was barely over a third through. I skipped ahead a bit and saw more ridiculous drama and didn't care a wit. Not wanting to waste any more time, I put the book in the donation bin.
    • 4/5
      I have been a fan of Jeffrey Lent and was so pleased to see he had written another book. The previous two books he authored were Civil War era Vermont tales. This book is very different. It almost didn't pass my "50 page test", but I'm really glad I hung on. His character development is incredible. This is not a book you can whip through in a day or two. At times the writing is somewhat distracting (run-on sentences, no punctuation - not the whole book, but a few parts) as well as a time or two where an obscure reference was made and you don't get the gist of it until a chapter or two later, but a story worth investing the time in. Give it a try : )
    • 5/5
      Jeffrey Lent is a master of pulling readers into the time and place of his novels, whether it's 1830s New Hampshire or present-day Vermont. His use of dialect and speech patterns throughout his prose—not just in dialog—sucks the reader in and is reminiscent of Mark Twain's style in many ways.The characters in this are imperfect, as many of literature's best characters are. They feel like real people. They do not always do the right thing, but they never act out of character and this only adds to the fullness of the worlds he creates. His transitions between present-day and flashbacks to Hewitt's formative years are seamless and never reveal too much, too soon.The prose itself is lyrical. He has mastered the rules of grammar and style but is not afraid to break them when necessary. This has become one of my favorite works of contemporary literary fiction, one that I expect to read again and again over the years.
    • 2/5
      One of the most annoying books I felt compelled to read (highlights include a dopey adolescent fantasy, excessive wrought iron detail, and a dour protagonist). Nonetheless something about the writing was mildly intoxicating - perhaps it was the "infused" Vermont air.
    • 4/5
      Lent is an excellent writer, who has the ability to draw such complex characters and rich back stories. While I prefer "In the Fall," this, his latest, does not disappoint -- although I must say I did not care for the ending. Lent here creates such inwardly troubled souls, caught in the past and in traps of their own making.