And even in our sleep pain, which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.' What does this quote mean to you? The quote is revisited at the end of the book (p. In the Prologue the author quotes the Greek playwright Aeschylus, 'He who learns must suffer. I wanted to keep reading to see who the killer was - but it was missing any 'wow' factor. It was a nice story and had moderate entertainment value, but I never fell in love with the story. Morality - some talk of teens having sex before marriage (235)

Suspense - there is a bit of who-dunnit and several fingers point at the wrong person Gruesome - we are spared any bloody details of the deaths but nobody passes away of old age in their sleep so just the fact that there are people dying in slightly traumatic ways makes it a bit gruesome Religion - the father of the main character is a preacher and although there are several scenes dealing with normal events through the course of his job as well as his outlook on life and how he handles difficult situations the book is not preachy and allows a few characters to privately question their own belief in God 224), a boy looking at a magazine cover with a lady intended to be a sex object (p. 148), a young boy ogles a teenage girls' breasts in a bikini. Sex - a couple sought counseling from a pastor regarding frequency of their sexual intimacy (p.

Several people die in the story - but death is a part of life. Much of the story is regular people living a regular life in a small town. Two young brothers, Frank and Jake Drum, are the sons of a preacher growing up in a small town in the Minnesota River Valley.

This book is set in June, 1961 in New Bremen, along the Minnesota River. Click ' here ' to open new page link to Amazon.Īll page references below are from the Large Print version of this book.

Ordinary grace paperback