About Grace
Reviews
Reading this book is like discovering a literary addendum to the dictionary definition of melancholy--Doerr's prose made the novel feel like a slightly drizzly day, with a few rays of sunshine poking through the clouds and the hint that, maybe--if you keep going, maybe there will be a rainbow. Winkler is perhaps not the most thrilling of protagonists, but Doerr weaves his story graciously and intricately, making both the straightforward language and winding narrative reach a point where that rainbow seems a little more likely than not.
This is kind of like if the main character from Stephen King's 'Dead Zone' had a 413 page side monologue. I loved the writing but I had to force myself to continue sometimes.
Having read All the Light We Cannot See, it's clear Doerr has progressed a lot as a writer. And I mean A LOT. About Grace lacks all the emotion and beauty of his last book. I know they're totally different stories but the writing is completely different too. It's not bad, it's just boring. The characters are boring and all the metaphors about water were super tedious, they read like quotes from a science book. The premise of the book is quite interesting and Doerr's style is present but to me it just fell flat. I think it's best to read this first and then All the Light We Cannot See so you can enjoy his books better. Anyway, I'm hoping he'll have another book out soon.
The book is about 500 pages, it’s really slow burn and not a lot of thing happens. The story is telling by a 34 year old man and takes it true his next 25 years
Mr. Doerr has what I call a "quiet" writing style. By that I mean that I find myself slowly taking the story in. I enjoy those type stories from time to time. They make me think and reflect. The only thing I didn't like "About Grace" is that it has a lot of scientific references to weather - clouds, snowflakes, rain, etc. I know there were a lot of metaphors in these discussions, but after a while, I found myself reading the words in those sections but not really thinking about them. Otherwise, a good book.
