The story tumbles along from one insightful revelation to the next....With the book that bears her name, Ward has given Grace a lovely monument.
San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle
Novelist and TV producer Ward returns to the Baltimore of his childhood in this fictional memoir of his politically active paternal grandmother, Grace. In 1961, 15-year-old Bobby Ward's parents' marriage is disintegrating. Bobby moves in with Grace and his frequently absent seafaring grandfather, Cap. A devoted Roosevelt Democrat without formal education who quotes Shakespeare, Rousseau and Locke and admires Gandhi, Grace is an ardent community activist. But when the civil rights movement comes to her Methodist church in the form of nonviolent protest by blacks, Grace disappoints her grandson by not taking a stand. Bobby is bewildered by what he sees as her lack of bravery, and he also wonders about Grace's "weird spells," which his parents never explain. Though the narrative occasionally rambles, Ward, who won the PEN West Award for his novel Red Baker, fashions many quietly beautiful momentsfor instance, when Bobby finds Grace meditating in a sari on the roof of her garage. As Bobby learns about "the thin line between passion and insanity," the leisurely disclosure of the secrets in Grace's mysterious past culminate in a moving revelation that's well worth the reader's patience through some awkward dialogue. Family photos add intimacy to the text. (Mar.) FYI: CBS-TV is planning a movie of Grace, starring Carol Burnett, for 1998.
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
A fictional memoir, intended as a tribute to Ward's grandmother, that crackles with good humor and good dialogue. As a young teen, Ward (The Cactus Garden, 1995) struggled over the break-up of his parents' marriage in the '50s and '60s. He also fought to come to terms with the moral imperatives of the civil- rights movement in Baltimore—where lived his mostly absent Marine captain grandfather and Grace, a grandmother of "intelligence, passion and guiding spirit." Her past, however, hid a baffling mystery. When his parents' bickering finally grew unbearable, 15- year-old Robert hiked off to live nearby with Grace. She was respected in the neighborhood, except by the Walkers, a redneck chorus of stinkers, "drunken and criminal." Life with Grace was never less than interesting, what with her exotic dinner guests, her quest to learn about Gandhi, and her yen for discussing literature. For Grace, who'd been forced to leave school early to work in the mills, was eager for knowledge. Then came the day when Negroes appeared in her lily-white Methodist church. The impressive black preacher/leader heads their way for dinner (while confronting heckling sonic booms from the Walkers), and Robert, who'd decided to integrate the local gym for kids, awaits Grace's active participation in marching for civil rights. Why is she backing down? Robert, trying to fathom the heroic past of his formerly distanced grandfather (Union martyrdom), hears of Grace's own Union past. But still there remains the conundrum of her reluctance to join in the marching—until she confesses her own tortured spirit, the result of an early "betrayal," one that explains sundry cries in the night and Grace's "spells."Triumphant close; ghostly visitation. A convincing portrait, despite some broad brushwork, of an earlier, gutsier Baltimore.
"A book-length valentine written for and about a woman he clearly adored." - The New York Times Book Review Praise for Grace: A Novel
"The story tumbles along from one insightful revelation to the next...With the book that bears her name, Ward has given Grace a lovely monument." - San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle
"Ward fashions many quietly beautiful moments...The disclosure of the secrets in Grace's mysterious past culminate in a moving revelation." - Publishers Weekly
