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Miz Lil and the Chronicles of Grace
Tells stories about a minister's childhood, adolescence, and early years as the pastor of an inner city church
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
4 people are currently reading
186 people want to read
About the author
Walter Wangerin Jr.
95 books228 followersWalter Wangerin Jr. is widely recognized as one of the most gifted writers writing today on the issues of faith and spirituality. Starting with the renowned Book of the Dun Cow, Wangerin's writing career has encompassed most every genre: fiction, essay, short story, children's story, meditation, and biblical exposition. His writing voice is immediately recognizable, and his fans number in the millions. The author of over forty books, Wangerin has won the National Book Award, New York Times Best Children's Book of the Year Award, and several Gold Medallions, including best-fiction awards for both The Book of God and Paul: A Novel. He lives in Valparaiso, Indiana, where he is Senior Research Professor at Valparaiso University.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 31, 2024
Walter Wangerin Jr’s writing is so simple yet powerful that it seems like a slight of hand. Miz Lil and the Chronicles of Grace alternates between Walt’s growing up and his work as a Lutheran pastor to a Black congregation in a small town called Evansville Indiana. I wonder if it still exists? For Walt tells us these are true stories about real people in this real place and a congregation called Grace. These are gentle stories compared to the brutality and trauma of life after the 60s and through today, with constant shootings and drug deaths. None of that here, thank God. I need a break from that. These stories are simple but revealing; in fact I missed the punchline on a few of them. But that’s fine. I’m hoping to get it the next time around. Toni Morrison appreciated them. I’m keeping these for a reread.
November 19, 2023
aahhhhhhh the writing was so beautiful but also seemed so effortless!! after reading this and Born a Crime I officially love memoirs and need to read more!!
May 30, 2024
I didn’t really know what to expect from this book, but I ended up loving it. The author is a Lutheran minister in an inner city community. He weaves stories from his childhood in with stories from his ministry in beautiful and compelling ways. It was fantastic
June 27, 2012
Wangerin writes in a way that I can access with all my senses, and while I like his fiction I think he is at his best when he tells stories out of his life and ministry as he does in Miz Lil. I recently reread the story about "Robert" - of whom Wangerin says, "Well, it took true determination and most of the day for Robert to break through the mists that surrounded him. Robert was not a bad man. Just a space man." Little Robert, with his denuded umbrella for a cane and its tippy-tippy-tap-tap has followed me around since I first read the book four years ago. He is a reminder to me that there are situations in which it is nearly impossible to do the right thing in, but a sense of humor and some humility go a long way toward getting through gracefully. . .
November 3, 2011
One of the most powerful, poignant books I've read in a long time. Highly recommended.
December 13, 2018
From the inside flap:
"Miz Lillian says, 'I've gotten used to the ache by now. It's all right. It's all right. I call it a friend to me. This aching reminds me all the time of Douglas. Mm. There is a gravestone in Oak Hill Cemetery, on his grave, you know. But it's a sort of a stone in me too. The children and everyone else can mourn by that stone at Oak Hill. This one is mine. The widow's stone." Crick, crick, crick. She rocks. She rides a gentle memory deeper into darkness."
Wangerin's life and experiences are very different from mine. i'm not always sure how to connect with the individual stories. But he is a storyteller. i don't think i've ever yet picked up a book of his and not been gobsmacked just by the first thing i laid my eyes on. The above is my latest example. This book is crafted carefully from the author's memories—one from childhood and one from his pastorate—and the effect of weaving these things together is to make a whole which is not easily reduced to "life lessons," but reveals the author's own weaknesses and failings in a way that invites the reader in to consider their own experiences. i appreciate that he's willing to be open about those anecdotes which cast him in a less than flattering light, because we all have those things—experiences which may after the fact haunt us because we said the wrong thing, or even said the right thing and felt proud about it while all the time knowing our hearts were wrong. Those experiences of his have stuck with him, and he's opened them up. That demonstrates bravery, and i think it also engenders it.
And some of these stories are just so striking. Vivid, concrete details i don't think anyone could make up. What a writer. The way the alternating timelines weave together, and the way earlier episodes are reflected back anew in later ones, is so effective.
"Dancing is the magic by which we disregard our dyings."
This new edition, by the way, has four stories in the back which weren't included in the original edition. i recognized one of them—i want to say he included it in Everlasting is the Past, and i know i've heard him share it publicly—but the others were new to me. (One was the source of the second quote i shared.) Also notable about this edition is the artwork. There are several full-page black and white illustrations by an artist i wasn't familiar with, but which bridges so well the gap between my (and Wangerin's) white upbringing and the stories he tells of the black neighbors and church congregants he lived among and ministered with and to for decades. i really appreciate that design choice.
"Miz Lillian says, 'I've gotten used to the ache by now. It's all right. It's all right. I call it a friend to me. This aching reminds me all the time of Douglas. Mm. There is a gravestone in Oak Hill Cemetery, on his grave, you know. But it's a sort of a stone in me too. The children and everyone else can mourn by that stone at Oak Hill. This one is mine. The widow's stone." Crick, crick, crick. She rocks. She rides a gentle memory deeper into darkness."
Wangerin's life and experiences are very different from mine. i'm not always sure how to connect with the individual stories. But he is a storyteller. i don't think i've ever yet picked up a book of his and not been gobsmacked just by the first thing i laid my eyes on. The above is my latest example. This book is crafted carefully from the author's memories—one from childhood and one from his pastorate—and the effect of weaving these things together is to make a whole which is not easily reduced to "life lessons," but reveals the author's own weaknesses and failings in a way that invites the reader in to consider their own experiences. i appreciate that he's willing to be open about those anecdotes which cast him in a less than flattering light, because we all have those things—experiences which may after the fact haunt us because we said the wrong thing, or even said the right thing and felt proud about it while all the time knowing our hearts were wrong. Those experiences of his have stuck with him, and he's opened them up. That demonstrates bravery, and i think it also engenders it.
And some of these stories are just so striking. Vivid, concrete details i don't think anyone could make up. What a writer. The way the alternating timelines weave together, and the way earlier episodes are reflected back anew in later ones, is so effective.
"Dancing is the magic by which we disregard our dyings."
This new edition, by the way, has four stories in the back which weren't included in the original edition. i recognized one of them—i want to say he included it in Everlasting is the Past, and i know i've heard him share it publicly—but the others were new to me. (One was the source of the second quote i shared.) Also notable about this edition is the artwork. There are several full-page black and white illustrations by an artist i wasn't familiar with, but which bridges so well the gap between my (and Wangerin's) white upbringing and the stories he tells of the black neighbors and church congregants he lived among and ministered with and to for decades. i really appreciate that design choice.
November 29, 2021
I loved this book! I loved the vulnerability with which he writes, inviting you into his weakness and sin, without exalting them. The people he describes, the places, the events, they are common and lovely.
February 22, 2023
This book is actually closer to 4-1/2 stars. Powerful, compelling stories, with characterization that reminds me of Poe and Hawthorne. I now want to re-read all of Wangerin's work--it's been about 30 years.
February 4, 2023
My phone just ate my much lengthier review. I don't have the stamina to rewrite it at the moment. But Wangerin heavily plagiarizes Dylan Thomas throughout this book. Not cool.
August 7, 2023
At the beginning it was beautifully lyrical. Lost me on the last few chapters.
February 1, 2025
Wow wow wow. Read this one.
July 9, 2007
Wangerin tells wonderful stories, peopled by the characters he's encountered in his life growing up and as a pastor. The collection is meant to be read as a whole. It is structured chiastically, alternating stories from his childhood, as he gradually wandered away from the faith of his father, with those from his parish ministry, as he journeyed back into his own adult faith. Whereas his father was a wandering cleric in the geographical sense, Wangerin became a wanderer in the spiritual sense, leaving the rigid theological confines of his upbringing for a more open theology, but finding his true spiritual home in the rootedness of a particular place and people, the black congregation of Grace Church in Evansville, Indiana. It was at Grace that he learned the true meaning of God's grace.
Wangerin is a master at characterization. He is honest about his own sinfulness and dullness of spirit -- telling whoppers of lies as a child (you can tell where his gift of storytelling began), being mean to his weedy classmate who only wanted a friend, getting so caught up in the forms of his religion that he missed an opportunity to accept the prayers of a poor man, etc.
Wangerin is a master at characterization. He is honest about his own sinfulness and dullness of spirit -- telling whoppers of lies as a child (you can tell where his gift of storytelling began), being mean to his weedy classmate who only wanted a friend, getting so caught up in the forms of his religion that he missed an opportunity to accept the prayers of a poor man, etc.
November 10, 2015
Walter Wangerin Jr. is an incredibly gifted storyteller and this collection is no exception. He shares vulnerably from his own life in a way that captures the imagination and the heart. Beautiful, redemptive, honest, breath taking.
July 24, 2007
aside from my fond memories of professor wangerin at school, i am fond of both his writing and the hope offers his readers in his simple story telling. very salt of the earth.
April 1, 2009
I just finished this for my pastoral theology class ... it is a series of vignettes from Wangerin's experience as a young pastor starting off in an urban church.
February 3, 2015
Warm & authentic.
June 25, 2007
wangerin's storytelling is wonderful.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews