Grace

by Calvin Baker

Harper Roland has abandoned his job as a war correspondent, and returned home a weary, jaded 37-year-old. Uncertain of the future but determined to move forward with his life, he begins a search for enduring love--hoping he will also regain the ability to see the beauty of the world.

Along the way, he meets an intellectually gifted but emotionally absent doctor, a beautiful Parisian artist who burns too hot to the touch, and a human rights lawyer who has left New York in search of a more centered life.

The novel's sweeping tale encompasses four continents--where prior assumptions are constantly tested, and men who cling too passionately to certainty unleash destruction--and ultimately leads Harper back to the chaos he was trying to escape. The result is a startlingly fresh view of the contemporary world, in which place and history are mere starting points for the deeper journey into the geography of the human heart.

Calvin Baker is the author of the brilliantly-acclaimed novels Naming the New World, Once Two Heroes and Dominion, which was a finalist for the Hurston-Wright Award, a New York Magazine Critics’ Pick and New York Daily News Best Book of the Year. He has taught at Columbia University, in the Graduate School of the Arts, and at the University of Leipzig, Germany as Picador Professor of American Studies. He grew up in Chicago and currently lives in New York.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

288 pages, Hardcover

First published June 6, 2015

About the author

Calvin Baker is the author of the critically-acclaimed novels Naming the New World, Once Two Heroes and Dominion, which was a finalist for the Hurston-Wright Award, a New York Magazine Critics’ Pick and New York Daily News Best Book of the Year. His long-awaited fourth novel, Grace, will be published in July.

Calvin Baker grew up in Chicago and currently lives in New York.

Reviews

[Jack Goodstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing discursive account of a basically unlikable narrator looking for love and meaning in his life.

[Cecilia Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to say that I did not expect this book to draw me in as completely as it did. Calvin Baker is a hell of a writer. He makes you feel as if you are a fly on the wall looking in on each of the environments and the characters that fill each page. He writes vividly with nuances in philosophy and current social consciousness and norms, without writing about race which I find fascinating. Though I did toil with the idea of not being able to really see with my minds eye the race of the characters in this story, yet I sensed who they where as people completely. I am one who is constantly aware of being an African American female. I wondered if it was realistic to think that people can be racially faceless until they show who they are during a time of race conflict. Or could it be the writer is introducing a possibility of not looking at race as a factor in ones experience in the world? Could it be just wishful thinking on the writers part?

I also had some challenges with feeling the tormented side of Harper.... I needed to feel more depth of that feeling. Yet I don’t want to hold it against him because other aspects of the writing are so powerful. I am also once again baffled on how men get away with their questionable actions when dealing in relationships.. They always get more passes with bad behavior. Which to me kind of justifies bad behavior, which of course is totally whacked... ...Despite that, this is a wonderful love story that’s for sure, written from a mans perspective. I’d welcome a HARPER ROLAND kind of man in my life that’s for sure❣️😆... A great work of art that needs to be experienced by as many who are open to this kind of insightful gifted writing! I wonder why more people don’t know about Calvin Baker. Certainly he deserves more recognition! I’ll be reading his other books that’s for sure.

[bridget rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

a war reporter takes his greatest journey to find love and rewrite himself in the world. challenges how one looks at the world and interacts with others, encouraging humility and kindness in all situations.

[Kai · Rating 5 out of 5]

How strangely wonderful to read of a man who wishes to live life as I do — a journey of questions lived in the moment.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can't figure out how to give half stars. This was definitely 3.5/5. I found the subject matter very interesting and relatable and thought the pacing of the book was fantastic. The stilted dialogue threw me though. I think Baker is trying to make a style all his own, and I would have gone along with it if it was the narration alone, even with the first person narrator, but when every single character speaks with a super high vocabulary, abstract concepts, weird idiomatic bits of wisdom, and their own personal philosophy, it becomes a little hard to swallow. In some ways, this reminded me of Fitzgerald, where every character is rich and lovely, educated and smart, if a bit damaged and crazy. It feels like falling into a world that is not our world. I'd recommend giving it a shot. It reads along very smoothly and will be a book you can finish in a couple days.

[Magda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, melodic, pensive writing that strung me along throughout the randomly, yet life-truly, connected scenarios. It reflected the interior journey that is too familiar in many ways, while being set in locations that, while often familiar, could only be experienced through the protagonist's pov.

Also: Calvin Baker is spot-on with his portrayal of French perspective and how French people talk in English.

[Joe Huennekens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyable once you get passed lines like: "art is the only thing that matters, beside an incorruptible love."