Grace

by Elizabeth Nunez

Justin Peters is a Harvard-educated professor of British and classic literature who reads Shakespeare to his four-year-old daughter, Giselle. A native of Trinidad and the product of a strict, English-style education, Justin and his focus on the works of “Dead White Men” receive little professional respect at the public Brooklyn college where he teaches. But whatever troubles he might have at work are eclipsed when he realizes his wife, Sally, has begun to pull away from him, both physically and emotionally.Harlem-born Sally Peters, a mother on the verge of turning forty, is a primary school teacher who believes that joy is a learned skill, and that it takes strength to be happy. After a life of tragic losses, Sally thought she had finally found that strength when she met Justin. But now, Sally wants something more. And Justin is angered by her uncertainty about their life and frightened by the thought that perhaps Sally never stopped loving the ex-boyfriend for whom she wrote fierce poems. Is he, Justin wonders, responsible for helping Sally find meaning in her life—a life that seems to him most fortunate? If Sally and Justin’s union is to survive, both must face the crippling echoes of their own pasts before those memories forever cloud and alter their future.Set in a snow-covered Brooklyn, Grace is a thoughtful and lovely meditation on trust, redemption, and family. Elizabeth Nunez’s delicate prose brings the struggles, aches, and tender moments of this contemporary urban love story into vivid focus.From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Fiction

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Elizabeth Nunez was a Trinidadian-American novelist academic who was a Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College, New York City.
Her novels have won a number of awards: Prospero's Daughter received The New York Times Editors' Choice and 2006 Novel of the Year from Black Issues Book Review, Bruised Hibiscus won the 2001 American Book Award, and Beyond the Limbo Silence won the 1999 Independent Publishers Book Award. In addition, Nunez was shortlisted for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Discretion; Boundaries was selected as a New York Times Editors' Choice and nominated for a 2012 NAACP Image Award; and Anna In-Between was selected for the 2010 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for literary excellence as well as a New York Times Editors' Choice, and received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal. Nunez is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa edited by Margaret Busby.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five Beautiful Stars. This beautiful book really touched me. I had written a review in my head, and here it is five days and three books later. But I wanted to share a few things about why I became so taken in. This is yet another one, I found in the Staff Picks section that is meant to entice those of us regular readers, on our way to pick up our gems and jewels at the library.

There appears to be a number of books/novels with this title. This Grace novel was written in 2006 and features an African American couple in Brooklyn, with a four year old daughter. It is written from the point of view of the husband, a professor at Brooklyn College, who is struggling to understand why his wife is unhappy and wishes to leave them. It is a beautifully written portrait of a real marriage, and two complex and flawed people. I loved the passages that spoke about the meaning and experience of "grace", and what is inevitably understood about deep struggle.

What I think is lovely and spiritual about the books we choose, is how they are tied together at the era we read them, with the experiences we are having, and the other books that surround the experience. This one was a beautiful answer to both Fates and Furies, which I recently read, and also where you really don't for the first half, get a sense of what is going on for the wife. Its also an answer, (to me) to Ta-Nehisi Coates experience and letter to his son, in Between the World and Me. In this book, Justin has to explore what it means to be Carribean young man, who arrived here on scholarship, and had different experiences than his African American Wife, and yet is a man of color in America nonetheless. He has interesting thoughts on his choices of teaching various authors, black, white, latina, women, and this self-examination is a very interesting theme in the book. That in some ways he feels the movement toward diversity in authors, keeps the students, largely of color, from experiencing the humanity that is present in the books written by DWM (Dead White Men.) In his own lens, he comes to understand more about the racial tensions within America, within the Brooklyn College Classics Department, and within himself. But this theme, though present in the book, pales in comparison to the kind of parallel to the inner growth of the two people in the marriage. Honestly, it was beautiful, and it was Grace.

[Margie · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 rounded up. I loved this mature exploration of a marriage at a cross-roads. The additional elements of an immigrant story and some academic politics put it right in my reading wheelhouse. Will definitely read more by this author. Note: The author narrates the audio version and it is lovely.

[Andre(Read-A-Lot) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elizabeth Nunez has a way of bringing a realistic feel to her work. She is on point in this novel of a struggling marriage with no easy answers. Justin and Sally seem to have a solid marriage. They live in Brooklyn, with a daughter and both have solid careers. But, Sally needs space to find herself. She doesn’t feel fulfilled by her present life. Justin is at a loss to understand and feels unloved and he thinks Sally may be having an affair. “‘I want to write poetry,” she says. “I want to be a poet.” And he wonders if he did not get it right that morning when he woke up tracing letters in his mind: Sally does Not love me.‘“

Elizabeth’s prose is introspective and her inner directed narrative shines. Her ability to write from her character’s heart is unparalleled. That is what makes her characters come alive and jump off the page. How can we understand Sally, if not for the contemplative narration that Ms. Nunez is so skilled at. Marriage is always a push/pull proposition and can be difficult to navigate. Sally wants more, but more of what and what is keeping her from obtaining that more without damaging her marriage. Elizabeth Nunez sifts through the capriciousness of marriage and the danger contained within when one does not act with patience and understanding. Will Justin have the necessary grace to be patient with Sally and keep their marriage intact and growing? Ms. Nunez will force readers to inspect the contours of their own relationships and this inspection being forced upon readers coming from the fiction world makes this a novel worth reading and pondering. Well done. Thanks to Edelweiss and Akashic Books for an advanced ebook. This book is being published as a reissue and is available now.

[Cynthia Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous and compassionate novel.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had been culled from my library. Readers' loss, my gain. At first I wasn't sure. I felt too much in the head of the male protagonist and there were hints that I shouldn't trust him. These hints were subtle at first...but intentional. The novel is the story of two immigrants whose lives before they moved to NYC (and after they had lived there for years) were traumatic. Their relationship is revealed slowly and as readers we are meant to question what is really going on between the two main female characters, the husband and wife, this couple and their child). I was patient and pulled in so that I finished the last half in one day. It's a book about the Greek myths, about literature of all kinds, poetry, history fiction. Slow paced at first, the last half was so compelling that I couldn't stop reading. I don't wan to share more...that might spoil the power of this novel which, for me, was the way it unfolded...surprising, but inevitable. 4 1/2 stars for me.

[Toni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book never seemed to decide what it was— the story of a troubled marriage? An immigrant experience? A novel of academia? The consequences of childhood trauma? There were parts that were appealing, and I wanted the best for the characters. The dialogue is awkward and stilted. (Please use contractions in conversational American speech.) There are too many peripheral characters that needed fleshing out. An editor was needed.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel tells the reader about a modern, black, academic couple who is struggling in their marriage with misunderstandings, thwarted careers, the ebb and flow of their love, and aging. It makes clear that even marriages that are admired are not.free from uncertainties caused by the fickle nature of our emotions and the tragedies of our pasts.

[Karin Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

holds up twenty years later

[Mark Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent story of a couple's struggles that ring true, and pull at the heart. How does one survive marriage, remaining true to self, but sacrificing for the sake of the union? This book heads into the maelstrom. This one includes spiritual struggles along with issues of identity and self-worth, which is a welcome addition. Many contemporary fiction leave issues of faith out, are they afraid? Excellent dialogue throughout, in fact, it propels most of the story forward along with some thoughtful mullings of the main character. Good story to read.

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grace explores the cycle of anger/guilt/depression that occurs when someone does something that hurts us or that we don't like, but that isn't wrong or is even perhaps a part of who they are. After anger comes guilt for being angry, and that can all to often lead to depression. This is an interesting story that reaches for the ideal of using communication and honesty to break out of this cycle and live an authentic joyfilled life.

The added benefit of lots of different philosophical thoughts slowly intertwining in the main character's mind leading to delicious philosophical deliberation in my own mind makes this a book that I can heartily recommend to those who like to think about people and life.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not quite "all that" or interesting. However, a good insight as to what it might be like as an educated american of caribean decent.

[Helena · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable love story.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was interesting, I just found the insights on the part of one of the characters at the end to be rushed and unrealistic. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the read.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Read...

This is my second read from this author. I like her style. I liked the intricacies of the story about a couple that is at the crossroads in their marriage.

[Cara]

Super depressing for the first disc or two. Never got attached enough to these people to care what happens next.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent read. Explored a number of relevant topics.

[Bernadette Loesch]

Another winner.