Saying Grace - by Beth Gutcheon (Paperback)

About the Book

Set in the close-knit world of a country day school on California's gold coast, Saying Grace captures the clash of values and cultures that profoundly shakes the entire community, especially the life of a woman who heads the school. Gutcheon, author of Still Missing creates a world in microcosm and captures the grace in the rhythms of everyday life.

Book Synopsis

Rue Shaw has everything--a much loved child, a solid marriage, and a job she loves. Saying Grace takes place in Rue's mid-life, when her daughter is leaving home, her parents are failing, her husband is restless and the school she has built is being buffeted by changes in society that affect us all. Funny, rich in detail and finally stunning, this novel presents a portrait of a tight-knit community in jeopardy, and of a charming woman whose most human failing is that she wants things to stay the same.

Saying Grace is about the fragility of human happiness and the strength of convictions, about keeping faith as a couple whether it keeps one safe or not. Beth Gutcheon has a gift for creating a world in microcosm and capturing the grace in the rhythms of everyday life.

From the Back Cover

Rue Shaw has everything--a much loved child, a solid marriage, and a job she loves. Saying Grace takes place in Rue's mid-life, when her daughter is leaving home, her parents are failing, her husband is restless and the school she has built is being buffeted by changes in society that affect us all. Funny, rich in detail and finally stunning, this novel presents a portrait of a tight-knit community in jeopardy, and of a charming woman whose most human failing is that she wants things to stay the same.

Saying Grace is about the fragility of human happiness and the strength of convictions, about keeping faith as a couple whether it keeps one safe or not. Beth Gutcheon has a gift for creating a world in microcosm and capturing the grace in the rhythms of everyday life.

Review Quotes

"Ms. Gutcheon knows private schools, and she knows her craft-and that's a winning combination." - New York Times Book Review

"By turns heartwarming and heartbreaking." - Boston Globe

"Deliciously readable" - San Francisco Chronicle

"Saying Grace is a smart, funny, sane novel -- the kind that I ransack bookstores to find." - Adair Lara, author of At Adair's House

"Written with a quiet authority and power, these interesting, complicated characters involve us in their concerns, enlighten us with their humanity." - Michael Dorris, author of Paper Trail, A Yelloew Raft on Blue Water, and Broken Cord

"I worried that I might not love Saying Grace as much as I had Domestic Pleasures, but I loved it just as much, maybe even more. Beth Gutcheon is a wonderful writer." - Ann LaMott, author of Bird by Bird

"The reader faces that most wonderful perplexity: whether to read quickly for the story, which rivets, or slowly for the writing, which enthralls." - Sandra Scofield, author of Opal on Dry Ground and A Chance to See Egypt