Grace, in the World: An American family comes of age in the 50's and 60's
Angela Boatright
Independently Published
2019
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Meet the Everleys, a three-generational American family, whose sleepy suburban summers are upended by the turbulent transition from the 1950s, when conformity was king, to the 1960s, when "do your own thing" ruled. What do you do when your whole life has been built around minimizing who you are in order to fit into a culture, and that culture suddenly changes? GRACE, IN THE WORLD, follows the Everley family's progress toward the American Dream against the background of historic events - the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam war protests, the turbulent Chicago Democratic Convention, urban riots, the rise of Black Nationalism and the Nation of Islam, and assassinations that shocked the nation. Follow the wife, Loreena, whose marriage sacrificed her most prized birthright; the hard-working husband, Joshua, who pursued, and achieved the Dream, but found no satisfaction from it; Stuart, the college-educated grandfather who could only find work as a train porter; and the youngest member, the daughter - Grace - who was taught to pattern herself after other people in order to succeed, only to find that peace and contentment come only from being true to herself. Through it all, they wrestle with issues of infidelity, diversity, colorism, faith, class, and love - issues still prominent in American discourse today. The story is told in "snapshots" of life over successive summers, and concludes with a vision of life in 2058. Can we be different and still be equally American, equally human?
