United States of Grace

A Memoir of Homelessness, Addiction, Incarceration, and Hope

By: Lenny Duncan

Narrated by: Lenny Duncan

Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1991, when he was 13 years old, Lenny Duncan stepped out of his house in West Philadelphia, walked to the Greyhound station, and bought a ticket - the start of his great American adventure.

Today Duncan, who inspired and challenged audiences with his breakout first book, Dear Church, brings us a deeply personal story about growing up Black and queer in the US. In his characteristically powerful voice, he recounts hitchhiking across the country, spending time in solitary confinement, battling for sobriety, and discovering a deep faith, examining pressing issues like poverty, mass incarceration, white supremacy, and LGBTQ inclusion through an intimate portrayal of his life's struggles and joys. United States of Grace is a love story about America, revealing the joy and resilience of those places in this country many call "the margins" but that Lenny Duncan has called home. This book makes the bold claim that God is present with us in the most difficult of circumstances, bringing life out of death.

©2021 Lenny Duncan (P)2021 eChristian

An Honest and Hopefilled Account

Duncan's words resonate in parts of my soul that few preachers have reached. The holy spirit moves unflinchingly through this brutal yet beautiful reflection of the US.

Couldn't put it down

Or maybe couldn't press pause? I started listening this morning thinking maybe I could do a chapter while cleaning, but now my whole house is clean and I've finished it! Lenny's personal story and his storytelling ability are so rich with feeling, hope, and the struggles of loving our country while also facing harm within it. Lenny's story is a must listen, especially with his performance for the audio book.

This book is a gift ❤️

disappointing

The author is an amazing talented writer and fantastic story teller. As a person who works full time with the homeless, addicted, judicially involved, I had really high hopes to hear a meaningful story of redemption and love. He tells his story well and even flirts with accountability a times but always seems to blame his consequences on "whiteness" and glorify his "blackness" which comes across as contradictory when much of the abuse he endured came from his black community is the fault of "white supremacy". In fact it feels like every problem he ever had was due to white supremacy down to his father's abuse probably driven by traumatic brain injuries endured as a child. That too was the fault to white supremacy. I was hoping to see more love than rage. paradoxically, he seems to struggle with his mother's privilege looking suspiciously similar to his father's blackness oppression. His distain for accountability and law enforcement is clear and like many pantomimes the outrage for the injustice of blacks being 13% of the population and 25% who get killed by police, but appears comfortably complacent with that same 13% representing almost two thirds of the total homicide victims. Wringing his hands publicly over the 3% of homicide victims killed by police and focusing his rage at that issue not the 97% that were mostly killed by other young black men. sadly we watch the homicide rate skyrocketing and the wholesale slaughter of our young black youth by us, but blame it on something else. I would still read/listen to him again because he is so talented.