United States of Grace: A Memoir of Homelessness, Addiction, Incarceration, and Hope
""This lyrical testament to life as ""a blind date with mercy"" will challenge and inspire.""--Publishers Weekly [Starred Review]
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 U.S. 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.
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lenny duncan (they/them) is a writer, speaker, scholar, and media producer working at the forefront of racial justice in America. lenny is the author of Dear Church, United States of Grace, and Dear Revolutionaries, and a co-creator of the podcast BlackBerryJams with PRX. A PhD student in historical and cultural studies of religion, lenny is currently researching what they call "a people's history of magic." lenny is originally from West Philadelphia, has hitchhiked thousands of miles on American byways, and makes their home up and down the I-5 with their found family, and in the East Bay area of San Francisco for research.
"In this passionate memoir, Lutheran pastor and social justice advocate, Duncan shares his unconventional life journey in order to illustrate the beauty and horror of life in the United States...He is fierce in both his criticism of America's institutions and his love for its people. This lyrical testament to life as "a blind date with mercy" will challenge and inspire." [Starred Review] --Publishers Weekly
"United States of Grace traces a remarkable and completely relatable life. From the throes of addiction to the joy of a Grateful Dead show, in this honest, unflinching look at his own life Lenny Duncan tells his personal story of love, triumph, failure, and pain while ultimately leaving the reader with an immense sense of hope." --Leslie Mac, community organizer and digital strategist
"Lenny Duncan weaves together history and memoir in a book rooted in journeys across the beautiful and bruising landscape of the United States, where the pointed stare of a Black mama at the Greyhound station and a voice whispering sobriety at a Grateful Dead show become ciphers of ordinary grace. In this astounding book that is both fierce and generous, jagged and hopeful, Duncan makes space for the thorny topography of addiction, freedom, sexuality, despair, and race, refusing to flatten the path for our comfort. Instead, he invites us to walk with him, to see what he sees, to inhabit the adventure and heartbreak of a Black life in a country built for Blackdestruction. A book written with tenderness and joy, United States of Grace points us toward prophetic signposts of what is possible for America, if we have the courage to imagine it together." --Melissa Florer-Bixler, author of Fire by Night
"Lenny Duncan's tale of escape from the miserable lot that life dealt him is reminiscent of Claude Brown's Manchild in the Promised Land--powerful and beautifully told--but with a twist: Duncan's triumph comes through an encounter with redemption. I can hardly imagine a more profound story of salvation. You will be inspired by Duncan's strength but also jolted by his anger that the odds are so heavily stacked against all who are trapped by oppression and injustice. This is the work of a truly gifted writer." --Tom Gjelten, Religion Correspondent, NPR News
