What I liked:
- The concept of the novel: a father passing down not just his wisdom but his experiences and memories to his son. I think it's a universal longing of parents and the aging to have these not disappear when they die.

- The three difficult father/son relationships explored in the book: the narrator's grandfather and father, who clash over whether war and violence are ever justified, his father and his brother Edward, who becomes an atheist, and his own relationship with his best friend's son, who is is a continual disappointment and a true "prodigal son".

- The race relations touched upon subtly in several instances in the book.

- The gentleness of the story. One can't help but empathize with the old man as he tells stories from his life and others.

What I disliked:
- The gentleness is taken to such an extreme that it's not all that exciting. The writing sometimes drifts into the tedious, becomes repetitious, and begins feeling like "eating your vegetables" - you know it's wholesome but it's not something you savor.

- Some of the fundamental religious beliefs, e.g the pandemic flu having been a sign from God, and people having brought wars onto themselves because they did not see and undersand it as a sign.

- The narrator, a preacher, seems somewhat passive aggressive to me. He often points out an irritation, acts in less than an ideal manner, and then throws out a blanket statement like "I can't really blame him" to conclude. He's also pretty judgmental at times despite having recounted "Judge not" earlier in the book. This does show his humanity and in the end he strives to overcome these things, but I didn't care for it.

Quotes, there were some nice parts and I can understand why others might rate it higher....

On children, what a beautiful message to tell a child:
"...if you ever wonder what you've done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God's grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle. You may not remember me very well at all, and it may seem to you to be no great thing to have been the good child of an old man in a shabby little town you will no doubt leave behind. If only I had the words to tell you."

Also:
"Any human face is a claim on you, because you can't help but understand the singularity of it, the courage and loneliness of it. But this is truest of the face of an infant."

On family:
"It simply states a deeply mysterious fact. You can know a thing to death and be for all purposes completely ignorant of it. A man can know his father, or his son, and there might still be nothing between them but loyalty and love and mutual comprehension."

On blessings:
"There is a reality in blessing, which I take baptism to be, primarily. It doesn't enhance sacredness, but it acknowledges it, and there is a power in that. I have felt it pass through me, so to speak. The sensation is of really knowing a creature, I mean really feeling its mysterious life and your own mysterious life at the same time."

On second guessing oneself, I don't know about "years ago" but this one rings true for me:
"I still wake up at night, thinking, That's what I should have said! or That's what he meant! remembering conversations I had with people years ago, some of them long gone from the world, past any thought of my putting things right with them."

On virtue:
"It is one of the best traits of good people that they love where they pity. And this is truer of women than of men. So they get themselves into situations that are harmful to them. I have seen this happen many, many times. I have always had trouble finding a way to caution against it. Since it is, in a word, Christlike."

On the transience of life:
"Though I must say all this has given me a new glimpse of the ongoingness of the world. We fly forgotten as a dream, certainly, leaving the forgetful world behind us to trample and mar and misplace everything we have ever cared for. That is just the way of it, and it is remarkable."

On religion, specifically evangelists:
"Two or three of the ladies had pronouced views on points of doctrine, particularly sin and damnation, which they never learned from me. I blame the radio for sowing a good deal of confusion where theology is concerned. And television is worse. You can spend forty years teaching people to be awake to the fact of mystery and then some fellow with no more thoelogical sense than a jackrabbit gets himself a radio ministry and all your work is forgotten. I do wonder where it will end."

On creation:
"This morning Kansas rolled out of its sleep into a sunlight grandly announced, proclaimed throughout heaven - one more of the very finite number of days that this old prairie has been called Kansas, or Iowa. But it has all been one day, that first day. Light is constant, we just turn over in it." ( )

A wonderfully written work in which an aged clergyman looks upon his life through a letter to his young son. It examines the relationships between his father and grandfather, also preachers, his best friend (another preacher), between himself and God, and also his troubled relationship with his best friend's son. (named after himself). It's a story that unfolds slowly, with prose that rewards rolling around the literary palate. A work to savour for those who want to contemplate the meaning of their lives. ( )

Easily one of the best books I read in 2007. Gently meandering poetic prose that manages to both encompass an American experience and the lifetime of a man of doubts and faith. Don't miss this one. ( )

Easily one of the best books I read in 2007. Gently meandering poetic prose that manages to both encompass an American experience and the lifetime of a man of doubts and faith. Don't miss this one. ( )

Easily one of the best books I read in 2007. Gently meandering poetic prose that manages to both encompass an American experience and the lifetime of a man of doubts and faith. Don't miss this one. ( )