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Loading... Gilead: A Novel (2004)by Marilynne Robinson
  
» 51 more Favourite Books (264) Historical Fiction (44) Books Read in 2016 (260) Female Author (134) Top Five Books of 2014 (341) Best family sagas (53) Top Five Books of 2016 (233) Books Read in 2018 (309) Top Five Books of 2018 (382) Five star books (131) 2000s decade (15) Top Five Books of 2015 (682) Books Read in 2006 (25) 100 New Classics (42) To Read (20) BBC Radio 4 Bookclub (69) Alphabetical Books (51) Unread books (496) Best Family Stories (154) All Iowa Reads (4) Couldn't Finish It (103) I hardly know what to say. This book is a masterpiece - profound and deeply moving. (  ) anitatally | Feb 28, 2019 |  Gilead a meditative family memoir, written by a dying, 77-year-old pastor and father's to his almost-seven-year-old son. The story is an extended tale of family and Christian ministry, loss and hope, rhythms of living in a small town on the plains, theology and reflections on a life nearly extinguished. Gilead reminded me of Tinkers in its perspective from the end of life. I enjoyed Tinkers more than Gilead, though Gilead does have a deeper spiritual grounding. (  ) patl | Feb 18, 2019 | Stunning. One is left wondering how to mediate on the quantity of human spirit, of sacred reality, unveiled by Robinson's pen. The holy tensions of an orthodox faith are lambently touched with near-scriptural maturity. ( ) gturkington | Feb 18, 2019 | Gilead is a letter written by an elderly, dying preacher to his very young son. In it, he is trying to convey all of the thoughts and memories that he would have given his son if he were able to be with him until adulthood. There are lots of thoughts on theology, memories of the past, and the struggles the preacher had with his best friend's son. At times the memories are poignant, but for the most part I found the rambling thoughts tedious. If it hadn't been my book club selection, I probably would not have finished the book. (  ) JGoto | Feb 10, 2019 | A fascinating theological study in a calm, slow, thoughtful, generous prose. The writing is generous and supremely human, real, satisfying. The voice in this book becomes an idol in his grace, acceptance and celebration of imperfection as well as the beauty of the world and its people. I can easily see why it won a Pulitzer Prize. As a person reaching my senior time I loved its means of dealing with aging and near death. A great book for any theology. ( ) DonaldPowell | Feb 5, 2019 |
 But in Gilead, Robinson is addressing the plight of serious people with a calm-eyed reminder of the liberal philosophical and religious traditions of a nation whose small towns "were once the bold ramparts meant to shelter peace", citing a tradition of intellectual discursiveness and a historical cycle that shifts from radical to conservative then back to radical again, and presenting, as if from the point of view of time's own blindness, an era when unthinkable things were happening but were themselves about to change unimaginably, for the better. It takes issue with the status quo by being a message, across generations, from a now outdated status quo. "What have I to leave you but the ruins of old courage, and the lore of old gallantry and hope?" Gradually, Robinson's novel teaches us how to read it, suggests how we might slow down to walk at its own processional pace, and how we might learn to coddle its many fine details. Nowadays, when so many writers are acclaimed as great stylists, it's hard to make anyone notice when you praise a writer's prose. There is, however, something remarkable about the writing in 'Gilead.' It's not just a matter of writing well, although Robinson demonstrates that talent on every page [...] Robinson's words have a spiritual force that's very rare in contemporary fiction -- what Ames means when he refers to 'grace as a sort of ecstatic fire that takes things down to essentials. Marilynne Robinson draws on all of these associations in her new novel, which -- let's say this right now -- is so serenely beautiful, and written in a prose so gravely measured and thoughtful, that one feels touched with grace just to read it. Gilead possesses the quiet ineluctable perfection of Flaubert's "A Simple Heart" as well as the moral and emotional complexity of Robert Frost's deepest poetry. There's nothing flashy in these pages, and yet one regularly pauses to reread sentences, sometimes for their beauty, sometimes for their truth: "Adulthood is a wonderful thing, and brief. You must be sure to enjoy it while it lasts."
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 031242440X, Paperback)In 1981, Marilynne Robinson wrote Housekeeping, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and became a modern classic. Since then, she has written two pieces of nonfiction: Mother Country and The Death of Adam. With Gilead, we have, at last, another work of fiction. As with The Great Fire, Shirley Hazzards's return, 22 years after The Transit of Venus, it was worth the long wait. Books such as these take time, and thought, and a certain kind of genius. There are no invidious comparisons to be made. Robinson's books are unalike in every way but one: the same incisive thought and careful prose illuminate both.The narrator, John Ames, is 76, a preacher who has lived almost all of his life in Gilead, Iowa. He is writing a letter to his almost seven-year-old son, the blessing of his second marriage. It is a summing-up, an apologia, a consideration of his life. Robinson takes the story away from being simply the reminiscences of one man and moves it into the realm of a meditation on fathers and children, particularly sons, on faith, and on the imperfectability of man. The reason for the letter is Ames's failing health. He wants to leave an account of himself for this son who will never really know him. His greatest regret is that he hasn't much to leave them, in worldly terms. "Your mother told you I'm writing your begats, and you seemed very pleased with the idea. Well, then. What should I record for you?" In the course of the narrative, John Ames records himself, inside and out, in a meditative style. Robinson's prose asks the reader to slow down to the pace of an old man in Gilead, Iowa, in 1956. Ames writes of his father and grandfather, estranged over his grandfather's departure for Kansas to march for abolition and his father's lifelong pacifism. The tension between them, their love for each other and their inability to bridge the chasm of their beliefs is a constant source of rumination for John Ames. Fathers and sons. The other constant in the book is Ames's friendship since childhood with "old Boughton," a Presbyterian minister. Boughton, father of many children, favors his son, named John Ames Boughton, above all others. Ames must constantly monitor his tendency to be envious of Boughton's bounteous family; his first wife died in childbirth and the baby died almost immediately after her. Jack Boughton is a ne'er-do-well, Ames knows it and strives to love him as he knows he should. Jack arrives in Gilead after a long absence, full of charm and mischief, causing Ames to wonder what influence he might have on Ames's young wife and son when Ames dies. These are the things that Ames tells his son about: his ancestors, the nature of love and friendship, the part that faith and prayer play in every life and an awareness of one's own culpability. There is also reconciliation without resignation, self-awareness without deprecation, abundant good humor, philosophical queries--Jack asks, "'Do you ever wonder why American Christianity seems to wait for the real thinking to be done elsewhere?'"--and an ongoing sense of childlike wonder at the beauty and variety of God's world. In Marilynne Robinson's hands, there is a balm in Gilead, as the old spiritual tells us. --Valerie Ryan (retrieved from Amazon Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:03:42 -0400) In 1956, toward the end of Rev. John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. This is also the tale of wisdom forged during his solitary life and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten.… (more) |
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