Gilead: A Novel | Marilynne Robinson | This is a nearly perfect book

Gilead: A Novel | Marilynne Robinson | gorgeous

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Gilead: A Novel

	Gilead: A Novel Marilynne Robinson, 2004 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 310 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This is a nearly perfect book

Gilead is a nearly perfect book.

It is quiet, multi-layered, and deeply spiritual. Composed in the form of a letter from the elderly protagonist, John Ames, to his young son, the work is a meditative near-monologue about faith, anger, love, and forgiveness; emotional patrimony, isolation, and loneliness. Absent characters loom large, and vast haunted landscapes are communicated in just the barest of verbal exchanges.

It also is without question an American novel; Robinson has made an unspoken agreement with her readers that we possess some intuitive understanding of the fiery arc of radical abolitionism and its dissipation, of the Congregationalists who moved from New England to claim the prairie as Free-Staters, and of the central role of Calvinistic theology in shaping a certain type of intellectual life.

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gorgeous

What an amazing book! Quiet, thoughtful, slow-moving....but so thought provoking. Events unfold delicately, memories surface gently -- there's a wistfulness to this book that is rarely found. It's hard to believe that this book was not written by a male minister, it so completely gets into his head and heart.

beautifully written novel of reflection

Gilead is a beautifully written novel of the thoughts and memories of a pastor in his later years. The main character recounts the events of his life and portions of his family history for his son when he is gone. This book is not as much action or event driven as it is almost a poem as a novel. The story is touching at times but at the same time gets somewhat repetitive regarding the relationship between the main character and his namesake. Worth reading.

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A Hill of Testimony

Marilynne Robinson's GILEAD is written in the form of a letter from an aging Congregationalist minister, the Reverend John Ames, to his young son. The novel is set in 1956. Ames, his young wife Lila, and their seven-year old boy live in Gilead, Iowa. Gilead, a biblical place whose name means "hill of testimony," seems to be something of a misnomer for a place so flat as that part of Iowa, but in the context of this novel, "Gilead" takes on an additional significance as a life testimony, and for Ames himself, a memorial (a grave mound). Ames, who is ailing with a heart condition, writes in order that later his then grown son will know something about whence he comes.

Ames, his father, and his grandfather were all ministers. Ames's grandfather was literally called to the ministry, believing that he had been graced with visions of Jesus, of which most striking of all was an appearance of Jesus in chains. His grandfather took that to mean that he should dedicate himself to the abolitionist movement, and he became involved in some violent radical actions along with the (historical) abolitionist John Brown. Ames's father was, by contrast, a pacifist, and the father and son had a difficult relationship. Ames feels distant from both his father and grandfather. He loves his own son dearly, and yet knows his life clock is running out on him.

It's difficult to carry off an epistolary novel. In the days before email, the letter was a real art form, though, and the best writers could be spellbinding and highly entertaining. GILEAD's success rests principally on the strength of Robinson's masterful use of language. Early on in the novel it seems like the story, as such, really isn't going anywhere, but you want to continue on just because the language is so beautiful--spare, astringent. Eventually, though, this reader hungered for something a little more. Later on in the novel, fortunately, some tension develops when Ames's namesake, John Ames Boughton, the son of his best and oldest friend, comes to town. Boughton, a disgraced profligate, returns as the prodigal son, but Ames isn't quite ready to assume the role of welcoming substitute father. Ames is also worried about Boughton's friendly contacts with Ames's wife and child.

I had the opportunity both to listen to the audio version, read by Tim Jerome, and read the book myself. Jerome has a marvelous voice, perfectly suited for the Reverend Ames, but after a while I frankly found it tedious to listen to the audio version. On the other hand, I very much enjoyed reading GILEAD, even if, admittedly, it tested my patience at times.

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