Gilead Review

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (247 pages)

My Rating: 3 Stars
Date Finished: 31 May 2015

Synopsis:
Twenty-four years after her first novel, Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson returns with an intimate tale of three generations from the Civil War to the twentieth century: a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America's heart. Writing in the tradition of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, Marilynne Robinson's beautiful, spare, and spiritual prose allows "even the faithless reader to feel the possibility of transcendent order" (Slate). In the luminous and unforgettable voice of Congregationalist minister John Ames, Gilead reveals the human condition and the often unbearable beauty of an ordinary life.

Review:
The characters and their experiences were heavily mediated through the main character's mind. His likes and dislikes for certain people were very apparent while reading it. There were a few points that were really cool to read where he finds out that what he thought he knew about people turned out to be very wrong. In that moment, he allowed himself to really ask himself why he felt that certain way and how it changed. 
The characters themselves were pretty interesting as well. Even though they were kind of biased against, they all had their mysteries about them. And some were even able to change throughout the course of the book.
Since it was written in the form of letters, it was harder to get the other characters' thoughts about what happened in the plot. It was just all John Ames all the time, but that is how the book is meant to be.
I gave this a three out of five because, even though I did not hate the book, I didn't love it either. Since I had to read this for class, it is not one I would have picked out for myself. Personally, I don't really enjoy reading heavily religious texts, that is why I didn't overly enjoy reading this one. But, the plot moved at a relatively quick pace (even though there were a few moments where the interior reflection did get a little repetitive). I recommend this to anyone who wants to just read something different and out of their normal wheelhouse.





This book had an interesting insight into the mind of a dying old man. It is quite a religious text, the main character being a preacher and all. It is set up by this man writing letters to his seven-year-old son to read after he has died. I thought this was a pretty cool way to set up the novel.