Book Review: Gilead (by Marilynne Robinson)

Everyone is talking about The Shack, but I'd like to introduce a different book that you might enjoy reading. This one is a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Marilynne Robinson's Gilead is about a 4th-generation preacher in the Midwest who is quickly approaching the end of his life. The preacher, John Ames, begins to pen a series of letters to his 6-year-old son. Ames is fearful that his only child will never know him and will only recall a feeble, old 76-year-old dad who couldn't play ball with him.

Through Ames' letters, we see the passionate faith and rigorous commitment of a man who has devoted his life to the Lord's service and to his church in a small Iowa town. He is a devoted scholar, carefully writing and saving every sermon manuscript. At one point, he notes that he has written as many words as the great Augustine of Hippo. I couldn't help but pick up on the self-sufficiency and piety of Ames, just like many Midwesterners and Protestants alike. Even as a dying old man, he visits his parishioners and remains in the pulpit.

The story hinges on Ames' interaction with Jack, the son of his dear friend Reverend Boughton who already retired from his Presbyterian pulpit. Jack seems evil at every level. No one has ever known what to do with Jack, and Jack plays the part of miscreant perfectly. Though "everyone is a sinner in God's eyes," an evildoer like Jack is clearly in another category. Ames does not hide his disdain for Jack in his letters, though he is "proper" toward him and hesitates to ever speak a word against him.

Not wanting to give the story away, I will merely say that Ames is forced to consider grace and salvation in ways that are emotionally moving. I'll warn you that the book starts slowly. We're not used to reading novels written in this form, and the plot seems hard to find at first. But stick with it. And persevere till the scene at the bus stop near the end. Wow!