Gilead

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Robinson, Marilynne	4-week checkout	Due 05-13-2024

As the Reverend John Ames approaches the hour of his own death, he writes a letter to his son chronicling three previous generations of his family, a story that stretches back to the Civil War and reveals uncomfortable family secrets.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

UGH submitted by unknown on June 26, 2013, 3:03pm BORING

Gilead submitted by leighsprauer on June 27, 2013, 10:00pm This book is written as a letter from an elderly preacher to his young son as he faces his own death. The prose is beautiful and thoughtfully written, and the characters are amazingly complex and real. The most impressive part, though, is Robinson's depiction of the pastor: he is honest, inspiring, and likable - like many mature Christians I know, but unlike most Christians in fiction books. For that alone, I highly recommend this book.

Very touching submitted by willow on August 24, 2016, 1:07pm I read this when I was pregnant and may therefore have been in an especially deep mood to contemate parenthood and one's legacy in the world, but I found this quiet book to be thought-provoking, although not fast-moving.

Gilead submitted by kassafrass on June 20, 2018, 7:38pm Marilynne Robinson focuses on the beauty of the ordinary. Her descriptions of the every-day make even the most mundane events rich with meaning. Her prose is absolutely exquisite, and I am always impressed by her characters, which are built up and described gradually throughout the book. She makes some very striking analogies and observations on how people handle the vicissitudes of life. I come back to this book year after year, it is thought-provoking and reflective, but is not for everyone--it does move at a very slow pace and is not heavily plot driven.

Delightful submitted by JoannaSulimin910 on July 1, 2018, 2:43pm A beautiful book that forces you to slow down and consider what we tend to take for granted, suffused with a sense of loss and longing. Not recommended if you are easily bored, in which case you are missing out on an amazing experience. However, this might be a book best listened to as an audiobook.

A warp of wisdom, a weft of wit/wonder submitted by terpsichore17 on July 10, 2018, 2:40pm About as lovely as some friends had promised. John Ames's setting down important items for his son while preparing for his own death makes for a gentle narrative, even where difficult events are concerned. Effectively conveys how thought meanders on to thought, and anecdote spirals on to related anecdote, story within story. Conversational.

Reminds me of Wendell Berry in its rootedness. Difficult to pick particular favorite lines as the whole book struck me as a kind of fabric.

Not sure if I am completely in agreement with the Reverend, doctrinally speaking, but then much of it is hard to argue with. I remain bemused by Ames being so old when his wife and son are so young; perhaps the sequels will make more sense of that.

Beautiful submitted by unknown on July 13, 2020, 4:49pm I'm not sure there's a writer who exists today as deft with their craft as Marilynne Robinson. This is part of a trilogy -- including the books Home and Lila, also both amazing -- and it matters less what order you read them in and more that you read all three, as when you read the whole trilogy it is so much more of a "complete" picture because you get the POVs of several of the characters involved.