Choices - Fiction
Marilynne Robinson - Gilead
 | Gilead by Marilynne Robinson Marilynne Robinson’s debut novel, Housekeeping, was published in 1981 to critical and popular acclaim. Twenty four years later this, her second, was published, winning the Pulitzer Prize and Orange Prize long-list nomination. Gilead is a small American town in Iowa. In 1956 John Ames, a preacher in his mid-70s whose heart is failing him, is writing letters to his only child, now aged six, so that when the boy reaches an adulthood his father won't see, he'll at least have this posthumous one-sided conversation: "While you read this, I am imperishable, somehow more alive than I have ever been." It’s slow-moving, yet moving…..these reviews by Devon readers reflect a wide spectrum of response to the book... "Beautifully written, the prose is outstanding, but as a novel it has too much philosophy and not enough action." "It could be re-read and re-read with the prospect of ever-new insights. It lovingly presents the characters, so that we love them too in their strengths and weaknesses. It tackles at depth the big issues of life, love and death for one man, and his struggle to understand affirms and dignifies our own struggle. I felt my life enriched from reading it. I am blessed to have met Rev Ames." |
