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Marilynne Robinson: Gilead

Rereading this wonderful book again. I just love it. The language and story are gentle, luminous with grace. Robinson creates a certain tension that keeps you reading, yet the pace is leisurely and observant. Deserving of all the awards it's received, it really ought to be discussed here!
 
My thoughts, as I remember them, of this easily forgettable novel, were that the language was nice in places and full of wonderful imagery but the story was absolutely dull. I can recall feeling excluded from it as it was not written for me, but for a fictional son.
 
As I read this it gave me the same impression that I might get were I to stumble across an old box of someone else's letters. The story and relationships are intimate only to the old man. There really isn't any attempt to connect with the reader, a small irony from a clergyman who spent his life connecting with people and is writing abundantly to connect with his son. I recall that Stewart called this one a "borefest" elsewhere, a funny, somewhat apropos description of the novel. With one exception...

This novel delves into the doubts the old man has about his faith, even as he's still, weakly, penning sermons. Maybe even giving sermons, I can't remember. But he's intrigued by Ludwig Feuerbach's Essence of Christianity and the atheism of the brother who was lost to him in youth. I found this to be the most integral theme of the novel, the wise old man, able to see the grace in life while questioning whether or not the gifts he had were truly "given" to him by a deus. As though the closer he got to the end, the closer he was getting to seeing more clearly that his life was simply fortunate.
I even checked out the Feuerbach but couldn't make it past page 5.
 
Could someone please hide the part that I've placed in [hide]? I don't know why it won't work.
 
I've not come across many novels where the letters were addressed to me. :rolleyes:

I thought there were mysteries regarding his grandfather and his fear about the Boughton son and his wife that provided a tension that pulled me through the story. The whole book is a meditation on grace, what it is like to attempt to live a life deserving of grace, even though the reality is grace is given whether you deserve it or not.

BTW: Thanks (I assume Stewart did this?) for moving my post/thread to this thread. I did try to search for a Gilead thread ...
 
I read this earlier this year and already can't remember much about it. I do recall being impressed with the mesmerising language to begin with, though I also remember not much happening (an incident with a horse in a hole in the ground is about all that stands out for me from here). I've kept it though, which must be a good sign...
 
Oberon said:
I thought there were mysteries regarding his grandfather and his fear about the Boughton son and his wife that provided a tension that pulled me through the story.
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That's a good point, Oberon. There was the unknown future of the wife and son that did add some momentum. The rambling reminiscence about the grandfather and his abolitionist activities lost me. As did the walk to Kansas with his father.



Oberon said:
The whole book is a meditation on grace, what it is like to attempt to live a life deserving of grace, even though the reality is grace is given whether you deserve it or not.
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This is exactly what I took from the novel, yes, that it's a long meditation on grace. Certainly the old man was looking back in appraisal of his life's meaning and his worth, but I think he saw goodness in every life around him, even the Boughton son, and was determining that his efforts at ministering to people from a pulpit were less important than he had once believed. And that maybe grace, while present, requires no giver to be real.
 
I'm tempted to read Housekeeping, although I was really drawn to this particular story.

"I wish I could leave you certain of the images in my mind, because they are so beautiful that I hate to think they will be extinguished when I am ... A moment is such a slight thing, I mean, that its abiding is a most gracious reprieve." (p. 162) This is great stuff!
 
AquaBlue said:
Have any of you read Housekeeping by the same author?
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I read it. While I admired the skill of the author as she built up the characters and the setting, I was never able to relate to them emotionally. Too detached, somehow. Was I detached or were they? Both, I think.
 
I enjoyed the book very much. It spoke to the inner part of me in addition to telling its story.
 
silverseason said:
I read it. While I admired the skill of the author as she built up the characters and the setting, I was never able to relate to them emotionally. Too detached, somehow. Was I detached or were they? Both, I think.
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That was sort of my reaction to Gilead. The prose was beautiful, but the story and the characters never really got to me and the main character felt more like a mouthpiece for Robinson to talk directly to the reader for a little too long. Less of a novel, more of a sermon. Not bad, but not great.
 
I began this one today. So far, so good. It's beginning gently enough, which is just fine with me; it feels kind of - pellucid.
 
I'm in the middle of Gilead and it's pretty darn good so far.

The story seems a sentimental journey of sort, as terminally ill John Ames, trying to write all the things he wishes to pass on to his son, rambles about his life, sharing with his son his joys and his regrets.

He is concerned about things any of would be concerned with should we be in his position. He worries about his son growing up without a father, he has concern for his wife, and he seems concerned about a neighboor haning around that he considers the wrong sort.

I think the story touches me on a personal level because it reminds me of the stories I told my own children when my father passed, and I think about the things I may want to share with my children before my own life ends.

As I said, I'm little more then half way through the book and I really want see where Robinson is taking me.
 
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