Obtain Gilead (Gilead, #1) Conceived By Marilynne Robinson Available As Document

Ames is a pastor in the forsaken town of Gilead, Ames, after losing his first wife and child to a difficult labour, has remarried late in life to a much younger woman and so at the ripe old age of seventy six has a very young son who he realises he will not see grow to manhood.
So at the end of his life he is writing what he believes to be a kind of epistle to the beauty of Gods world for his young son.
He is attempting to bestow grace on his son, He gives him advice “I would advise you against defensiveness on principle, It precludes the best eventualities along with the worst, ” The fatherson and Holy Ghost relationship is very much at the heart of this novels traction, The first half of the novel has a languid old world pace, brimming with tenderness and somewhat idealised musings on the beauty of life the world appears glorious in the light of Ames imminent departure from it and on family and the town of Gileads history.
“Sometimes I have loved the peacefulness of an ordinary Sunday, It is like standing in a newly planted garden after a warm rain, ” You can feel the silent and invisible life, ” Reading the languorous gentle lilt of Robinsons prose is like being up in a tree house with the huge night sky spiralling its overhead, and like the the text raises both wonder and elementary doubts.
Ames creates a tapestry of all the things that have formed him, Except theres a sense of selective memory playing a big part, Ames, understandably, wants to paint a flattering portrait of himself, About half way through I was almost beginning to run out of patience with his benevolent tender selfserving musings, wondering where the novel was going, Then Jack Boughton arrives on the scene and the novel acquires all the contrast and tension it was beginning to lack, Jack is the wayward son of his best friend, As a teenager he stole from Ames, deliberately seeking to antagonise him, Ames doesnt like him. He especially doesnt like him when he begins playing with his boy and talking to his wife, All of a sudden Ames begins to appear less than Christian, shadowed and soured by envy and resentment, Jack is a kind of shadow self, an alterego with whom Ames has to reconcile and the second half of this novel is a moving account of his struggle to find the necessary forgiveness within himself to bring about this reconciliation.


What Gilead lacks in momentum and dramatic tension is more than compensated for by the life affirming wisdom it contains in such generous measure, Updated
Its hard for me to rate this on my second reading, I still enjoyed this book a lot but it wasnt quite astar read this time, Thats not to say its not a good book because I think it is, But its definitely a book where you have to be in a specific headspace to fully enjoy and immerse yourself in, My first time reading it was astar experience, and the book hasnt changed since that time, but I have, And oddly enough, Id still read this book againmaybe in anotheroryears when Ive lived more life and have a slightly or wildly different perspective than I have now.


Original
It's not often that I find a book that can hold my attention enough to read it in one day.
Gilead is a book that I'm conflicted over having read so speedily, as I couldn't stop reading, while at the same time wanted to savor and absorb more slowly every thought and prayer and beautiful moment it held.


I understand the praise for this book, And I understand when people say that in fifty or one hundred years people will still be reading this book and finding something deeply human in it.


Gilead is a book about love and hope, It's one long letter of an old midwestern reverend to his son, And it is brimming with everything there is in life that is beautiful, It reminded me a lot of watching Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life which I love, And I love this book,

It is a religious book, but it does not require the reader to be religious, It reflects things that are innately human and that people struggle with everyday, It is befitting the young and the old, It resonated with me, as a twentysomething, but I can see it being even more relevant for parents, grandparents, the elderly,

I can see myself reading this again in my life, and if I ever become a father, something I would need to read again.
And though I read it so quickly, I'm thankful for the time I had to completely immerse myself in this man's mind, in his relationship to his wife and son, and his sage reflection on life, love, spirituality, forgiveness, and hope.
Reading Road Trip

Current location: Iowa

My reread of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead had me squirming the past two weeks like a child in church, enduring a boring sermon.


Boring No, not boring, Deep, profound, and, at the time, very unwanted,

I've been feeling edgy and petulant these last two weeks, I actually pulled my mask off in a grocery store the other day, panting with claustrophobia, I've been agitated and I certainly haven't been in the mood to listen to some dying man drone on and on about the good and bad old days.


I wanted to be shipwrecked on an island where the only residents are Viggo Mortensen clones, I've wanted sweaty cave sex, I've wanted Tarzan, Treasure Island, The Blue Lagoon,

But instead I got a dying old man, the Reverend Ames, and his painfully slow story,

My reading experience of these past two weeks has reminded me that sometimes a good book lands in the right hands, at the wrong time.


I tripped all over this read, and I could only chew forlornly at it forpages at a time, I wanted to shout at the Reverend Ames: THIS JACK BOUGHTON GUY WANTS TO BONE YOUR WOMAN, OLD MAN!! STOP TALKING ABOUT FUCKING FORGIVENESS AND MAKE A TESTOSTERONE SMOOTHIE!!

I wanted to corner his much younger wife in the hallways of their little home and whisper: you know you want to fuck this Jack Boughton guy.
. . so just take the shitty old Buick and drive out of town to the cemetery and ride him like it's your last will and testament, It won't be long before you can't drive stick anymore,

It was almost like the more the old minister talked about purification through fire and water, the darker my thoughts became, I wanted to burn all of our face masks in a bonfire, skinnydip in the frigid waters of our white trash, pandemic plastic pool and savagely swat every damned devilish mosquito to death in our yard.


I was so relieved when I arrived at this particular passage of the minister's incessant rant:

If the Lord chooses to make nothing of our transgressions, then they are nothing.
Or whatever reality they have is trivial and conditional beside the exquisite primary fact of existence, Of course the Lord would wipe them away, just as

I wipe dirt from your face, or tears, After all, why should the Lord bother much over these smirches that are no part of His Creation

Whew! Okay, he's saying God understands that this pandemic is making me lose my mind.


The truth is, Marilynne Robinson's writing is so damned inspired, my entire copy is filled with postit notes now, in addition to all of the original pages I dogeared back in, when I read it the first time.


It's a five star novel that deserved the Pulitzer, but, . .
I don't recommend reading it during a pandemic, .