Wednesday 8 February 2012

Book Review: Gilead (Marilynne Robinson)

Someone wrote that this book simmers on 'slow burn'.

This is such a perceptive comment when it comes to this wonderful work of fiction. It feels like it has been written in the time of the great American novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, when novelists could take their time to establish their characters, the scene and location, and the atmosphere of their work.

In my church there is an Indiana man who is proud of the fact that as a teenager he was taught the art of telling stories. Storytelling is now integral to how he speaks. Gilead is a book about the art of storytelling as much as about the content of the story itself.  

                                                                                     Pages: 291


Gilead is actually not a book as such, but a letter written by an aged and dying pastor, the Reverend John Ames, to his infant son (after being widowed, Ames remarries later in life to someone much younger).

In the letter John Ames portrays the relationships between he and his father, and between his father and grandfather. All of them were pastors, and it becomes clear that grandad and dad have had a particularly difficult relationship.

Yet the letter is so much more than a family history. Perhaps reflective of its setting in Gilead, Iowa, in 1956, John Ames' letter is both reflective and delightfully meandering. Perhaps the reason for his careful, slow-paced writing is this:

One great benefit of a religious vocation is that it helps you concentrate. It gives you a good basic sense of what is being asked of you and also what you might as well ignore. If I have any wisdom to offer, this is a fair part of it.(p6)

Reverend John Ames indeed takes his time writing his story, and this is the 'slow burn' of the book. In cooking, a slow burn always gives meat that richer and more rewarding taste on the plate. So it is with John Ames' letter. I was mesmerised by his meandering descriptions and frequent asides as his letter unfolds.

A couple of examples:

I'm about to put on imperishability. In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye. 
The twinkling of an eye. That is the most wonderful expression. I've thought from time to time it was the best thing in life, that little incandescence you see in people when the charm of a thing strikes them, or the humour of it. "The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart". That's a fact. (p61) 


There have been heroes here, and saints and martyrs, and I want you to know that. Because that is the truth, even if no-one remembers it. To look at the place, it's just a cluster of houses strung along a few roads, and a little row of brick buildings with stores in them, and a grain elevator and a water tower with Gilead written on its side, and the post office and the schools and the playing fields and the old train station, which is pretty well gone to weeds now. But what must Galilee have looked like? You can't tell so much from the appearance of a place. (205)

Along the way there is an unfolding subplot. It is the return of Jack, the son of John Ames' lifelong friend Robert Boughton, who is widowed and looked after by his daughter, Glory.

As Jack returns to the small town he carries a secret scandalous for a small USA town in the year 1956. Read the book to discover it. Jack's eventual confessional with the Reverend John Ames forms a climax of sorts to this book, and it's a credit to the writer that this finale shows clearly the wonderful grace of God found in Jesus Christ that is available to all people to receive. The book finishes with Ames' future death seen not with sadness but with hope and delight in his son.

Needless to say, as a believer I found great hope in this book.

Hope because firstly the book is the real deal, a genuine classic ( I don't use that term lightly). It's a book that has won a globally recognized secular award - The Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It's light years ahead of the sometimes-embarrassing fiction that can be found in our Christian bookstores. This book has serious credibility.

But the real hope in this book is that its serious literary credentials are matched by its beautiful Christian witness. Gilead carries a constant, gentle undertow of Christian grace. This is a book you can give to your most fussy literary friend or family member, not only for its literary value but for its Christian witness. I thoroughly recommend you do.          

One final point, more about myself than the book: I noticed my own impatience while reading Gilead. Its 'slow burn' manner made me impatient at times. I see this not as a criticism of the book, but as a marker for my own change in reading habits. As a pre-internet school student, I did take the time to read books such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Heart of Darkness, which were similar slow burners. However I notice now that as a 39 year-old reader I am far less patient. I've turned into a Facebook status update reader. To be disciplined enough to slow down and let a book like Gilead speak at its own pace was very difficult at times.

Another reason to close the laptop and open a good novel more often.        



 


 
   

 

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