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Author: Marilynne Robinson
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Dimension: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
Weight: 13.8 ounces.

A powerful work of restraint and beauty.
Gilead is a truly remarkable work of fiction. Crafted as a long letter from an elderly preacher to his 7 year old son, this book manages to lift humor, grace and drama from a setting that on the surface seems no more extraordinary than a Monday morning.... more

Certainly touching at times
I'd actually give this book three and a half stars if I could. It's better than three stars, but not quite up to four for me. I can see that some people have been profoundly touched by this work. At times I was as well. There is a lot of wisdom here,... more

Novel?...Very Long Essay!
I was memsmerized by Robinson's HOUSEKEEPING but bored by GILEAD because I expected a novel...maybe the technique of a long letter to a son or grandson (or whomever an author chooses) has been overused or maybe the characters did not present as real... more

beautiful and graceful
Calm, gentle, graceful. Lovely. This book will reaffirm your belief in the meaning of life, whatever it is that you cling to during the rough moments. There is not much "story" here, but what there is revolves around a prodigal son format. John Ames is... more

Disregard my comments ...
You should disregard my comments because I have not yet read Gilead. What I did do is hear Ms. Robinson read from it on the Diane Rehm show yesterday ... It was movingly and tenderly rendered by someone who thinks deeply about the human experience. ... more

Tedious read-even for a minister.
Interesting form (the narrator, an elderly minister, composes a "book-length" letter to his very young son, reflecting on his long life, ministry, theology, etc.) and an accurate rendering of the voice, but otherwise I found this a thoroughly tedious... more

Mystery
I agree with all the other reviews of this book that are on the Amazon site, but they all miss an important aspect of the novel. There is a mystery in the story, although the reader is not looking for one. Once I began to suspect that there was a mystery,... more

pretentious, false and lying
There are many problems with this novel, not least one of credible and intelligent telling. Our so-called preacher, living in Gilead, and presumably a man who knows and reads the Bible, doesn't refer even once to the historical/biblical Gilead, which... more

Beautifully written, thought provoking
I loved this beautifully written book. The prose is spare, with every word well chosen. It loosely tells a story of four generations of Iowa/Kansas men, with John Ames, a preacher nearing the end of his life, as the storyteller. Readers who are expecting... more

Spiritual Ramblings
At the end of his life, the Congregational minister, John Ames, writes to his 7-year old son on various information that might be useful to him later in life. His writing becomes primarily a future warning to his son concerning a neighbor, Jack Boughton,... more

Midnight confessions
I was very drawn into this story. The voice and captivating pace of this narrative brought me into a whole other dimension of experience--as told by this simple, Iowan; this minister at mid century and at the twilight of his years. I had a problem-though-visualizing... more

A Faith both Supple and Durable

This novel takes the form of a letter written in 1956 by a dying minister, John Ames, to his seven year old son. His epistle is a graceful rumination on faith, the fraught ties of fathers and sons, and the fleeting glories of the physical world. more

The struggle to forgive
This book fully inspects the problem of forgivness. Robinson writes of the bonds of friendship, of a father's love, of the struggle among and between generations. Threaded through it all are the words of theology and religion that speak to the heart... more

Essence of Life
Gilead is a leisurely novel that seeks to capture the essence of life--a preacher in his seventies desperately trying to record his own being, person, and history so that his young son will have something to remember him by. John Ames realizes his age,... more

Worth The Wait
Gilead comes over 20 years after Robinson's modern classic, Housekeeping. Yes, the book is quiet, somber, thoughtful, personal as a prayer and simply beautiful. A worthwhile read in an unsettling time. One the best of 2004.

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A Masterpiece
Nearly 25 years after HOUSEKEEPING Marilynne Robinson returns triumphantly with another instant classic. Did I say instant? A book like this is such a considerable achievement I have little doubt that Robinson has been working on it steadily and intently... more

Feel Good
This is a pretty little book. It will make many readers feel good, and we all know that's important. The author has mixed dollops of literary art and bland, non-threatening Christianity. The result is often nice, albeit repetitive and ultimately tiresome.... more

A Peaceful Place
This is a peaceful, reverent novel in the form of a letter to his young son by a minister in Kansas.It is like a memoir without the exhaustive retelling of one's entire life.
Reverend John Ames knows that he will soon be dying and he writes to... more

Living with It
When Plato learned what Dionysius II had written about his philosophy, he disowned the statements, saying the ruler of Syracuse had never questioned the philosopher himself about his teachings. Plato then added that the only way to learn a man's system... more

Wonderful
My bookclub truly enjoyed this read and we had a great discussion. Also, I'd like to recommend LUST OF THE FLESH by Beverly Rolyat. This novel is unlike any other true-to-life novel our club has ever read. The language and lifestyles are raw and very... more

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