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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, and I found the observations the narrator makes about his young son quite moving. It's a free-form letter/reminiscence that moves from strong episode to wise revelation, but in a way these strengths are not novelistic strengths. That's why it fall short for me in terms of the narrative progression of the present tense story - the part that should make this a novel. All the recollections are fine, but the here and now of the reverend's fears about the young man who may be worming his way into his family is not very compelling. It might have been if something actually came of it, but in the end it's explained in a way that sort of left me shrugging. Is this what all the build up was for? If so, it's a bit of a let down. The narrative tension neither resolves nor explodes. It just sort of gets soggy and squelches the last few steps to the end. I'm not trying to be overly negative. There's much of worth in this book, but I do believe many readers will be disappointed if they're expecting a book that lives up to all the hype. Books rarely do; and they never do for everybody. This one is no different in that regard.