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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 a strong plot will be disappointed, because the book isn't so much about what happens as it is about ideas. It explores forgiveness, anger, faith, grace, simple pleasures, personal failures, and friendship. And it does it in a gentle way that doesn't lead you by the hand to a canned or foregone conclusion. Nor does Ames take himself too seriously; there is just the right amount of humor in the book to offset the serious parts. It was a lovely, sometimes spiritual book and well worth the read.