Gilead (Marilynne Robinson) 2004
Robinson's Gilead is an epistletory novel that is sort of a spiritual journal. It's the letter that 77-year old small-town minister, John Ames, is writing to his 7-year old son. Ames is dying of heart disease and is telling his son about his life and things that he thinks are important to impart to his son when he's older. There is little action in the story; however, Robinson's simple prose is beautiful. There are sentences that you'll want to reread just to appreciate the writing. Here's a sample:

"I feel sometimes as if I were a child who opens its eyes on the world once and sees amazing things it will never know any names for and then has to close its eyes again. I know this is all mere apparition compared to what awaits us, but it is only lovelier for that. There is a human beauty in it. And I can't believe that, when we have all been changed and put on incorruptibility, we will forget our fantastic condition of mortality and impermanence, the great bright dream of procreating and perishing that meant the whole world to us. In eternity this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets. Because I don't imagine any reality putting this one in the shade entirely."

The Washington Post's book critic, Michael Dirda says, "Gilead is a land east of the Jordan traditionally viewed as the source of a healing salve: the balm of Gilead. But in the Old Testament this same region carries less pacific associations as well and is sometimes described as a place of war, bloodshed and iniquity. The word Gilead is also linked -- through a folk etymology -- with the idea of witnessing. Marilynne Robinson draws on all of these associations in her new novel, which -- let's say this right now -- is so serenely beautiful, and written in a prose so gravely measured and thoughtful, that one feels touched with grace just to read it."

Gilead won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. Rating: A+
- posted by Brad @ 3/08/2005 10:02:00 PM