The Winding Path to Gilead

Gilead

Book review by Margaret

Marilynne Robinson

Rating: 6.5/10

Date read: 12 June to 18 June

Gilead is a 2004 fictional epistolary novel by Marilynne Robinson, whose main character, a Congregationalist pastor called John Ames, is writing letters to his son. John is in his late seventies and married to a woman more than thirty years his junior, with an unnamed son of about six years old. John knows that, due to his heart condition, he will not live for much longer, so he has decided to leave a monologic record of various experiences, thoughts, meditations, observations and impressions for his son to read when he is older, presumably after John’s death. However, John’s son plays a relatively minor role in the book itself; rather, Jack Boughton, the son of John’s best friend, plays the most active role in the story, serving as one of the primary focuses of John’s thoughts. 

I found this novel to be highly engaging on an ideological level, though the story itself was meandering and fragmented. That is not to say that the style of narration was unengaging, but it felt very passive and slow-paced, seemingly due to the age and nature of the character, rather than the author. While John is a man of strong principles, he is not a man of action. He worries and he prays and he ponders, but almost all of the experiences he recounts centre around the actions of others, mainly his abolitionist grandfather, his wife Lila, and Jack. This made it hard for the story to come alive to me, as a young person, and I did not feel a strong connection to any of the characters. I enjoyed the book and appreciated many of its themes and ideas, but felt that some of the finer points were lost on me. However, this is not at all a reflection upon the novel itself, but on its intended audience, of whom I am evidently not a part. I would recommend this book, nevertheless, as its themes of life and death and their beauty, Christian faith, memory, conviction, estrangement, reconciliation, loneliness and love are profound and beautifully expressed by the author.