Gilead

I finished Gilead today. It won the Pulitzer for fiction this week. Like The Known World before it, the book didn't overwhelm me at first. I recognized it was good, but if you had asked me 100 pages in if I thought it Pulitzer-worthy I would have said, "I don't think so." Again, like The Known World the seeming denouement is the heart of the book, and so the power and force of the narrative catch you just as you've let your guard down. The tone of the entire book is of a languid melancholy that gets into your bones, which is appropriate, as the protagonist is an old man near death. I'm not sure what Marilynne Robinson's background is, but her insights into life, ministry, and theology are profound. I suspect I will read this book again each decade of my life; I'm sure there are things in there I'm too young to "get."

Near the end she speaks of this "poor gray ember of creation" and how God will occasionally breathe on it and "it turns to radiance." The denouement, despite its melancholy, is tinged with that hope. It's interesting that there is a line very much like one of the monlogues in American Beauty: "...there is more beauty than our eyes can bear." In American Beauty, the beauty is sufficient to break your heart. It's also interesting that both these lines are delivered in a narrative ultimately about death which is really ultimately about life. The best books give me hope, and Gilead gives me hope that God will breathe on me, on the Church, on this world and we will be incandescent one day in the glory of the kingdom—that we will, in Robinson's words "shine like transfiguration," for that is indeed how we will shine. Maranatha, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Comments

[Phil]

I read 'Gilead' back in January. I saw it on the NY Times Top 10 of 2004 list along with Bobby Dylan's 'Chronicles Vol. 1' and bought both of them. They both delighted my senses immensely. Right after I read 'G,' I passed it on to S. Jones. He, in turned, pass on IT, and gave it back to me. I think he needs to give it another chance. Since, I now know I'm not the only human in a 200-mile radius to have read the thing, I can finally feel some affirmation of the feelings I had about it. I knew, as I read it, that it had some profound thought in it. What amazed me most was her ability to write with the voice of a man, an old one, at that. I look forward to discussing it with you this weekend.

p

[greg]

Phil,

I was amazed by her ability to write in that voice as well. I'll call you to set up a "date" for this weekend.

BTW, Scott liked Phantom of the Opera. His aesthetic tastes will always be in question in my mind. Not his theology though.

[jvpastor]

denouement twice in the same post????

Greg:
"It's also interesting that both these lines are delivered in a narrative ultimately about death which is really ultimately about life."

"we no longer know how to die, dying is a skill like everything else." - Hauerwas

Some people have it, some people don't, I think you have to have come face to face with death on an extremely personal level to recognize the subtlety necessary to appreciate the beauty in the passing of a soul from the temporal to the eternal.

[Caleb]

I had the same reaction: that this is a book I will need to read again in.

I have a fan letter drafted to Robinson that I haven't printed out and sent yet. It doesn't say much: just that in addition to expressing my admiration for the book, I wanted to express my deep gratitude for it. I read it during a "grey ember" time, and it was transfiguring to me. The book was not only about blessings, in other words. It was a blessing, and how often can that be said about contemporary literature?

As for her other work, you might like a recent essay by her on "petty coercion" and courage:

http://tinyurl.com/63vqd

Some of the passages in the essay are mirrored in the final pages of Gilead.

[Scott Jones]

My favourite novel is One Hundred Years of Solitude and I think the best film of all time is The Passion of St. Joan by Carl T. H. Drier. My aesthetic tastes are fine.

I ENJOYED Phantom, but didn't think it was GREAT filmmaking.

Gilead bored me immediately. I found her writing style grating. I admit this to be purely a taste thing, but I quit because I know when not to try something, especially something that is judged to be good. Maybe some other time I will like it fine.

But, then, sometimes stuff judged to be good or great just doesn't do it for us as individuals.

[greg]

It would appear the Pulitzer committee disagreed with you.

Still, you enjoyed Phantom, so you're still questionable. It was quite possibly worse than Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. But your theology is solid.

[Joe Kendrick]

Here's a good quote from a Childhood classic, "Death would be a grand adventure." Do you think people find more life in death than they do actually living. I haven't read this book but it sounds interesting, will distrupt my incomplete, unsolid theology? Because I would like that very much.

[greg]

Joe,

Not sure that her presentation of the old minister's theology would help or harm anyone. He seems to be a bit of a Calvinist, a very popular theological position in 1950's America. The book is not Christological unless I missed something. The big question on the surface comes from the passage/old hymn: Is there a balm in Gilead/There is a balm in Gilead. Don't want to say too much about how she answers that.

[jpe]

My aesthetic tastes are fine.

But see:

My favourite novel is One Hundred Years of Solitude....`

[Phil]

I think my tone towards Scottie J was mistaken. It wasn't a rip against. I happen to agree about her writing style being a bit grating. I just think the book deserves another look--at a later date, as Scott suggested. Robinson comes out of the U of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Some of us learned about this institution when we saw the movie 'Stone Reader,' a fantastic documentary about a book fanatic that searches for a long-forgotten author of a NY Times best-selling yarn in the '70s. The book was 'Stones of Summer.' After the doc came out a couple of years ago, some press re-printed it. SJ bought a copy, couldn't make it through the first 50 pgs (always a bad sign) and, then, gave it to me. I, in turn, did the exact same thing. Only I don't think I gave it 20 pgs. Now, I haven't read any other authors from UIWW, so I don't know if everyone coming out of that school writes in that way. But, there was something very similar in the way that Robinson writes and the way Dow Mossman (SS author) wrote. I was able to fight through it in Gilead. In fact, I share in the sentiment of wanting to read it over. It grows on you like a fungus. I almost did read it twice back-to-back but relented as other books were calling my name. Maybe, one day, I'll pick up 'Stones of Summer' again and have another go. Surely, if a book fanatic thinks it's genius, it must be, right?