Marilynne Robinson: Gilead
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Bartleby
Moderator
My favourite’s Home’s, but yeah, all are very pretty, and I sense they’re gonna leave me broke haha
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Bartleby
Moderator
Yeah, me neither. Especially considering how much more pricey they’ll be once converted to our poor currency haha I can read them on my kindle... but then again I love her so much and the covers are so beautiful! I’m conflicted haha
Bartleby
Moderator
A story adapted from Robinson’s new novel has been issued in The New Yorker.
Leemo
Well-known member
I really liked the premise of Gilead, as well as the introspective and contemplative writing style and mood, but I thought the book failed when it tried to be analytical or astute about religion. Willfully ignorant quotes like the following are just boring and anti-intellectual::
From what I understood Home was another book in large part about a pastor, so I had no interest in reading it, but I was a little intrigued by the premise of Lila, but am moreso interested at the potential of Jack, but I fear Robinson, the devout Congregationalist that she is, will fail at writing from the perspective of someone battling with their faith
From what I understood Home was another book in large part about a pastor, so I had no interest in reading it, but I was a little intrigued by the premise of Lila, but am moreso interested at the potential of Jack, but I fear Robinson, the devout Congregationalist that she is, will fail at writing from the perspective of someone battling with their faith
Liam
Administrator
I don't see anything remotely ignorant about the quote you provided. You do realize that it's a novel and not a how-to manual?
Leemo
Well-known member
Well, arguably the novel contains within it aspects of a how-to-be-a-man-of-faith manual written by a father for his son? Why make a complex and thoughtful character only to have him flip to a "best not to think too hard" mindset on topics relating to God?
Liam
Administrator
Sorry, I realize my comment may have sounded harsh, ?
I just meant, it is a work of fiction; furthermore, it is a work of fiction narrated in the first person. The main character, whose voice narrates the story, is allowed to have his contradictions, right?
I don't know if Robinson has expressed any of these thoughts in her non-fictional output; it'd be interesting to compare.
I just meant, it is a work of fiction; furthermore, it is a work of fiction narrated in the first person. The main character, whose voice narrates the story, is allowed to have his contradictions, right?
I don't know if Robinson has expressed any of these thoughts in her non-fictional output; it'd be interesting to compare.
Bartleby
Moderator
Honestly it makes sense to me. As in, there are certain things our minds just can’t comprehend. Say, if one tries to think of God having existed forever, having no beginning nor end... our minds are not suited to think in those terms, there’s no way of imagining it; we are born, we die, that’s our reality, that’s how we are wired to thinking. So that’s one of the things I believe the narrator of Gilead is referring to in this passage.
Besides, he’s coming from Calvin, it’s not like he’s conjuring this idea himself out of thin air. The nice touch here is that he’s having a conversation with thinkers past (whether he’s agreeing with them or not is not the point).
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Leemo
Well-known member
@Liam - Certainly the character is allowed to have contradictions, we all do, but I can't help but think this fictional character would've been a lot more interesting, and the novel better off for it, if that was not one of his contradictions.
@Bartleby - I agree that it makes sense and is realistic, as I'm sure that kind of mindset is, if not held by the majority of pastors, certainly held by a good number of them, but just because it makes sense doesn't make it interesting. Perhaps it's because of personal experience growing up in church's, but i find so many of those sentiments about faith that John Ames expressed to be ordinary and boring.
@Bartleby - I agree that it makes sense and is realistic, as I'm sure that kind of mindset is, if not held by the majority of pastors, certainly held by a good number of them, but just because it makes sense doesn't make it interesting. Perhaps it's because of personal experience growing up in church's, but i find so many of those sentiments about faith that John Ames expressed to be ordinary and boring.
Bartleby
Moderator
New interview with her, in which, among many things current, they also manage to ask her about her new novel Jack; I found it interesting the reason she gave to write a whole book about this character:
www.theguardian.com
there’s also a The Times (uk) interview, but it’s for subscribers only
and a profile from The New Yorker.
Interesting that in this piece her Gilead novels are called gospels, for they tell the same story from 4 points of views; the thing is, while I was reading Gilead I kept thinking, jokingly, and in a rather blasphemous way, that the book could be incorporated into the New Testament =P
Marilynne Robinson: 'America still has a democratic soul'
The author of Gilead on the Black Lives Matter protests, the dangers of social media, and her latest novel, Jack
www.theguardian.com
there’s also a The Times (uk) interview, but it’s for subscribers only
and a profile from The New Yorker.
Interesting that in this piece her Gilead novels are called gospels, for they tell the same story from 4 points of views; the thing is, while I was reading Gilead I kept thinking, jokingly, and in a rather blasphemous way, that the book could be incorporated into the New Testament =P
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Bartleby
Moderator
I've just taken part in a live conversation with Robinson (hosted by the Wisconsin Book Festival) about her new novel Jack, and at the end the interviewer read to her a question I wrote, about whether she thinks of writing a novel about Pastor John Ames' son, as a grown up, having read the letter from his father that is the novel Gilead, and what kind of life he would lead having his father’s wisdoms passed onto him, to which she answered that while all these characters keep coming back to her mind, she sees the possibility of writing such a novel really small, although she added that one could never know, for she once had said she wouldn't write a Jack novel.
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Ben Jackson
Well-known member
When I talk about great novels of this century I've read (I haven't read My Struggle, Books of Jacob and the rest) I mention Middlesex, Antonement, The Road, Austerlitz, Ducks Newburyport, Flights. And is Gilead among the classics? Definitely. I highly recommend this novel. It's a solid work.