Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
I only enjoyed the last fifty pages, when it seemed something might almost happen. It was a ... quiet book.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I wanted to love this book...I really love Marilynne Robinson's earlier book "Housekeeping" (incredible!) so I was hoping this one would be as good. Instead, I found this book OK, but I was ready for it to be over well before it actually ended. The story seemed somewhat repetitive, and I kept flipping ahead to see how many pages I had left. It's not a terrible book...I'll keep it in my home library. It just wasn't as wonderful as I was hoping.
i am a big stoic, but i cried. this could be the saddest book i've ever read! sad without being heavy, or dark, or melancholy… sad the way sadness is a fact, is a truth, is something worth keeping not merely because it's difficult to get rid of….
beautiful prose, deeply sympathetic characters — and it's difficult to describe the novel beyond this. what happens in it? a son, absented for twenty years, returns home to his dying father and youngest sister. the relationship between the siblings, glory and jack, is stilted and fond, edging toward (but obviously not quite) parasocial. it's of value to have read gilead. the dramatic irony of all jack's concealing, of his mysterious talks with reverand ames, which the readers are fully abreast of but glory reminds in the dark about, serves to make the sadness richer, the lost possibility of intimacy crueller.
glory is a fantastic narrator, one of my favourites in fiction. at turns timid or firm; overcome with despairing rage which she relates to the reader distantly, matter-of-factly, almost humorously; disappointed with her life, with her home, with the weight of memory, with the poor decision-making that led her here. she's funny and kind.
the final third is perfect. the stakes are high and the narrative is cinematic, but this novel is always grounded, always focused on the vivid intensity of ordinary life. incredibly, incredibly moving, moreso because you are astounded, regularly, by the mundanity of what is happening to these people: to jack, who cannot allow himself in, to his family, who want nothing more but can't make it happen.
also have to mention that there are so many moments in this book that stick out to me individually and with clarity, away from the novel as a whole. mostly jack's recollections of his childhood, hearing about his famous isolation from his own point of view. i don't want to spoil them because i literally had to put the book down after i read them lol. but he remembers his closeness to the house, his inability to do things the other children could, without ever explaining himself -- because he can't explain himself. and it is truly crazymaking!!!
beautiful prose, deeply sympathetic characters — and it's difficult to describe the novel beyond this. what happens in it? a son, absented for twenty years, returns home to his dying father and youngest sister. the relationship between the siblings, glory and jack, is stilted and fond, edging toward (but obviously not quite) parasocial. it's of value to have read gilead. the dramatic irony of all jack's concealing, of his mysterious talks with reverand ames, which the readers are fully abreast of but glory reminds in the dark about, serves to make the sadness richer, the lost possibility of intimacy crueller.
glory is a fantastic narrator, one of my favourites in fiction. at turns timid or firm; overcome with despairing rage which she relates to the reader distantly, matter-of-factly, almost humorously; disappointed with her life, with her home, with the weight of memory, with the poor decision-making that led her here. she's funny and kind.
the final third is perfect. the stakes are high and the narrative is cinematic, but this novel is always grounded, always focused on the vivid intensity of ordinary life. incredibly, incredibly moving, moreso because you are astounded, regularly, by the mundanity of what is happening to these people: to jack, who cannot allow himself in, to his family, who want nothing more but can't make it happen.
also have to mention that there are so many moments in this book that stick out to me individually and with clarity, away from the novel as a whole. mostly jack's recollections of his childhood, hearing about his famous isolation from his own point of view. i don't want to spoil them because i literally had to put the book down after i read them lol. but he remembers his closeness to the house, his inability to do things the other children could, without ever explaining himself -- because he can't explain himself. and it is truly crazymaking!!!
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great writing. Deep characters. Ending that makes you find your own meaning.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Like all of her books, it was lovely, although a little uneventful (bordering on boring). The character development was phenomenal.