A review by carlageek
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

I feel like a terrible philistine, but I struggled mightily with Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. I do not demand action-packed, high-stakes stories in every book I read, but there has to be something to give shape to the text. Gilead lacks much in the way of story. The book consists of the ponderings of an old preacher addressed to his young son, but the narrator's beatific Christian perspective is cloying. He's not perfect, but he's aware of his foibles and apologizes for them constantly, which feels like a cheap way of getting around the character's flaws. The constant navel-gazing and self-flagellation and the "the Lord this, the Lord that" is just suffocating. And there comes a point in all of this old man's sitting in his study watching his son play, and writing this interminable letter, that you just want to yell at him to put his pen down and go spend some actual time with his son.

I did eventually finish the book, but I can't say I appreciated it at all. :( I am a little sad because Housekeeping is truly one of my favorite books, but at least this first installment of the Gilead series is not for me.