hikergraham 's review for:

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

4.0

slow-paced

---

I do love a good epistolary novel. The character work was very good. The prose was great. The grandfather character was understandably the best, and I feel like the novel did not do his politics justice. The next two generations are embarrassed of his abolitionism and take every opportunity to brush under the rug the fact that their town is devoid of all black people now. There's an uncomfortable racism lurking behind parts of this novel which Robinson spotlights but with which never the characters deal or confront in the novel's present.