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A review by elerireads
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
4.0
I have quite mixed feelings on this one. It was a very gentle, contemplative sort of book without a huge amount of plot, and normally I quite enjoy that sort of thing but even for me the first 80% of it was not really drawing me in. I wasn't bored out of my mind but the long-winded rambling about obscure philosophical or theological points did start to make me switch off. I'm normally fairly happy to empathise with religious characters and their struggles with religion, but after five pages of a fictional character's incoherent waffling about why the fifth commandment deserved to be on the first tablet, my atheist brain does start making it very difficult for me to care. Of course, I understood why it wasn't really an abstract discussion and it was all about him dwelling on the relationship between parents and their children but honestly after a while I couldn't help disengaging. Also, given the number of obscure biblical references I picked up on, I'm pretty sure there were very many more that I missed, so I hope my reading experience hasn't suffered for it!
All that said, it was absolutely beautifully written. Meditating on family and the beauty of small things. Just a lot of love for the world really, which was a kind of food for the soul to read. I love that even as old as he is and with death fast approaching he's still trying so hard to be a better person and overcome prejudices and resist instincts that he thinks might be unfair. A really wonderful and gracious but still all too human character.
In the last 50 odd pages, the pace did pick up and I found myself a bit more gripped. I don't know if it was meant to be a twist, but as I predicted something of the kind, I suspect it wasn't really - I'm never good at spotting things coming in books! I really enjoyed that ending and I'm not sure if it would have been as impactful if it weren't for the slow build-up, so I'm hesitant to be too harsh about the pacing but I do think it was at least a little bit overboard on the theological waffle earlier on.
All that said, it was absolutely beautifully written. Meditating on family and the beauty of small things. Just a lot of love for the world really, which was a kind of food for the soul to read. I love that even as old as he is and with death fast approaching he's still trying so hard to be a better person and overcome prejudices and resist instincts that he thinks might be unfair. A really wonderful and gracious but still all too human character.
In the last 50 odd pages, the pace did pick up and I found myself a bit more gripped. I don't know if it was meant to be a twist, but as I predicted something of the kind, I suspect it wasn't really - I'm never good at spotting things coming in books! I really enjoyed that ending and I'm not sure if it would have been as impactful if it weren't for the slow build-up, so I'm hesitant to be too harsh about the pacing but I do think it was at least a little bit overboard on the theological waffle earlier on.