Summary: Jack, the prodigal child of Gilead, is in St Louis. This novel is set before the events in the earlier novel Home. Marilynne Robinson is one of the more famous modern novelists of our age. And considering this is only her fifth novel, she has had a remarkable career. The Gilead books are intertwined. … Read more
Summary: An imperfect prodigal returns home to an imperfect father. Pretty much any time I hear someone answer the question, who is the best Christian author writing fiction that is not marketed as “˜Christian Fiction’, Marilynne Robinson is usually listed in the top 10. I am glad we have a category called “˜Christian Fiction’. But … Read more
Summary: More essays to explore history, science and politics from a serious Christian. I am a fan of Marilynne Robinson. I have read all but one of her novels, and to be honest the reason I haven’t read the last is that I don’t want to have read all of her novels. But I have … Read more
Takeaway: Life if not permanent. I have had an odd reluctance to read Housekeeping (and Home) because Lila and Gilead have been some of the best fiction books I have read. I do not want to be disappointed. Marilyn Robinson has not written a lot of books. Authors that have written dozens of books I assume … Read more
Summary: Mostly thoughts on religious things. Marilynne Robinson is a fantastic novelist. Her most recent novel, Lila, is among my favorite novels ever and I recently re-read her award winning novel Gilead and enjoyed it even more the second time. But Marilynne Robinson the essayist I am not sure of. She is an incredible writer. … Read more
Takeaway: Pastoral wisdom like this is rare. Lila (the third of the trilogy that starts with Gilead) came out just over a year ago. I read it immediately and then reread it about a month later. It is in my short list of best books I have read. It has been three years since I … Read more
Takeaway: Love, in essence, is the greatest expression of Grace. It is not often that I re-read a book so quickly after a first reading, but Lila was the best novel I read last year and I wanted to re-read fairly quickly to see if I was just swept up or if I would love … Read more
Summary: A woman familiar with abandonment learns about Grace. Every once in a while you stumble on something beautiful. I happened to be looking for another book at my library’s website last week and it happened that Lila had just been released that morning and I stumbled on it before anyone else grabbed it. So … Read more
Most of the time I finish books that I start. Sometimes it is months for me to finally work through a book. But I usually do eventually finish. But this week I stopped reading two books. I was bored and just didn’t want to struggle through these books that were no longer interesting. I had … Read more
Takeaway: An essential novel for Pastors. Gilead is one of those books that pretty much everyone should read. Gilead won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. And all kinds people have it as on lists of their all time favorite books. Which means that I have been reluctant to read it ever since I was … Read more