---
product_id: 5735138
title: "Gilead (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel"
price: "¥5382"
currency: JPY
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reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.jp/products/5735138-gilead-oprahs-book-club-a-novel
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region: Japan
---

# Gilead (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel

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A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • MORE THAN 1 MILLION COPIES SOLD “Quietly powerful [and] moving.” O, The Oprah Magazine (recommended reading) Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award, GILEAD is a hymn of praise and lamentation to the God-haunted existence that Reverend Ames loves passionately, and from which he will soon part. In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. Ames is the son of an Iowan preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He "preached men into the Civil War," then, at age fifty, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle. Reverend Ames writes to his son about the tension between his father--an ardent pacifist--and his grandfather, whose pistol and bloody shirts, concealed in an army blanket, may be relics from the fight between the abolitionists and those settlers who wanted to vote Kansas into the union as a slave state. And he tells a story of the sacred bonds between fathers and sons, which are tested in his tender and strained relationship with his namesake, John Ames Boughton, his best friend's wayward son. This is also the tale of another remarkable vision--not a corporeal vision of God but the vision of life as a wondrously strange creation. It tells how wisdom was forged in Ames's soul during his solitary life, and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten.

Review: A treat for the soul - I've read many good books, many bad books, and many mediocre books over the course of my lifetime. There is a fourth category, however, which I call "Books-That-Stir-Your-Soul" (BTSYS). You know, the ones that start something warm coursing down your chest, speaking to you in a way you never knew possible, and making you conscious in a new way. Books in this category are few, but include Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Faulkner's Light in August and As I Lay Dying, and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Your list will probably differ, but you get the idea. There is now an addition to my BTSYS list, a novel by Marilynne Robinson called Gilead (Picador, New York, 2004). This is not a new book, but I only encountered it upon reviewing Marilynne Robinson's recent book of essays, When I Was A Child I Read Books. In the process, I found myself in awe of Ms. Robinson's ability to express the ineffable with words that wrap themselves around you and then pull tight the knots of meaning in an unforgettable way. The book's title refers to a place, a small community in Iowa, not far from the Kansas border. The time frame is the early 1950s. The narrator is a man named John Ames, a seventy-six (soon to be seventy-seven) year old Congregationalist minister. The entire book is a letter to his six-year old son. John's heart is giving out, and he will soon die. In the letter, he is telling his young son--born of a late-in-life marriage to a much younger woman--about himself, his life, his family, and his faith. In this letter, Ames confronts his family's history. He is the son of a preacher, whose grandfather was an abolitionist preacher during the years of "Bloody Kansas." His grandfather hovers over this story and reminiscences abound about how the old man rode with John Brown and how he sometimes stood in the pulpit with a pistol and bloody clothing. These were the stories John Ames heard from his father, but all he remembered about Grandpa was the way the old man would look at him, as if knowing what was in his mind, and how he had a habit of just taking stuff from other people. The people around Gilead just came to accept the old man's idiosyncrasies. The love story between Ames and his wife, who showed up at a service on a Pentecost and who seemed to be taken by the much older man's kind and gentle ways, is the reredos behind the story: the curtain is parted only slightly in his portrayal of the woman, but she remains largely a mystery to us. We do know that she loved John enough to give him a child in his old age and to fill his life with love long after he lost his first wife and child. When the ne'er do well son of his closest friend, a Presbyterian minister he grew up with, arrives back in Gilead John begins to notice that his wife and son seem taken by the younger man and John's creeping mortality begins to work on his fears for the future. The themes that streak though this novel include respect, something people had for one another in earlier times; and light. Images are constantly appearing about the light, and it intrudes upon life in the most unexpected moments, such as when his young son and a friend are playing in the sprinkler: "The sprinkler is a magnificent invention because it exposes raindrops to sunshine. That does occur in nature, but it is rare... I've always loved to baptize people, though I have sometimes wished there were more shimmer and splash involved in the way we go about it. Well, but you two are dancing around in your iridescent little downpour, whooping and stomping as sane people ought to do when they encounter a thing so miraculous as water." The phrase "in the way we go about it" refers to the fact that John's denomination baptizes by sprinkling, not immersion. This issue and many other religious questions pop up in his letter, only to make very evident that there is a real difference between his faith lived and that same faith observed from outside. This is why atheists as well as Christians should read Gilead. Much of what those who attack Christianity base their attacks on are misunderstandings. For example, when confronted with a sincere question about salvation, particularly the famously Calvinist notion that God has pre-determined who is saved and who is damned before they are born, John addresses this question with a startling lack of dogmatism and comes down decidedly on the side of a merciful God. John Ames is not a man who bases his life on dogma. He is a believer who understands the intricacies of faith and does not rest on its supposed certainties. And, in spite of the fact that Christianity is often seen as a life-denying faith, John's statement in this letter to the child he will not see grow up makes it quite clear that his faith is anything but. In fact, faith is the element in his life that adds the sparkle to existence. "Remembering my youth," writes John, "makes me aware that I never really had enough of it, it was over before I was done with it...Oh, I will miss the world!" This is a book to ponder, to read and re-read, and to carry through life as we grow older and find ourselves feeling the need to explain why we are the way they are to those we are about to leave behind. Most people don't really think about it, however. What a shame. Letters like this from parents a just might help to make our children better human beings. Unfortunately, the notion of what a "better human being" is may seem strange to a world that demands empirical demonstrations for every concept. If you are among those, don't read this book. Unless you want to rethink some of your basic assumptions.
Review: Fathers, earthly and spiritual; sons, obedient and prodigal - Marilynne Robinson’s 2004 novel, ‘Gilead’, is basically one 247-page letter written by an aging Congregationalist minister, John Ames, to the adult that his son will become years after his father dies, which, based on Ames’ diagnosis of heart disease, may happen soon. If the title ‘Fathers and Sons’ had not already been taken, it would fit this novel perfectly. Various relationships between fathers and their sons are examined in Ames’ epistolary wanderings. Gilead is the town in Iowa where the Ames family settled decades before John Ames was born. He is the third generation of John Ames’s, and he is also the third generation of ministers. His grandfather had a rifle and wasn’t afraid to use it. A militant abolitionist, he went to Kansas to support John Brown, then fight the Civil War, in which he lost an eye, and later in life, got fed up with his life in Gilead and went back out to Kansas, where he died. When Ames the narrator was a boy, he and his father set out west to find the father/grandfather’s grave. A bitter rift had developed between the grandfather, who fought in the Civil War, and his pacifist son. The pilgrimage to the grave was an attempt at some kind of closure for the son, wanting his son to understand the continuity of the generations and not feel the same distance from him. Ames the narrator had a wife and child earlier in his life but she died in childbirth along with her baby. Unexpectedly, in his later years, a young woman named Lila starts attending his church and he makes a special point of inviting her to his classes. It becomes apparent that she reciprocates his interest and he remains a little surprised that this young, beautiful woman would be attracted to a man in his late 70’s. Ames’ best friend for many years is the Presbyterian minister, Robert Boughton. They are so close that Boughton names one of his sons after him, John Ames Boughton, known as “Jack”. Jack has been the black sheep of his family, a prodigal who returns after many years, now in his 40’s himself. Although Ames tries to be kind and generous to everyone, he bears a non-expressed resentment toward Jack. A few years earlier Jack impregnated a poor local girl who lived with her impoverished family, barely a teen herself. Due to unsanitary living conditions and the lack of affordable health care, the baby died and Jack left Gilead. Ames knows about prodigals, being the obedient son, and having a brother, Edward, who left to go to England to study Philosophy and returned an avowed atheist. Now that Jack is back in Gilead, he becomes friendly with Lila and their son. Ames fears that after his death, Jack will attempt to take his place as husband/father, a scenario that displeases him greatly. Jack leaves when Ames and his father are having one of their discussions and returns, usually inserting himself in the conversation with an awkward, exaggerated deference to Ames, often apologetic, which just increases Ames’ resentment. There is some unfinished business between the two of them that both of them probably feel should be resolved soon. Finally, Jack confides to Ames what has happened to him in his missing years from Gilead, an unburdening which lightens Ames’ feeling toward him. At least 50% of the novel, perhaps more, is devoted to Ames’ theological ruminations, which struck me as tedious. Although I acknowledge that they are justified in an understanding of the character, they make for unwelcome distractions from the more interesting interactions between the characters. If I were as concerned about theological matters, as Robinson obviously is, they might be more engaging. However, there are passages of wonder and beauty that shine in the midst of all the tedium, reminiscent of large portions of Robinson’s vastly superior debut novel, ‘Housekeeping’. Also, based on what I know about the two successive interrelated novels with ‘Gilead’, ‘Home’ and ‘Lila’, their narratives may, hopefully, flow more smoothly. Ames is a good, moral man who is compassionate and attempts to understand his fellow humans. That in itself does not always lend itself to very involving storytelling as most effective stories depend on conflict for their success and degree of insight. He is a glass half-full person. If he has insomnia throughout the night, he takes advantage of being awake early to appreciate the beauty of the dawn. I suppose it is worth wading through John Ames’ thoughts to arrive at wise passages such as this: “In every important way we are such secrets from one another, and I do believe that there is a separate language in each of us, also a separate aesthetics and a separate jurisprudence. Every single one of us is a little civilization built on the ruins of any number of preceding civilizations, but with our own variant notions of what is beautiful and what is acceptable - which, I hasten to add, we generally do not satisfy and by which we struggle to live. We take fortuitous resemblances among us to be actual likeness, because those around us have also fallen heir to the same customs, trade in the same coin, acknowledge, more or less, the same notions of decency and sanity. But all that really just allows us to coexist with the inviolable, intraversable, and utterly vast spaces between us.” I can’t think of a more perfectly expressed explanation of how we go through our lives, interacting and bridging connections, each of us in our own bubbles of solitude.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #87,784 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #413 in Literary Fiction (Books) #521 in American Literature (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.2 out of 5 stars 11,620 Reviews |

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A treat for the soul
*by I***S on May 18, 2012*

I've read many good books, many bad books, and many mediocre books over the course of my lifetime. There is a fourth category, however, which I call "Books-That-Stir-Your-Soul" (BTSYS). You know, the ones that start something warm coursing down your chest, speaking to you in a way you never knew possible, and making you conscious in a new way. Books in this category are few, but include Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Faulkner's Light in August and As I Lay Dying, and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Your list will probably differ, but you get the idea. There is now an addition to my BTSYS list, a novel by Marilynne Robinson called Gilead (Picador, New York, 2004). This is not a new book, but I only encountered it upon reviewing Marilynne Robinson's recent book of essays, When I Was A Child I Read Books. In the process, I found myself in awe of Ms. Robinson's ability to express the ineffable with words that wrap themselves around you and then pull tight the knots of meaning in an unforgettable way. The book's title refers to a place, a small community in Iowa, not far from the Kansas border. The time frame is the early 1950s. The narrator is a man named John Ames, a seventy-six (soon to be seventy-seven) year old Congregationalist minister. The entire book is a letter to his six-year old son. John's heart is giving out, and he will soon die. In the letter, he is telling his young son--born of a late-in-life marriage to a much younger woman--about himself, his life, his family, and his faith. In this letter, Ames confronts his family's history. He is the son of a preacher, whose grandfather was an abolitionist preacher during the years of "Bloody Kansas." His grandfather hovers over this story and reminiscences abound about how the old man rode with John Brown and how he sometimes stood in the pulpit with a pistol and bloody clothing. These were the stories John Ames heard from his father, but all he remembered about Grandpa was the way the old man would look at him, as if knowing what was in his mind, and how he had a habit of just taking stuff from other people. The people around Gilead just came to accept the old man's idiosyncrasies. The love story between Ames and his wife, who showed up at a service on a Pentecost and who seemed to be taken by the much older man's kind and gentle ways, is the reredos behind the story: the curtain is parted only slightly in his portrayal of the woman, but she remains largely a mystery to us. We do know that she loved John enough to give him a child in his old age and to fill his life with love long after he lost his first wife and child. When the ne'er do well son of his closest friend, a Presbyterian minister he grew up with, arrives back in Gilead John begins to notice that his wife and son seem taken by the younger man and John's creeping mortality begins to work on his fears for the future. The themes that streak though this novel include respect, something people had for one another in earlier times; and light. Images are constantly appearing about the light, and it intrudes upon life in the most unexpected moments, such as when his young son and a friend are playing in the sprinkler: "The sprinkler is a magnificent invention because it exposes raindrops to sunshine. That does occur in nature, but it is rare... I've always loved to baptize people, though I have sometimes wished there were more shimmer and splash involved in the way we go about it. Well, but you two are dancing around in your iridescent little downpour, whooping and stomping as sane people ought to do when they encounter a thing so miraculous as water." The phrase "in the way we go about it" refers to the fact that John's denomination baptizes by sprinkling, not immersion. This issue and many other religious questions pop up in his letter, only to make very evident that there is a real difference between his faith lived and that same faith observed from outside. This is why atheists as well as Christians should read Gilead. Much of what those who attack Christianity base their attacks on are misunderstandings. For example, when confronted with a sincere question about salvation, particularly the famously Calvinist notion that God has pre-determined who is saved and who is damned before they are born, John addresses this question with a startling lack of dogmatism and comes down decidedly on the side of a merciful God. John Ames is not a man who bases his life on dogma. He is a believer who understands the intricacies of faith and does not rest on its supposed certainties. And, in spite of the fact that Christianity is often seen as a life-denying faith, John's statement in this letter to the child he will not see grow up makes it quite clear that his faith is anything but. In fact, faith is the element in his life that adds the sparkle to existence. "Remembering my youth," writes John, "makes me aware that I never really had enough of it, it was over before I was done with it...Oh, I will miss the world!" This is a book to ponder, to read and re-read, and to carry through life as we grow older and find ourselves feeling the need to explain why we are the way they are to those we are about to leave behind. Most people don't really think about it, however. What a shame. Letters like this from parents a just might help to make our children better human beings. Unfortunately, the notion of what a "better human being" is may seem strange to a world that demands empirical demonstrations for every concept. If you are among those, don't read this book. Unless you want to rethink some of your basic assumptions.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fathers, earthly and spiritual; sons, obedient and prodigal
*by B***B on June 27, 2020*

Marilynne Robinson’s 2004 novel, ‘Gilead’, is basically one 247-page letter written by an aging Congregationalist minister, John Ames, to the adult that his son will become years after his father dies, which, based on Ames’ diagnosis of heart disease, may happen soon. If the title ‘Fathers and Sons’ had not already been taken, it would fit this novel perfectly. Various relationships between fathers and their sons are examined in Ames’ epistolary wanderings. Gilead is the town in Iowa where the Ames family settled decades before John Ames was born. He is the third generation of John Ames’s, and he is also the third generation of ministers. His grandfather had a rifle and wasn’t afraid to use it. A militant abolitionist, he went to Kansas to support John Brown, then fight the Civil War, in which he lost an eye, and later in life, got fed up with his life in Gilead and went back out to Kansas, where he died. When Ames the narrator was a boy, he and his father set out west to find the father/grandfather’s grave. A bitter rift had developed between the grandfather, who fought in the Civil War, and his pacifist son. The pilgrimage to the grave was an attempt at some kind of closure for the son, wanting his son to understand the continuity of the generations and not feel the same distance from him. Ames the narrator had a wife and child earlier in his life but she died in childbirth along with her baby. Unexpectedly, in his later years, a young woman named Lila starts attending his church and he makes a special point of inviting her to his classes. It becomes apparent that she reciprocates his interest and he remains a little surprised that this young, beautiful woman would be attracted to a man in his late 70’s. Ames’ best friend for many years is the Presbyterian minister, Robert Boughton. They are so close that Boughton names one of his sons after him, John Ames Boughton, known as “Jack”. Jack has been the black sheep of his family, a prodigal who returns after many years, now in his 40’s himself. Although Ames tries to be kind and generous to everyone, he bears a non-expressed resentment toward Jack. A few years earlier Jack impregnated a poor local girl who lived with her impoverished family, barely a teen herself. Due to unsanitary living conditions and the lack of affordable health care, the baby died and Jack left Gilead. Ames knows about prodigals, being the obedient son, and having a brother, Edward, who left to go to England to study Philosophy and returned an avowed atheist. Now that Jack is back in Gilead, he becomes friendly with Lila and their son. Ames fears that after his death, Jack will attempt to take his place as husband/father, a scenario that displeases him greatly. Jack leaves when Ames and his father are having one of their discussions and returns, usually inserting himself in the conversation with an awkward, exaggerated deference to Ames, often apologetic, which just increases Ames’ resentment. There is some unfinished business between the two of them that both of them probably feel should be resolved soon. Finally, Jack confides to Ames what has happened to him in his missing years from Gilead, an unburdening which lightens Ames’ feeling toward him. At least 50% of the novel, perhaps more, is devoted to Ames’ theological ruminations, which struck me as tedious. Although I acknowledge that they are justified in an understanding of the character, they make for unwelcome distractions from the more interesting interactions between the characters. If I were as concerned about theological matters, as Robinson obviously is, they might be more engaging. However, there are passages of wonder and beauty that shine in the midst of all the tedium, reminiscent of large portions of Robinson’s vastly superior debut novel, ‘Housekeeping’. Also, based on what I know about the two successive interrelated novels with ‘Gilead’, ‘Home’ and ‘Lila’, their narratives may, hopefully, flow more smoothly. Ames is a good, moral man who is compassionate and attempts to understand his fellow humans. That in itself does not always lend itself to very involving storytelling as most effective stories depend on conflict for their success and degree of insight. He is a glass half-full person. If he has insomnia throughout the night, he takes advantage of being awake early to appreciate the beauty of the dawn. I suppose it is worth wading through John Ames’ thoughts to arrive at wise passages such as this: “In every important way we are such secrets from one another, and I do believe that there is a separate language in each of us, also a separate aesthetics and a separate jurisprudence. Every single one of us is a little civilization built on the ruins of any number of preceding civilizations, but with our own variant notions of what is beautiful and what is acceptable - which, I hasten to add, we generally do not satisfy and by which we struggle to live. We take fortuitous resemblances among us to be actual likeness, because those around us have also fallen heir to the same customs, trade in the same coin, acknowledge, more or less, the same notions of decency and sanity. But all that really just allows us to coexist with the inviolable, intraversable, and utterly vast spaces between us.” I can’t think of a more perfectly expressed explanation of how we go through our lives, interacting and bridging connections, each of us in our own bubbles of solitude.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Sonnet to spirituality
*by P***S on August 17, 2026*

A story of hope and love. This man is reflecting on anticipation of leaving his young son bereft. As he does he remembers the times and places that shaped his life. He had a rich interior life, and a deep loneliness which was the spring that guided his compassion. Beautiful book.

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