Gilead
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This is such a unique novel. It transports you to a different time and place and while it grapples with uneasy topics like one’s own mortality, theological contradictions, and refusal to forgive, I came away with a heart-warming feeling.
Gilead has nothing to do with The Handmaid’s Tale or The Testaments. It’s a Pulitzer Prize winning novel set in the 1950s in GIlead, Iowa, a small town ravaged by the World Wars and the Great Depression. It’s written as a letter from John Ames, a Congregationalist pastor, to his young son. Ames is knowingly at the end of his life, so he reflects on his virtues and shortcomings, particularly an issue surrounding a family friend that comes back to haunt him.
Ames is a refreshingly endearing narrator because he’s deeply introspective. He writes in a formal voice that I don’t often see, but it reads naturally from an old religious man born in 1880. He approaches his religion not as a set of rules but as a lifestyle that betters him and those around him, and the pureness with which he communicates this to his son is quite touching. He also has his witty moments. Something about a silly little joke from this very traditional, modest man hits different.
I also appreciate the impact of the time period on the pace and tone of the writing. Because they lack material items, simple gestures have such deep significance and they’re more dependent on their community. At one point, someone gives Ames a television to watch baseball, and he doesn’t like it because he prefers the radio he’s used all these years. He’s content with his bucolic life and even though Ames doesn’t want to leave his wife and son, he trusts in the saving grace of his town.
As Ames communicates his love for Gilead, he references the thousands of sermons that he’s preached to his church in his lifetime. He’s a very earnest man so while he is ~literally~ preaching, he doesn’t come across as *preachy*. As a reader, I liked getting snippets of his sermons that reflected real historical moments, like Reconstruction and the Marshall Plan. It made this fictional world feel rooted in time and place.
Overall, my only complaint is that it got a bit repetitive. As a letter, it’s sometimes meandering and imperfect, and although that’s realistic, it also created some lulls. Regardless, I stepped away from this book feeling lighter and more optimistic. Here’s a man who has lived a long, good life, really grappling with how to leave his family with love and dignity despite some nagging grievances. The book is philosophy in its own right and I feel like I benefited from reading it.Gilead receives 5 out of 5 flames.
