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Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson · 2004
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WINNER OF THE 2005 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 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.…
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"I think you _could_ read both "Gilead" and "Housekeeping," by Marilynne Robinson, as a younger person, but you should do yourself a solid and read them again once you've had some tread worn off your tires."
"I recently reread Marilynne Robinson's extraordinary novel "Gilead." A beautiful, beautiful book."
"There were many duplicates of books that I loved (three copies of "Gilead," two of "Old Filth")"
"I read it again and again, for its beautiful descriptions of a faithful man bidding goodbye to his young son."
"I loved "Gilead" and "Wolf Hall," which is a staggering achievement."
"“Gilead,” by Marilynne Robinson, affected me that way, as did “The Poisonwood Bible,” by Barbara Kingsolver."
"Marilynne Robinson's Gilead is a perfect example. It's spare but eloquent and rises significantly out of an understanding of our spiritual relationship with the land."