Gilead - Review by Carole

I have been working my way through some of the Pulitzer winners, and I came across Gilead by Marilynne Robinson and was intrigued by its premise, a letter of an elderly father to his very young son who he knows he will not live to see grow up. And the title reminded me of the hymn "There is a balm in Gilead...", which continued to run through my head every time I picked up the book.

I always find it fascinating when an author writes as a character who is very different from themselves. I think that it must be very difficult for a female author to write as a man, in this case an elderly man, about something uniquely male, such as fatherhood. This strikes me as ambitious, and I was curious as to whether she could pull it off. But as I read it, I had no trouble believing the voice--it struck me as real.

I found the idea of a father writing to tell his son all of the things that he wants him to know because he won't be there to tell him when he is old enough to hear it very poignant. How sad to know that, and yet, it's been John Ames' reality since his son was born. He feels he was blessed with a wife and child late in life and that blessing is bittersweet to him. He can't believe he really has come to know these types of love after a lifetime of loneliness, but he also knows that it is for all too brief a time. I thought this came across time and again in his writings, and it pulled at my heartstrings.

I've read three books recently--Gilead, The Road, and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox--where the novel is one long piece. No chapters. I find this difficult as I'm an I'll-put-the-book-down-when-I-finish-reading-this-chapter kind of reader. Granted there are breaks in the writing, but it still takes getting used to. But in Gilead it makes sense because it's essentially one long letter, but I wonder if a series of letters would have been more effective. Or maybe it's meant to represent the sermon-style that John, a Calvinist preacher, is used to writing. I can only imagine how difficult it was for Robinson to keep this all organized to tell a cohesive story.

He tells us that every sermon he ever wrote is literally hanging over his head in the attic. I love that image--I think that would feel weighty to anyone! John's humanity rang true for me--he saved his work hoping it would be some sort of a legacy, but he constantly questioned whether any of it really had any lasting value. Even though I feel like Robinson deliberately didn't let us know the wife very well, I like that she seemed to think that John's work was valuable.

Robinson set herself another difficult task--her characters are introduced through a double filter. The characters are introduced to the reader only through the narrator. That's in itself is not so unusual, but John only shares the information that he wants his son to know. So, it is up to the reader to really read between the lines. What was the wife's story? Did she just see John as a means to an end? She seemed to need some stability in her life and she sensed that he was lonely, but I don't feel like that was all there was to it. Maybe she didn't love him at first, but she seems to genuinely care for him and she takes cares of him. At least, John seems satisfied with the relationship and that's what he conveys to his son.

I found several of the characters compelling. John's grandfather had a huge influence on John's life. The experience that John and his father shared as they search for and find the grandfather's grave understandably had a powerful impact on John as a young boy. Even though the emphasis was often on the grandfather, I found John's father a strong, but quiet character in his own right. John's observation of the father/son relationship between his own father and grandfather and between his father and his brother gave him plenty of examples to follow or discard as he determined his approach to fatherhood. Even though the influential men in life left Gilead, John remained. He seems at peace with that, but it seems to have given him plenty of fodder for contemplation.

John's boyhood and lifelong friend, Boughton, named his son after John. This boy, now man, seems to baffle John at every turn. Despite comforting people throughout his entire ministry, he seems perpetually unable to provide any solace for his friend's son. Boughton's son, in his actions and deeds, seem to lead to John questioning his own judgment on everything. It was interesting to me that this one character seem to be able to shake him to the core.

Boughton, also nearing the end of his life, provides John with much companionship through the years and also a view into a life he didn't get to lead. John seems to marvel at the different relationships that Boughton has with his grown children, all the while aware that he will not get to see his son as a grown man.

I thought that John's letter to his son is an act of love and the writing seems infused with feeling. I loved that he didn't preach to his son on how he should live his life. It was much gentler than that. I was particularly touched by this quote:

"But hope deferred is still hope. I love this town. I think sometimes of going into the ground here as a last wild gesture of love--I too will smolder away the time until the great and and general incandescence. I pray that you grow up a brave man in a brave country. I pray that you will find a way to be useful. I'll pray and then I'll sleep."

Where We Buy Our Books, Part Deux

After reading New York Times reporter David Streitfeld's article about the cost of second-hand bookstores, I put some thought into my own practices and encountered another article that helped put things in perspective and made me better understand my ambivalence about the publishing industry — and other industries.

I wondered how much waste and excess is practiced in the publishing world, and I got a hint of it in an article by Motoko Rich ("Puttin' off the Ritz: The New Austerity in Publishing," New York Times, January 4, 2009). A lunch meeting between an author and her/his publisher isn't extravagant, but them having their own tables at The Four Seasons is a little excessive. So are insane advances for unknown authors, conferences that are just an excuse for debauchery and other misuses of funds.

The money isn't sitting in the safes, though — it's in the hands of the fastest dreg producers in the West, so to speak. If it's hot, there's a hardback book in the store awaiting your purchase. I'm all for pop culture, but readers shouldn't have to sacrifice quality for speed. Bake while the oven is hot, by all means, but let the dough rise first or you'll wind up with matzoh (which, truth be told, tastes like the box in which it is packaged).

Should there be fewer books published, then? Maybe — though that increases the chances of winding up with matzoh instead of beignets. (The Last Templar comes to mind.) I know reducing the number of titles published may create a dearth of O'Nan- and Gaiman-quality writers. I also know my Gaiman could be your Khoury (shudder). However, publishers found Gaiman and Pratchett before, and they will again — as they will the next Jacques or Evanovich.

And so will I, in the great world of books of any hands. In most industries, the original seller is the only one who provides a "cut" to the originator of the goods (publisher, designer, etc.). Resellers, a long tradition in every culture, never have had a responsibility to the originator for any item: clothing, shoes, music, dishes, electronics, movies. To throw away a book just because it's been read is as insensible as shredding a Van Gogh because the original owner died. Until the system changes, I will choose when to purchase something by when the urge strikes. New or used, full-price or discounted, library or bookstore — unless it's Jasper Fforde, Ariana Franklin or Sara Gruen, who will be purchased hot off the press because I just can't wait.

Horizon for Books in 2009

I've had a deuce of a time finding a list of books to be published in 2009. Usually my local newspaper's book section spends a centerfold on it, but not this year. And I have a theory for the silence: it's fear. And I'm getting really tired of it.

At Christmas, stores came up short on many goods. While retailers are lamenting the dip in sales, I contend it's the stores keeping little stock on hand "just in case it doesn't sell." I purchased more books last year than the previous year, and plan to buy even more books this year. So I beg publishers to go ahead and decrease the frequency of lunches at the Ritz, but allow this year's catalog to be robust.

But enough of trying to write on this wobbly soapbox. Let's get to the matter at hand: books! We have some favorites who are publishing this year, and we will be at the front of the line when their books come to the shelves.

While I'd like to address these in order of publication date, I must blurt: Jasper Fforde! Okay, I feel better, now that I can herald the publication of his new book, Shades of Grey, which is scheduled to be ready just in time for Carole's birthday. (Isn't he thoughtful with his timing?)

Other books of interest are set for publication this year. (Thanks to an article or two in Wikipedia — and Carole, the real Wikipedia — for this information!)

Christopher Moore has a book due to be published in February: Fool. Let me have the author describe the book himself:

This is a bawdy tale. Herein you will find gratuitous shagging, murder, spanking, maiming, treason, and heretofore unexplored heights of vulgarity and profanity, as well as nontraditional grammar, split infinitives, and the odd wank . . . If that's the sort of thing you think you might enjoy, then you have happened upon the perfect story!

He had me at bawdy.

Find out how to Escape from Hell with Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle in February. This sequel to their clever 1976 novel Inferno will envision a science fiction writer as a modern-day Christ breaking the boundaries of Hell — with some help from Sylvia Plath. Talk about a conversation-starter!

Also in February, check out SUM: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman. This selection of vignettes about various afterlives offers what sounds like bizarre but oddly interesting ideas of what happens after we die.

Ariana Franklin has a new novel coming out in March, Grave Goods, third in her Mistress of the Art of Death series. I enjoyed her first novel, and her second novel, The Serpent's Tale, is on my nightstand (so look for a review soon!).

Joyce Carol Oates has a collection of short stories scheduled for release in March: Dear Husband, a series of stories centered on families and relationships. Carole named another Oates novel, We Were the Mulvaneys, as one of her favorites of 2008.

Sara Gruen, of Water for Elephants fame, is publishing a new novel in April: Ape House. This book features the bonobo ape, one of the species of apes with whom she spent time in 2007 at The Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa.

Another April release is Turn Coat, 11th in The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. I recently discovered the wizard of Chicago, Harry Dresden, thanks to my brother-in-law's help and his DVDs of the single season of "The Dresden Files" on the SciFi Channel. I'm intrigued.

Brian Jacques will publish his 21st novel this autumn. The Sable Quean is proof positive that the author is keeping his promise: as long as people keep reading his novels, he will keep writing them. According to Jacques, quean is Old English for "wicked lady." I hope he tours with this novel so I can hear him read again — it's a great treat.

Margaret Atwood's novel A Year in the Flood is due for release in September. From what I can tell, it's an apocalyptic story about Earth in the future. I have thrilled at some of her other less conventional novels, so this one sounds like it might be right up my alley.

Stop me if you've heard this one: Stephen King is coming out with a long novel. This time it's about 1,000 pages and expected to hit bookstores in September. Under the Dome is about what happens when people are cut off from their society — and, King states, is more "allegorical" than The Stand. He's been hit and miss for me for a while, but I'm willing to give him another shot, as always. After all, he is Stephen King.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is getting a new installation to the, er, trilogy in October: And Another Thing.... written by Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer. It will be the sixth book in the series, and Colfer was given permission to write this book by Jane Belson, the widow of Douglas Adams. Should this give me less qualms about the book? I'm not sure. However, I'll give it a shot.

Another novel due in October is The Wild Things by Dave Eggers, who re-tells the Maurice Sendak tale in novel form. Look for the Spike Jonze movie this year, too.

Have we missed your most anticipated read? Let us know!