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  Published: 2020, virago Genre: fiction Themes: crime, conscience, faith, relationships, racism My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤ When I started writing the reviews on the Gilead quartet of novels I recommended that people read them in order otherwise it would be difficult to understand why people in the books behave as they do.  Now that I have finished Jack, I stand by that recommendation as I think you would really struggle with this one if you didn't know Jack's family background. The first books begin with the stories of two preachers in the fictional town of Gilead in Iowa.  The Reverend John Ames is a quiet contemplative man who was widowed as a young man, and in his old age takes a second wife, Lila, who is a lot younger than he is.  His close friend who preaches at a different church is The Reverend Boughton who has eight children and lives his life in accordance with the scriptures and spending his spare time debating theological points with Ames. All of Boughton...

  Published: 2014, virago Genre: fiction Themes: poverty, childhood, survival, faith, love, theology My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤ So, this is the fourth of the novels in the Gilead quartet written by Marilynne Robinson.  The first two books, Gilead and Home, explore the lives of two elderly preachers from Gilead in Iowa and this one extends the story of the second wife of the Reverend John Ames.   There is a different tone in the writing of Lila as Marilynne Robinson shifts slightly from a philosophical style to something more fundamental and earthy.  Before she met and married Ames, Lila had lived a life of neglect and poverty, and had only survived childhood because she was stolen from where she was living.  There is no mention of parents at the start of her life, and as a 4 year old she was in a shared home for migrant workers where she was forced to spend most of her life under a table, unless she cried, when she was pushed outside onto the stoop....

  Published: 2008, virago Genre: fiction Themes:  family, faith, theology, love, old age, approach of death My rating (out of 5):  ❤❤❤❤❤ Home is the second in Marilynne Robinson's Gilead quartet of novels, and this time we see the family stories unfold from the perspective of the Reverend Boughton.  Boughton is a close friend of the Reverend John Ames whose story was told in the first book (see link below) and their lives have been interlinked since they were boys. This second book is slightly longer than the first, and not written as a memoir in letter form so this allows the narration to dig deeper into how events unfolded and examine the emotional impact on various members of the family.  As the story begins, Boughton is a widower in his old age and his daughter Glory has recently come home to help care for him after her own marriage failed.  All the other children have long since left home to set up their own homes, and all are leading productive lives ...

  Published: 2004, virago Genre: fiction Themes: family, faith, theology, love, old age, approach of death My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤❤ Gilead is the first of a quartet of novels, all giving accounts of the same story during the same period of time from the perspectives of the four key characters.  They are written from the vantage point of Marilynne Robinson's extraordinary wisdom, that covers not only religious texts, but the inner workings of human conscience.  These books are crafted so carefully that I felt as though each word had been weighed and considered before finally being set down on the page.   These are quiet books that should be given time and space to appreciate the writing.  Even the smallest observations slowly build images and emotions that explain, not only the thinking of the characters, but how we view the world ourselves.  Any of the books may be read in isolation, and in any order, but I really think you would benefit from r...

  The libraries in England are open again and I have already been along to borrow some books.  Visiting the library is still the same sterile experience that it was last summer but I am just grateful to get some different books to read.  During the lockdown I have been re-reading some of the books I have on the shelves but over the past year I have been through most of them for a second reading and I don't want to start on round three. Unusually, I decided to look for a specific title, and luckily I found it straight away as the shelves are still very well stocked.  Marilynne Robinson is one of my favourite authors and I absolutely love the Gilead series that tell the same story from the perspective of different key characters.  Some years ago I found Home  in a charity shop and I loved it so much I read it through twice.  On the cover it said Home  was a follow-up to the original novel Gilead , so of course I had to go and find that.  We wer...

  Published: 2009, Faber and Faber Genre: Fiction Themes: family, adoption, relationships, mental health My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤ This is not a book to read if you want something uplifting, as it gave me a constant feeling that I was staring into something that ought to remain private.  By that, I mean that the reader is peering into the dark corners of personal suffering that feels very real and unvarnished. The central character is Tassie, a young woman of twenty who has been raised on a farm to parents who never fully adapted to farming in the traditional sense.  The family are always considered outsiders in the local community, but Tassie's father has stuck to farming the way he wants to do it and has to be admired for sticking to what makes him happy even if it will never make him rich. Tassie a bit of an oddball with a quirky sense of humour that is lost on many people, but those who understand her love her for her individuality.  Roddy Doyle describes the bo...

Published: March 2014, Penguin Genre: fiction Themes: unsolved crime, old age, dementia, family  My rating (out of 5):  ❤❤❤❤❤ Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey is very good value as a novel as you get three engaging stories all rolled into one.  The past, the present overlaid with what it feels like to try and navigate the world through the spreading fog of dementia.  The book is so well written that it is hard to imagine how this could possibly be a debut novel, but Emma Healey writes with the confidence of one who has written a shelf full of books to help her develop such a convincing style.  The book is written from the perspective of Maud, who is growing increasingly confused, but is still at that frightening stage where she is aware of what is happening.  Dementia is one of our greatest fears and, at 62, I found Maud's struggles unsettling as this is a condition that can affect anyone, no matter how sharp a mind may have been in younger years....