"Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson

Let's read "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson!

In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his 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 50, 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. *Credit to Amazon for this summary.

You can buy the book in Kindle, audiobook or hardcover form here.

We hope you can join us! We use a paid version of Google Meet that is free for our members, and you do not need a Google account to join the video conference.

Let Sheena know if you have any questions or issues by sending a message through Meetup.