52 Books in 52 Weeks, it's called. The challenge is simple: read a book every week for a year.
71. Gilead.
Second reading. It may not yet have won the Pulitzer Prize at that time. I’ve been recommending this book for five years, but I think I only now comprehend the import of its ending — that Ames sees Jack as himself, and so can have compassion on him finally. So, it’s good that I re-read it, and it’s lucky that it’s still an exemplary book.
My wife heard Robinson speak about writing this novel, a few years ago at the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College. Robinson holds that it was not written in the normal way — hard work, endless re-writing — but arrived as an inspiration, born whole as it were. She simply wrote a few pages and sent them to the editor, then a few more, and so on. Astounding! But we agreed then that it explains why she went on to write Home — that Home probably filled her need to actually go through the process of writing this novel, thinking about it, reworking it. Home is even more impressive now, realizing that Robinson was required to take the throwaway moments from Gilead and piece them into a cohesive narrative of their own, and that she largely succeeded.
In the final analysis, and barring Infinite Jest, this may be the best novel I’ve read since beginning my readership project in 2004. It’s the most widely recommendable. It’s certainly worth your time: the time you spend reading it will return to you a real, tangible value, which you will not get in any other way.
I reread Gilead not too long ago as well, and I agree with everything you’ve said here. I think I still find Housekeeping to be the most compelling of her books, but it just noses out this one.
Scrivener. November 17th. 2009. 8:25 am.