Jack by Marilynne Robinson

 <i>Jack<i/> by Marilynne Robinson. Wow.  

This, her fourth instalment in the Gilead quartet -- all so different yet all so profoundly worth reading. If only I lived closer or had more ambition, I'd take her writing course in Iowa. 

In 2005, when I was a high school English teacher, I asked the librarian, "Do you have any recommendations?"

She handed me Marilynne Robinson's Gilead and said, "This just came in. It's excellent. It won the Pulitzer for literature."

I took it home. I was in the prime of my career, Busy at home and doing a part time music career. My reading pace had started to pick up again, but mostly I was reading pulpy fluff -- stuff that didn't make me think too hard.

Several chapters in to reading Gilead I had a couple of thoughts: this is the story of a congregationalist minister reflecting on his life, yes? And nothing is happening...?

And, 

I suspect it's beautiful and profound in a subtle sort of way that requires me to slow down and still my soul, otherwise it'll be lost on me...

I gave it back to the librarian and shared with her my thoughts above. I asked, "So you read it and loved it, huh?"
Sheepishly, she said, "No. I thought maybe you would read it and tell me what you think...."  Stinker. 

I said, "Maybe I'll borrow it over the summer holiday when I'll have more time to read it slowly. I have a feeling this is the sort of novel where you have to pay attention to every word and sentence."

So that's what I did. And hence the start of my love affair with Marilynne Robinson. 

So in the Summer of 2005 I read Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. I read it slowly. It was like meditating; like contemplative prayer. 

Fast forward to several years later during which time I'd tell all my reader friends about Marilynne Robinson. After Home came out, I convinced enough people to do a book club. A favourite story I like to tell -- which I may or may not have shared in my post about Home.

Toward the end of our club I had a crazy idea: why not contact Marilynne Robinson and ask her to join our book club via FaceTime or Skype? We were sure no answer would come back or a polite "no" at best. What did came back was a shock. Her agent responded that currently she was very busy finishing her third Gilead book, Lila, and that later that year, she could join us. Wow! 

As an educational consultant and as a coordinator of a written word festival -- a yearly event to which we invited published authors and aspiring high school writers -- I had many disappointing experiences with writers ranging from them not responding at all to an initial yes followed by no response after several attempts at contact.

So this made me realize: Marilynne Robinson -- fantastic writer and really cool person!

So what can I say about Jack? As mentioned earlier, it's the fourth --maybe last? -- part of a story about two family histories set in the fictional backdrop of Gilead, a small Iowa town. The novels paint a subtle, gentle picture of American life (mostly in the 1960s) focusing on faith hope and love. The central patriarchal characters in these novels are the reverends, and best friends of different denominations, John Ames and Robert Boughton. Other stories revolve around Ames' much younger wife, Lila, and Boughton's wayward son, Jack. 

"These four novels... are a vital contribution to contemporary American literature and a revelation of our national character and humanity. Robinson’s meditation on the paradoxes of American life has given us “something we only occasionally find in the vastness of existence: a glimpse of eternity” (Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal).

It takes me forever to read a Marilynne Robinson novel because not only am I reading every word, I'm constantly highlighting thoughts such as these:  "I think most people feel a difference between their real lives and the lives they have in the world. But they ignore their souls, or hide them, so they can keep things together, keep an ordinary life."

I think this is a really important quote. And as much as the central character, Jack, is a mess of dysfunctional angst in so many ways, he is also constantly reflective and introspective. His mantra is to do no harm although he falls in love with a black woman, Della, in the 1960s during a time in which interracial marriage was illegal in most states. And therefore, by definition, harmful. 

In Jack, Robinson manages to show us that a person is not defined by his foibles -- in Jack's case, he is a drunk and ostensibly a thief and a a cad. Robinson shows us, however, that by paying attention to your soul and opening up yourself to others, there is hope and the possibility of redemption.