Gilead ~ A Book Reveiw

 

If you enjoy reading journals or diaries, you may find gilead one that you would enjoy.  It's set in 1956 in Gilead, Iowa and gives us a look into the life of Reverend John Ames, who is 75 when the book begins but along the way celebrates his 76th birthday.  He has a wife who is much younger than himself and they have a seven year old son.  John has a bad heart and is nearing the end of his life and knows that he won't be around to watch his son grow to maturity and give him advice, so he is journaling all of the things he would wish to tell the young boy as he was growing up.

John is the third generation pastor in his family.  His grandfather was a Congregationalist and had strong inclinations about slavery.  He left the pastorate in order to be more active in that endeavor with mention being made of John Brown.  John's father was also a pastor but he did not follow in his father's footsteps in the fight against slavery.  He was more of the pacifist persuasion.  In time, John's father actually left Gilead to go south where he and his wife lived close to John's brother Edward who had built them a home on his property.

John strongly felt that God had called him to the pastorate and never left Gilead, even when his father tried persuading him to.

I found it interesting to read about the close friendship that he had with a retired Presbyterian pastor named Broughton down through the years.  The storyline actually records much about one of Broughton's sons...Jack, who was named for Reverend John.

There are parts of the book that are quite tender in the ways that Reverend Ames thinks of his son and wife and the things he observes about them.  There are other parts of the book that caused me to chuckle, particularly when he was recording about some of his conversations with Broughton.

This book was given to me as a birthday gift and I found that it took me a bit to really "get into" the book, but I think part of that could have been the fact that it is a collection of his thoughts...not necessarily as a journal with dates.  Once I got in a few chapters, it held my attention.