https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2020/1001/Jack-proves-Marilynne-Robinson-s-gift-for-delineating-character

I read Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead when I was at university and loved it, then a few years ago I read Housekeeping. It was only when I was approved for the ARC of Jack I realised this was the fourth book in the series so a few weeks ago I read Lila, the third book in the series.

I love a family drama and I love Marilynne Robinson’s characters and writing. Jack is the story of the titular Jack, abandoned by his family as a result of his checkered past, who falls in love with Della, a black woman in a time when relationships between black and white is illegal.

I actually didn’t gel with this as much as the other books in the series. I found it quite hard to get into, and once I’d gotten into it it seemed a bit rushed. I found myself not connecting with the characters as much as I had in the other books in the series, which is a shame really as I loved Lila which I read recently.

It’s beautifully written, but the characters and stories didn’t do it for me as much as I expected.

3 stars.

"Miracles leave no trace. He had decided, hearing his father preach on the subject, that they happened once as a sort of commentary on the blandness and inadequacy of the reality they break in on, and then vanish, leaving a world behind that refutes the very idea that such a thing could have happened.”

Jack is the protagonist of the fourth book in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead series – and incidentally the character Robinson said she could never pin down to a whole novel of his own. Never say never. Here he is challenging everyone's preconceptions about his life - including his own - because he reckoned without the love he was about to experience.

Now Jack has his own story. If you asked him, Jack would no doubt tell you that he is the black sheep of the Boughton family, the itinerant one, the tormented one...

Continue reading at https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/volatilerune.blog/2104

Marilynne Robinson’s latest novel and the fourth in her Gilead series almost converted me. I’m not a fan of her writing and try as I might, I’ve not so far been able to relate to her chronicles of the Ames and Boughton families. But I did find this one more engaging and although it still has the elements of her style that I don’t enjoy, it seemed much more focussed and the story much more affecting. Up to now the books have been set in Gilead, Iowa, a fictional rural village, where the eponymous Jack was a renegade and disturbing presence in the lives of the two interlinked families and the general community. We know that Jack has disgraced his family by getting a local girl pregnant and then abandoning her. Jack is bad news. But up to now we’ve only seen him through the eyes of others. Now he gets his own voice and we are privy to his own thoughts and reflections. He’s still bad news, though, and although he’s aware of this seems incapable of doing anything about it, showing a self-destructive streak that is certainly unappealing in the extreme. We meet him now in St Louis where he meets Della Miles, a young black high school teacher. But this is the Jim Crow south and interracial relationships are not just viewed askance but are illegal. Things are doomed to turn out badly, but Della is steadfast in her loyalty to, and love for, Jack. Unfortunately I found Della’s character unbelievably saintly and although she might see herself as Jack’s saviour and his path to redemption I wasn’t convinced by her feelings towards him, especially as there seems little chance that he can be redeemed. Yes, it’s a touching love story, but with Della not given the chance to present herself in her own words, it’s difficult to relate to her situation. Perhaps she will get her own voice in a future novel? I hope so, because as it stands I was left unsatisfied and bewildered by the risks she took in sticking to such a reprobate as Jack. And Jack seems to have remarkable little insight into their plight and the danger into which he is placing Della. Stylistically, I enjoyed Jack’s interior monologues, but found myself impatient with the long passages of dialogue between the couple – the beginning of the novel reads more like a play and can be disorientating if you don’t know the back story. If you’re new to Marilynne Robinson, I wouldn’t recommend starting with this one, as the back story is necessary to understand Jack and his behaviour. However, I definitely feel more warmly to this latest novel than to the earlier ones, so that’s a plus.

4.5 Stars

This, the fourth book in the Gilead series, is an interracial romance set in St. Louis.

The novel focuses on Jack Boughton, the prodigal son of Gilead’s Presbyterian minister. Just out of prison, he meets Della Miles, a black high school teacher who is also the child of a preacher. The two fall in love, but there are obvious problems because their relationship is not only socially unacceptable but illegal in 1950s Missouri.

The characterization of Jack is outstanding. Cultured and charming, he could almost be described as a bit of a Renaissance man, but it is his deficiencies that are more prominent. Fully aware of his shortcomings, he describes himself accurately: “’I’m a gifted thief. I lie fluently, often for no reason. I’m a bad but confirmed drunk. I have no talent for friendship. What talents I do have I make no use of.’” In fact, he often calls himself the Prince of Darkness. He believes his legacy is doing harm though he often has excuses for his behaviour: “But excuses only meant that he had done harm he did not intend, which was another proof that he did harm inevitably, intentions be damned.” He tries to make “a vocation of harmlessness” but in his relationship with Della he knows that his mere presence is a danger to her: “Once again I am a person of consequence. I am able to do harm. I can only do harm.” “She couldn’t be seen walking down the street with him without damage to her reputation, a risk a teacher can’t take” and even if he does something innocent like walking down her street to ensure that she arrived home safely, “someone will see me, someone will talk. I’ll be feeding the rumors that will sooner or later burst into scandal.” Only by staying away can he ensure she will be safe from his harm; only then would her life be “unthreatened by his Jackness, Jackitude, Jackicity.”

What he does not understand about himself is why he behaves as he does: “He had never been good at explaining the things he did. It was just alarming to him to consider how much sense they always made at the time, or in any case, how unavoidable they seemed. He suspected he drank to give himself a way of accounting for the vast difference between any present situation and the intentions that bought him to it.” Though Jack is “confounded by himself,” his actions do weigh heavily on his conscience: “Jack had dabbled in shame, and it still coursed through him, malarial, waking him up to sweat and pace until, unsoothed, unrationalized, unshriven, it secreted itself again in his bones, and at the base of his skull.”

All this brings to mind the question as to what a “good Christian woman” from a prominent black family sees in this reprobate. He is an intelligent man and perhaps that is what attracts her to him because “Cleverness has a special piquancy when it blooms out of the fraying sleeve of failure.” Della, however, claims to have seen his soul: “’once in a lifetime, maybe, you look at a stranger and you see a soul, a glorious presence out of place in the world. And if you love God, every choice is made for you. There is no turning away. You’ve seen the mystery – you’ve seen what life is about. What it’s for. And a soul has no earthly qualities, no history among the things of this world, no guilt or injury or failure. No more than a flame would have. There is nothing to be said about it except that it is a holy human soul. And it is a miracle when you recognize it. . . . since it’s your soul I’ve seen, I know better than to think about you the way people do when they judge.’” We can only take her at her word because the risks she takes have such grave consequences for her.

There is an almost overwhelming aura of sadness throughout the book. Given the time period, there is little hope for a happy ending. Jack points out to Della, “’If they decide we’re cohabiting, we could both go to jail.’” Della responds, “’I know that. My father got a copy of the statute and made me read it to him. So he’d be sure I was paying attention.’” Della’s family objects to the relationship, and it breaks the heart of her father whom she loves very much. Jack knows “He was guilty of exposing this wonderful woman to risks – no, call them dangers – that he could not protect her from.”

Despite this sadness, there are touches of humour. Seeing a spider, Jack says to Della, “’I’m thinking about bugs’” only to have her respond with “’The gangster? The bunny?’” And there are lines like, “he was accused of cheating at cards because he was cheating at cards” and “It was as if he were being forced to see his whole life under an unbearably bright light. Was. The experience was not at all subjunctive.”

As the above quotations indicate, the prose is beautiful. The vocabulary may well send readers to a dictionary; words like condign, convivium, cerements, cicatrix, concatenation, apophatic, homilectical, legerdemain, and divagations are used. Literary allusions abound; there are references to poets like Robert Frost, Paul Dunbar, William Carlos Williams, and John Milton, and literary works like Pilgrim’s Progress, Macbeth, and Hamlet.

In light of the racial unrest sweeping the United States, this is a timely novel inspiring readers to think about racial injustice. Jack laments that “the whole world has made and kept this infernal compact, making transgression and crime of something innocent, if anything could be called innocent, a marriage of true minds.”

My one complaint about the book is the slow opening scenes which consist of conversations between Jack and Della when they first meet. The night-long cemetery conversation in particular seems interminable and becomes tedious to say the least. I certainly don’t care about the differences between Methodists and Presbyterians. Readers who persevere past this beginning will be rewarded.

This book can be read without any knowledge of the other books in the Gilead series (Gilead, Home, and Lila). Each of the previous books was nominated and/or won major literary awards, and I’ll be surprised if Jack does not appear on the lists of these awards for 2020.

Note: I received a digital galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

Reading “Jack” has been both pleasure and pain for this reader.
To begin with, the novel has made me realize that I wasn’t truly prepared to immerse myself into such an intense journey as the Gilead trilogy when I tackled it a couple of years ago.
I certainly liked the gracious writing back then, the dense, almost oppressive rhythm of the narration and the theological pondering that pulsated underneath the breath of each character, but I failed to grasp the vast understanding this writer possesses over the human psyche and the intricate workings of a very capable but somehow damaged mind.

Jack lives in self-imposed exile in St Louis and fights the memories that haunt him with the bottle. As the prodigal son with a past that taints the perfect harmony of his family, he can’t overcome the guilt caused by the consequences of his reckless actions and finds his only solace in punishing himself for matters that can’t be changed.
When a colored young professor crosses paths with him, a colossal inner struggle begins that will push Jack to the limit and for the first time in his life he will have to choose between the comfortable position of self-denial or the imposing alternative of trying to become a better person in order to deserve the love of an innocent woman.

I can’t help but admire the versatility of Robinson’s character portrayal. It’s hard to believe that the same writer who entered the mind of an old minister could also create such a conflicted, confused and flawed man.
Jack’s tortured inner monologue and the biased recollections of his past reminded me of Lila, my favorite character in the Gilead trilogy. There is no hope in Jack’s voice though, he speaks like a man who has wasted all his opportunities and who endures each day as his last. The picture he presents of himself is not only condemnatory but also honest till the point of sounding offensive, and he suffocates any good thought or expectation that might fleetingly enter the reader’s mind.
But still….still… Jack grows on you. He pulls you in stealthily and, with delicate fatalism, he wins your heart in spite of the cautionary warning echoing in your mind. The potential grief of an improbable love story is overshadowed by the glowing clarity of Jack’s thoughts, which are cerebral but also full of unsentimental sensibility.

Robinson’s greatest achievement consists in infusing grace where there is only shame, hope where there is only certain failure, love where there is only resentment; that’s why I won’t ever tire of reading writers like her, writers that make your heart bloom, even if there is no sunshine to warm you.

It’s been six years since Marilynne Robinson last added to her Gilead series, and Jack, the fourth in the series, is definitely worth the wait. The eponymous hero of the story gets my vote for literature’s most frustrating character. He shows up as the troubled (and troubling) fly in the ointment in both Gilead and Home, but my heart softened toward him this time as I read backstory that connected the dots between the unhappy man and the rascally boy who functioned as a complete mystery to his father, the Reverend Boughton, a Presbyterian clergyman.

This fourth novel in the series puts meat on the bones of Jack’s life story as, with pure loveliness, Robinson’s narration gives voice to Jack’s interior monologue which reveals a man just as puzzled by himself as he is inscrutable to others:

"On the one hand, there was jail time and destitution and a slightly battered face, and on the other, there were neckties and polished shoes and a number of lines of Milton.”

A self-confessed atheist, Jack continually evokes the name of Jesus, and it’s not always clear whether he’s praying or cursing.

Sliding into love, almost against his will, Jack’s interracial romance with Della stands in opposition to his resolve to make a vocation of “harmlessness,” a condition that has always seemed just out of his reach and for which he has no natural talent. How does a man pursue the woman he loves when they live in an era in which their relationship is considered a crime and his presence in her life would undo everything she has accomplished and alienate her from her close-knit family?

Entering into this dilemma with Jack allows the reader to put flesh and blood on an egregious fault line in our country’s history. Ironically and tragically, when Jack has finally begun to behave honorably toward a woman, a racist society discredits the relationship as dishonorable.

"If the Lord thinks you need punishing, you can trust him to see to it. He knows where to find you. If he's showing you a little grace in the meantime, he probably won't mind if you enjoy it."
In an interview with the New York Times in 2014, Marilynne Robinson lamented “There’s a lot of writing about religion with a cold eye, but virtually none with a loving heart.” Certainly faith and those who practice it professionally show up in her books, but there’s no getting around the sadness in this novel– or the uncomfortable stiffness to the Christianity Jack learned and practiced in his home. The hollowness shows up in his load of shame carried forward, and if home is a metaphor for the soul in literature, Jack’s having a hard time finding a place to land on both levels.

It’s no secret that Christian families (and ministry families in particular) have unique challenges: passing along a vibrant faith free of church politics; living truth before our kids in the grittiness of our everyday routine; engaging in worship that does not feel like work. Jack’s faith appears to have been shaped by his father’s existential fear for Jack’s soul, a fear that found its way into Boughton’s sermons and most of his conversations with his son. Sadly, Jack may speak for many adults who have grown up in a pew and are struggling to find their way into ownership of their faith and a place to stand in the church gathered:

"I guess I feel at home in a church. Not at ease, but at home.”

Even though his lifestyle choices continually put him in the way of misfortune, Jack still gravitated to the church, and his mind was full of its words and music. It was in his conversations with Pastor Samuel Hutchins that Jack began to reveal some of his deep regrets and the load of shame he carried. Clearly, Jack was an enigma to Pastor Hutchins who, nonetheless, struggled to blaze a trail back to grace for an obviously troubled man:

"If the Lord thinks you need punishing, you can trust him to see to it. He knows where to find you. If he’s showing you a little grace in the meantime, he probably won’t mind if you enjoy it.”

Jack is a cautionary tale for Christian families. As tempting as it may be to re-work our theology to accommodate the sins of our children and as slippery the slope into despair over our prodigals may be, God is still in the process of dispensing grace to us and to our children. In the meantime, I’m grateful for fiction that invites me to own the brokenness in my own story, to embrace my need for repentance and meaningful change, and to trust for clear-eyed judgment concerning all the ways in which I may be my own worst enemy.

Many thanks to NetGalley and to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which, of course, is offered freely and with honesty.

Just like Gilead, it’s slow paced, meditative, obviously influenced by religious concepts, and poetic (literally, poetry place such an important role, from Frost to Shakespeare's Hamlet and many others in between). On the other hand, it’s imbued with the racial tensions of the '50s, threats and hostilities. Jack is troubled, haunted by past choices, regret, guilt, constantly doubting himself, and oh, so human, he’s now part of the gallery of my favourite book characters.

Maybe reading Jack right after Gilead was not the brightest idea ever, but I’m happy I did it, if only to raise Gilead to the 5 star rating it deserves. Jack is a wonderful prequel, though according to Robinson there’s no specific order in which one should read the books in the quartet (start with Gilead, trust me!)

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley.

3.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and FSG for the eARC of the latest installment in this important American work.
I was very eager to read this fourth book in the Gilead series. Jack Boughton is certainly the most intriguing character to appear in the earlier novels by Marilynne Robinson. He is the prodigal son of Robert Boughton, and is godson and namesake of the Reverend John Ames, the narrator of Gilead, simply one of the most memorable and affecting novels in the 21st century.
Unfortunately, Jack doesn’t make the leap from supporting character to leading man in convincing or satisfying fashion. He remains as intriguing as ever, but Robinson goes back in time to tell the unlikely story of his love for the African-American Della Miles, who we first heard about in Gilead, and who appears at the end of Home. The two meet as Jack gets out of prison and helps Della with picking up some papers that have blown away from her in the rain. She mistakes him for a man of the cloth, even though he is essentially a bum and a sad-sack.
They talk on an overnight stay in a cemetery of predestination and Hamlet. The theme of predestination is interesting in that, because of Gilead, Home, and Lila, we know where Jack and Della’s relationship will end up (at least as far in the timeline as Robinson has allowed us to see). My problem is that Jack is not fleshed out any more than he was in Gilead. Now we are given to every up and down of his feelings for Della, for his father, for life, and these things should make him more interesting but they do not. At one point, Jack speaks about his own “tantalizing fragility,” and one feels that Marilynne Robinson was too taken with this quality to better realize Jack Boughton as the most compelling lead he could be.

Set in the same world as Gilead, Marilynne Robinson brings us the 4th installment in this series, this one centered around Jack Boughton. While each book in the Gilead series is independent, you will be all the better for reading them all, especially walking into Jack’s story.

Jack takes place prior to Gilead, Home and Lila. We know from the other books, Jack who is an important character, finally makes his way to Gilead after 20 years. Jack returns to give space to the woman he loves and is married to in heart while she decides the next steps of their relationship.

This story takes place years prior when Jack meets Della. Jack shares a major commonality with Della, they are both children of preachers. However, there is one thing that is causing strife, Jack is White and Della is Black. This is back in a time where this was just simply not done.

We get a lush story told from Jack and his unyielding love for Della. Robinson, paints a very dark story of how Jack was treated by the community and Della’s family.

If you have read Marilynne Robinson you know to take your time with this book. This a beautiful addition to the Gilead cannon. Read this with a glass wine, snuggled up and be prepared to take in some of the most beautiful prose you will every read.

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Jack is my first novel in the Gilead series, and by Marilynne Robinson in general, but since she is a Pulitzer Prize winner, I had no doubt it was going to be good. It did not disappoint, and I will gladly read the previous books in this series.

Jack is a historical novel about race, class and forbidden love with a religious backdrop. It takes place in the 1960's in the US, where in the town of Gilead, Iowa, Jack falls in love with Della - an African American high school teacher. He is the son of a Presbyterian minister and she is the daughter of a preacher. It is a truly beautiful love story which is simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming. Jack's character development was incredibly well done, especially his his backstory as a convict recently out of prison. I know that Jack was also part of the previous novels in this series, so I was wondering if there was something about him I had missed; however, even without having read them, I felt connected to him quickly.

I'm giving this novel 4 stars because as much as I loved the characters and their love story, it was definitely a bit slow for me. This will, however, certainly not discourage a reader looking for an exceptional historical romance in a world where a marriage between a white man and an Afican American woman is illegal.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Marilynne Robinson is a writer who cannot be rushed and the result shows in her beautiful novels. Gilead, the first novel to feature some of the characters in this newest book, was published in 2004. That was followed by Home in 2008, Lila in 2014, and now Jack.

Jack is the “bad boy” of the novels and the one to be featured in this one. The novel follows him as he tries to live his life. In part, the novel tells the story of Jack’s complex relationship with the Black woman with whom he falls in love. Given the historical time period of the novel, readers can be sure that this will be challenging.

Readers of Ms. Robinson’s novels will undoubtedly welcome this novel. However, I think that Jack could be read and would make an impression on readers, even if they have not read the earlier books. They may well want to go back to them though.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

Jack by Marilynne Robinson is a highly recommended introspective novel and is the fourth novel in her Gilead series.

John Ames Boughton(Jack) is the prodigal son of Gilead, Iowa's Presbyterian minister who is currently living in St. Louis, Missouri. Jack is the story of his relationship and romance with Della Miles, a high school teacher who is the daughter of a Methodist minister in Memphis. This is the story of when the two met before Jack's 1957 return to Gilead. It is the 1950's and this is the story of the beginning of their interracial relationship, which is intense and deeply felt. The two bonded on their shared experiences and love of books and poetry and their discussion of faith. The novel opens after their disastrous first date and then continues to a lengthy section of a night the two spend talking in a cemetery

One doesn't need to have read the previous Gilead novels in order to appreciate Jack. This is a wonderfully written and carefully crafted "meditation on the redemption and transcendence that love affords." The narrative consists of the inner thoughts and pondering of Jack. The timeline is not completely linear as it jumps back in time to explain and give more information on previous events. There are times in the novel where Jack's inner turmoil and musings can become a bit tiresome and repetitious. These sharply contrast with the time when Jack is charming and thoughtful. I did repeatedly want to ask Della why she is so attracted to him and determined to have a relationship with Jack.

Ultimately this is a love story of a very flawed man to a good woman. The two are determined to be together, like any star-crossed lovers. The story excels based on the depth that Robinson gives Jack's inner dialogue and the insight and discernment about his many flaws in light of all of Della's good traits.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
After publication the review will be posted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is my first contact with the work of Marilynne Robinson. She is a widely known and recognized contemporary American author. According to many, he has a guaranteed Nobel Prize.
His most acclaimed work is the "Gilead" series composed by Gilead, Home , and Lila (published in Spain by Galaxia Gutemberg), which Jack now joins.
The first three I only know by hearsay. Some reviews describe them as masterpieces, others as boring. So I took the opportunity that NetGalley and Farrar, Strauss and Giroux gave me to form my own opinion.
Robinson's prose seemed exquisite, careful, elegant. And, a merit that I value, is that it does not sacrifice history in favor of writing, which I have seen in some works, but that the style enriches the reading pleasure without detracting from the story.
As I understand it, each of the books can be read independently. However, I have the feeling that I would have enjoyed more if I had read the first ones beforehand.
I loved the beginning of Jack and introduced me fully to the story. The breakup of a couple formed by a somewhat madcap white man and a good black girl in the 50s of the last century. And meeting again, by chance , months later, in no less than a cemetery at night. Can you ask for more? However, this chapter seemed very long (almost 25%) and I was looking forward to it to move on. From here on everything develops more fluidly, but at a slow pace, sometimes too much.
The book is narrated in the third person, from Jack's point of view. I have missed Della's point of view on many occasions, as well as her evolution. Jack is a character, who grows and matures. It is no noticiable Della's evolution.
In conclusion, I really liked this first approach and I plan to continue with Gilead as soon as I get the chance.

Este es mi primer contacto con la obra de Marilynne Robinson. Se trata de una autora contemporánea  estadounidense ampliamente conocida y reconocida. Según muchos tiene un premio nobel asegurado.
Su obra más aclamada es la serie "Gilead" compuesta por Gilead, En casa, y Lila (publicadas en España por Galaxia Gutemberg), a las que se une ahora Jack.
Las tres primeras solo las conozco de oídas. Unas reseñas las tachan de obras maestras, otras de aburridas. Por ello, aproveché la oportunidad que NetGalley y Farrar, Strauss and Giroux me dieron para formar mi propia opinión.
La prosa de Robinson me pareció exquisita, cuidada, elegante. Y, un mérito que le valoro, es que no sacrifica la historia en favor de la escritura, lo cual he visto en algunas obras, sino que el estilo enriquece el placer lector sin desmerecer la historia.
Según tengo entendido cada uno de los libros se pueden leer independientemente. No obstante, me ha quedado la sensación que hubiera disfrutado más si  hubiera leído los primeros con anterioridad.
El comienzo de Jack me encantó y me introdujo de lleno en la historia. La ruptura de una pareja formada por un hombre blanco algo tarambana, y una buena chica negra en los años 50 del siglo pasado. Y reencontrándose por casualidad meses después nada menos que en un cementerio de noche. ¿Se puede pedir más?. No obstante, este capítulo se me hizo muy largo (casi un 25%) y estaba deseando que terminase para avanzar. A partir de aquí todo se desarrolla con más fluidez, pero a paso lento, demasiado, en ocasiones.
El libro está narrado en tercera persona, desde el punto de vista de Jack. He hechado en falta en muchas ocasiones el punto de vista de Della, así como su evolución. Jack, sí que es un personaje, que crece, madura. Se da por sentado que Della también, pero no es perceptible.
En conclusión, me ha gustado mucho este primer acercamiento y pienso continuar con Gilead en cuanto tenga ocasión.

My talk about "Jack" in my segment "New Books in September 2020" on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVJtBKkKQJU.

I loved Gilead but am having trouble staying focused and interested in this book. Perhaps I should have read all of the series before reading this as it doesn't seem to be the stand alone novel I thought it would be. I love Robinson's writing style and may give this one another chance once I've read the others. Thank you to Netgalley for this free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Marilynne Robinson's books aren't for speed reading. They command you to slow down your place. We see ourselves and our friends in the characters. Perhaps the best part, we're still thinking of the stories years down the road. I hope you find some peace Jack.

I so enjoyed Gilead, and I was looking forward to reading about Jack. He has been mentioned in previous books in the series. Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. Jack always seemed so doomed. I thought that his bi-racial marriage might breathe some life into the story, but it didn’t. Della, defying her family should have had more spark, more personality. And I still haven’t figured out why Della was locked into a cemetery for white people at night, where Jack and she spent the night talking. I got bogged down in this cemetery visit and the rest of the book didn’t improve my love of Jack. I think this is a book that you need to have read the previous books.

Marilynne Robinson is one of my favorite writers. Jack is John Boughton, the prodigal son of a minister in Gilead, Iowa. He is a restless guy who didn't finish college and avoids his family at all costs. In post-WWII, Jack has drifted to St. Louis and continues his sad journey, depending on his brother, Teddy, or his father for money to pay for his room in a run-down hotel.



At night, Jack tends to hang around cemeteries. He makes an effort to avoid drinking even though his tie to alcohol is part of his downfall. On one of his sojourns to a cemetery, he meets a woman called Della. Della's beauty and gentleness capture Jack's heart immediately. The couple sits and talks throughout the night until the guard warns them to clear out. Della is black, and they are in a white cemetery.



The course of new love moves slowly, and Jack tries to break away. He knows that his feelings for this young teacher, also the daughter of a minister, is doomed. He knows Della will be hurt. Just walking down the street together in St. Louis is against the law.



The couple continues to meet, sometimes at her apartment or the cemetery. They talk of religion and politics. Sometimes, it isn't easy to separate the two. Jack goes to a church where he meets a minister who he confides in. He wants some help, some reason to hope that his life will be better, he will be forgiven for all his misdeeds. The congregation at this black church welcome him and invite him to share in their Sunday lunch. The minister befriends him and counsels him.



Della's aunt and sister visit her from Memphis, her home, and work hard to get her to go back. Her father believes in separatism and will not accept this relationship. Jack is not an easy book to read. The times allow no compassion when it comes to race. Jack tries to leave, wanting life to be easy for Della. Their love is above all the political and religious constraints. I hoped for them and, even in the end, continued to wish for their love to allow them to be united forever.



Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Jack is as compelling as any of Robinson's incredible narrators. I just wish I had more insight into Della.