Jack

Prodigal. For the fourth time, Marilynne Robinson takes readers to the fictional town of Gilead, Ohio to tell us things about ourselves that we need to know. The novel titled, Jack, features John Ames Boughton, the wayward son of the Presbyterian minister in earlier novels. The long opening of the novel is a spellbinding conversation conducted overnight in a cemetery between Jack and a Black woman named Della Miles, a local high school teacher. Their love blooms quickly, despite their inability to marry at that time. The conversation in the cemetery is a masterpiece of carefully constructed sentences that engage the two characters and all readers in a deep dialogue about life. The first three novels in this series brought us to this cemetery and to the challenges that Jack and Della have to face in the world, despite their abiding love for each other. Robinson compels us to feel with them as they turn away from the world toward each other and into what is most important. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Jack from amazon.com.