Ames had always had issues with Jack, who was a mischievous albeit lonely child, who caused trouble as a child and a young man and brought his family, who still loved him intensely, a great deal of disgrace. Unfortunately, Boughton’s son, Jack (named “John Ames” after Ames himself), is returning to be with his own old and languishing father after leaving Gilead in disgrace many years earlier. He acutely feels time passing and is sorrowful that he will not get to see his son grow up.Īmes is living out his last years in relative peace, marveling at the beauty of his life. Lila and his son provide a sense of immense happiness, delight, and fulfillment for Ames.

She fell in love with him as well and suggested he marry her. He was instantly attracted to her but behaved in the most decorous fashion. Ames was also a little envious of his friend’s large and seemingly happy family, not having one of his own.Įventually, though, when he was preaching one Sunday in his early seventies, a young woman named Lila, who had a very serious and sad demeanor, came in. His closest friend was Boughton, another preacher. Ames also struggles with his admiration and sadness for his older brother Edward, an atheist.Īmes cultivated his church in Gilead and lived there his whole life. He married a young woman he’d known since childhood, Louisa, but she and their daughter died in childbirth.

Ames’s father did not get along too well with his own father, being a pacifist and wary of violence. He was a chaplain in the war, lost his right eye, and eventually left his family in his older years and moved back to Kansas from Gilead, Iowa, where they had settled.

He preached his church into war and could never shake his restless, angry spirit. His grandfather was an ardent and eccentric abolitionist who was involved in the violence in Kansas and aided John Brown.

It is not necessarily chronological, as his memories about his father and grandfather are scattered throughout his narration of the present-day events.Īmes grew up the son of a Congregationalist preacher, who was also the son of a preacher. He is very old and is dying of heart issues, so this letter is his way of imparting family history, working through thoughts about religion, providing advice, and narrating the events of his latter days. The novel is in the form of a long letter, or series of letters and vignettes, from the Reverend John Ames to his son (unnamed).

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson