Recommended reading: Marilynne Robinson

At Books and Culture, Thomas Gardner reviews the long-awaited novel by Marilynne Robinson … Gilead.

Gardner writes:

Marilynne Robinson’s second novel, Gilead, is a quiet, deeply moving celebration of the wonders and sustaining bewilderments of human consciousness.

The book is a great gift, and worth the wait. As most readers of contemporary fiction know, Robinson’s first novel, Housekeeping, was published 25 years ago, in 1980. It’s one of the three or four strongest novels of that period—the sort of book you press on new friends or your best students.