Fantastic! Jack was more than worth the wait since Robinson’s previous Gilead novels.

I heard Jack described as the story of an inter-racial couple, and it is, but as the title suggests, this is Jack’s story, of which his relationship with Della is just a part. His father never appears in the novel, yet looms large over all Jack’s decisions and in many of his thoughts. Faith, doubt, poetry, work, integrity, criminal justice, family, prejudice and poverty all preoccupy Jack’s thoughts, and all are thoughtfully handled.

The writing is lyrical yet spare, haunting and precise throughout. I did find the opening few sections confusing, and read quite slowly at first, not sure if I was really enjoying the experience. Yet as I came to understand Jack, and as the story progressed I became engrossed, and by half-way through I couldn’t put it down.

One to read and re-read.

With thanks to NetGalley #Jack #NetGalley
This is a lyrically written, wholly emotive love story, which I imagine adds to the previous three novels in the sequence.
Robinson seems to be the author who constantly looks to the internal - to the intimate and conversational moments, here between Jack and Della. Her commentary on or engagement with the complexities of issues such as race remain subtle but ever-present. It's unquestionable that the characters have layers to be explored, and it is in the novel's conversations that they are slowly peeled away. Particularly in the opening chapter in the cemetery my curiosity was sparked adequately - a black woman, a white man, preacher's son and teacher. Diverging religions. It seemed an obscure, and thus enigmatic meet-cute.
This was my favourite part and alas intrigue and appeal frittered away from then on....
The pace retains a calm steadiness, It retains a prose which, at times, is elegiac in nature. For my individualised tastes, this was too slow of a pace for me to really connect to the characters...it felt at times like an intrepid waiting game for a shift or trajectory to kick in. Readers who delight in the intertwining love story - both traditional in construct, but unique in this context of Gilead, will be wholly satisfied. There is no doubt here that this is an author who masters language and the communication of human nature in the word pictures she creates with an unwavering consistency.

I read Housekeeping many years ago which I quite liked so was keen to try Jack. I haven't read the other linked books such as Gilead and Lila so knew nothing of the backstory of the couple in Jack. In fact, for most of the book I suspected that the relationship was in Jack's mind as he was so lonely from his isolated status as an alcoholic and sometimes rough sleeper. I happened, after finishing the book, to read a review in The Guardian and discovered that the coupling was genuine and that the other books reveal Jack's childhood backstory and how the relationship pans out.

In "Jack", we slowly learn that he abuses alcohol, has a room in a lodging house but that he often rents it out to others and spends the night in the local cemetary ( I was never sure of how he actually came by any money). Jack thinks he looks "gentlemanlike" from a distance and under low lighting and starts a tentative relationship with Della, a teacher and a pastor's daughter who seems to be able to stay out all night and roam around late at night in cemetaries which seemed a strange thing for a young woman from a strict background to do. The story is set in the late 30's (I think). The couple are both preacher's children and are both very literary, quoting poems and passages of Shakespeare to one another. The relationship , problematic enough due to Jack's addiction issues and drifter lifestyle is further complicated by the fact that Della is black and mixed marriages are illegal in the State. The book is very sad and depressing. It is also slow and quite dreamy. In parts I felt quite bored and (whisper it) I didn't really believe in the relationship (probably why I thought it was a figament of Jack's imagination). It gave me some things to ponder, but I shan't be rereading it.

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.

This book is beautifully written and is rich with intertextuality that deserves to be read and reread. However, it is also slow and I found it a difficult book to finish. The opening scenes reveal a developing relationship between the unlikely couple: Jack and Della, as they are locked in a cemetery overnight. The darkness 'veils' usual propriety and allows their personal philosophies to be exposed.

I have not read the earlier books in the series, and wonder if this would have made the book more enjoyable for me. I am sure the fault is with me, the reader, as the prose is stunning but I really found my attention drifting as I read this novel.

When I read Marilynne Robinson’s “Gilead” some years back, I felt it was one of the best books I had come across in a long time. Set in in 1950s Iowa, it consists of a long letter from a dying 76-year old Congregationalist minister John Ames to his little son, the unexpected blessing of his old age. As Ames sifts through his memories, the story of his family (particularly his preacher father and grandfather) and the community which they served starts to take shape. Old pains and preoccupations resurface - particularly those related to the minister's godson and namesake John Ames “Jack” Boughton. A troublemaker in childhood, youth and well into adulthood, is there the possibility of salvation for Boughton as well? Will God's grace ever touch him?

The passage of time has not dulled my admiration for this novel, which is lyrical, poetical, infused with (a Calvinist) theology yet utterly readable. Since Gilead, Robinson returned to the fictional world she created with two other volumes – Home and Lila – which are not sequels as such but, rather, “parallel narratives” featuring the same setting and characters but told from different perspectives.

Jack is the latest addition to the fold. It is, in some ways, a prequel to the “trilogy”, in that is is set in St Louis, Missouri around a decade before the “present” of the other three novels. Its protagonist is John Ames Boughton, the troublemaker who was so much on the mind of his godfather John Ames in Gilead. Jack is the troublemaker of the family, a vagrant living a down-and-out life which also featured a stint in prison. The novel is an account of his relationship with Della Miles, a black woman and daughter of a preacher. The relationship starts off as an unlikely friendship, but soon develops into a love affair, despite the strong opposition of Della’s family.

The novel is told in the third person but, very evidently, from the perspective of Jack. Jack is an interesting case study. He is a prodigal son, a flawed character, an intrinsically good man who, however, seems constantly drawn to evil. He has, however, a strong self-awareness, which leads him to admit that he has not much to offer Della, whom he raises on a pedestal as the epitome of goodness. Much of the novel shows Jack’s tentative steps towards letting himself being overcome by love – and not just any “love”, but a transformative one laced with divine grace.

If all this sounds very theological, be prepared that it is. And whilst Gilead, despite its deep and overt religious themes, was a gripping read, I must admit that I had to make an effort to read through Jack. Certain episodes, such as a passage early on in the novel featuring a long night spent by the lovers in a cemetery (debating theology, I hasten to clarify, rather than indulging in some Goth-flavoured hanky-panky), became simply too tedious for my liking.

Obviously, the problem might have been that I was not in the mood for heavy stuff. Indeed, there have been several rave reviews of the novel, including one by Sarah Perry in the Guardian. Perry herself writes novels infused with theology of a Calvinist bent (Melmoth comes to mind) and is probably much better-placed than I am to appreciate Robinson’s “Calvinist romance”. I wish, though, that Jack were as exciting as Perry’s theological Gothic. Or, for that matter, as gripping as Robinson’s own Gilead.

The novel begins with Jack walking Della home after an unsuccessful date. He apologises to her, the dialogue goes to and fro leaving the reader in the dark as to what the relationship is between the two and what has occurred to warrant the apology. In the next section the two get locked in a ‘whites only’ graveyard and spend the night talking; we learn that Jack is a white man, a petty thief, a drifter and yet a man of wisdom and poetry and Della is a black woman, a teacher, intelligent and headstrong.

The are many delights in this novel and one of them is the sheer brilliance of the exchanges between Jack and Della.

Jacks father is a reverend and Jack is the black sheep of the family. Della is the daughter of a bishop and, as a teacher, lives up to her fathers expectations, that is until she meets Jack. The Story takes place a short time after World War 2 and we are in a period in American history where mixed race marriages were illegal. Jack and Della face condemnation from all sides.

This novel, which could be considered a morality tale has plenty to say about religion, love, faith, family ties and racism.
Will Jack keep to the straight and narrow and can the love between Jack and Della survive in a time of racial segregation.

The authors mastery of character and language marks this book out as special.

He was walking behind her, two steps behind. She did not look back. She said, “I’m not talking to you”.

“I completely understand”.

“If you did completely understand, you wouldn’t be following me”.

He said, “When a fellow takes a girl out to dinner, he has to see her home”

“No, he doesn’t have to. Not if she tells him to go away and leave her alone”.


So begins the relationship which is central to this very beautiful, very sad novel. It’s a while before the events of that evening will be revealed. Meanwhile a year has gone by, and these two people, who we now learn are called John (or Jack) Broughton and Della Miles, re-encounter each other by chance one night in a locked graveyard. They talk all night. And, if they hadn’t already done so, they fall in love.

For most people, this could seem to be a simple enough matter. But for Jack and Della, it brings what might appear to be insuperable problems. For Jack is white, and Della is black. And in the 1940s, when this novel is set, such a union is punishable by law and carries a sentence of imprisonment for both parties. And, if that were not enough, Jack knows himself to be unreliable, untrustworthy, often dishonest.

Gradually, through his own constant self-examination and his conversations with Della, his history is revealed. He is the youngest son of a Baptist minister in rural Iowa. From early childhood, he has been given to stealing, lying and destruction, but his father adores him and recognises his good heart, his intelligence and his abilities: ‘Whenever his father found one of his drawings, he’d say “He’s the clever one. He’s going to surprise us all one day”’. As a young adult, he gets a local girl pregnant and leaves town, not returning for twenty years, during which time he has scratched a living, spent time in prison, had many periods of alcoholism. Early on in his relationship with Della, he describes himself as ‘the Prince of Darkness’, a label he has given himself often in his own mind, and he tells her frequently that he is no good for her, and will only cause her trouble and pain. But Della sees past all this and loves him for what she truly believes him to be: she tells him she can see his soul, and it’s one of the purest she has ever encountered.

Della is beautiful. The daughter of a bishop who is the head of the Black church in Memphis, she has left home to become a schoolteacher in St Louis, where this novel is set. She’s refined, well educated, a lover of poetry and of Shakespeare. In fact, most of these are things she has in common with Jack, who can quote the Bible, Shakespeare and poetry, and spends many hours of his otherwise empty days reading in the public library. Their upbringings as the children of ministers mean they can discuss predestination, something that has preoccupied Jack all his life: can he rely on God’s grace, or was he doomed to damnation from the day he was born?

So this is a love story – one of star-crossed lovers, you could say. Despite his conviction that his presence in Della’s life will only hurt her (a view that her family absolutely agrees with) he does his best to live up to her expectations of him. He gets a job, makes an effort – not always successful – to stop drinking, buys new clothes.

Della was speaking to him sometimes in his thoughts, or she was quiet, simply there at the edge of his vision. In her gentle way she was making everything easier. What would she find becoming in him? That was what he did. And by putting himself in the way of survival, not to put too fine a point on it, he was doing what she had asked him to do, so forthrightly. Can these bones live? Oh Lord, you know. But for you, Miss Miles, I am eating this sandwich, for you I am smiling at this stranger, for you I am trying to sleep. He could not imagine an occasion when she might acknowledge any of this. No matter. Their lives were parallel lines that would not meet, he knew that, he would see to that. But they defined each other, somehow.

But the parallel lines do meet in spite of Jack’s conviction that they will have to ‘live for a month on just passing in the street’. The strength of their love for each other overrides every obstacle, including Della’s family disowning her. As the novel ends, ‘They were together, after their fashion, and the world was all before them, such as it was’.

If you are coming to Marilynne Robinson’s novels for the first time, you might wonder why I describe this as a sad novel. Isn’t this some sort of happy ending? But if you’ve read the series of interconnected novels that began with Gilead (2004), continued on to Home (2008), and Lila (2014) you will already know Jack Broughton and his history well. All three are set about eight years after Jack, and in them we learn that Jack returned home to Gilead after twenty years’ self-imposed exile, seeking a home for himself, Della, and their child. At the end of Home, having found that they would not be welcome, he sets off for an unknown destination. Soon after he leaves, Della arrives with their son Robert. Devastated to find he has left no forwarding address, she asks the family to let her know if he gets in touch. Will he?

In Home, Jack’s sister Glory describes him with a quotation from the Messiah: ‘a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their face’. He is without doubt one of the most compelling characters in contemporary fiction. It’s impossible not to love him, with all his weaknesses, just as his own father does. The old man recognises Jack’s fundamental sense of estrangement: ‘“I just never knew another child who didn’t feel at home in the house where he was born. I always felt it was sadness I was dealing with, a sort of heavyheartedness.”’.

All this may make you think that you have to read the three preceding novels to fully appreciate Jack. But the novel can certainly stand on its own, as a study of a remarkable, complex character, a love story, an exploration of faith and doubt, and a novel that resonates strongly with our current climate of Black Lives Matter. In fact, if you’re new to Robinson, this might be a good place to start. Owing to the reverse chronology of the series, you can then read the others to see what happened next. Robinson is an extraordinary writer. I hope we haven’t seen the last of her explorations of this fascinating family.

If you’re looking for an original and deep story of love that is both heartwarming and heartbreaking - this is it.
I hadn’t read Gilead prior to reading this, but had heard so many wonderful things that I had to request this as soon as I saw it! Whilst I don’t have the backstory of what life in Gilead was like before Jack Boughton moved to St. Louis, this didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the story at all and whilst it would’ve enhanced it, it certainly isn’t a prerequisite.
Jack is a bit of a cad - whilst his heart seems to be in the right place, he just can’t seem to stop getting himself into trouble, and describes himself as a bum. He’s left his family behind in Gilead and knows he’s breaking his father’s heart, but can’t bring himself to go back. Therefore, it’s a big surprise when he falls in love with Della Miles, an African American schoolteacher whose father is a preacher, and it’s an even bigger surprise that she seems to feel the same. Living in a time of segregation where interracial marriage is against the law makes this a big challenge for Jack, whose goal in life is to do no harm - yet, if he follows his heart he will cause harm for the one he loves most dearly.
I loved Jack - he is so self-aware and self-deprecating, which makes him the perfect loveable rogue! Robinson has written such a unique and often hilarious third person narrative, and I honestly felt as if I was in Jack’s head half the time as the narrative just jumps all over the place as one’s thoughts do. Yet, whilst there is something almost slapstick about Jack and his bad luck, the reality of this story is anything but funny - two people in love who risk losing their jobs, families and respectability by being together. This is an important story of a haunting time in American history, and Robinson has created two wonderful characters to share it with us. This isn’t what I’d call a page turner that you can’t put down, but it’s an important story told in a fresh way. Actual rating 3.5.

I have really enjoyed the Gilead books, although their themes are all quite depressing, but I found this one very wordy, almost rambling at times and wish it had been a little more focused. Love across a racial divide is vividly described and sadly it is very easy to draw a lot of comparisons with racism today, but I didn't find the writing really kept my attention
thank you to netgalley and virago for an advance copy of this book

I’m a huge fan of Marilynne Robinson. Lila remains one of my favourite books. I opened Jack hoping for that same careful attention to the twists and turns of consciousness. I wasn’t disappointed.

Jack hails from Gilead, the Iowa town that provides the setting for three previous novels of which Lila is one. He is the prodigal son of Gilead’s preacher who has done his best to stay away, thinking his best road is one in which he attempts to be harmless and going home might cause more harm than good.

Jack falls in love with Della, an African-American girl, at a time when interracial marriage was against the law.

The novel is structured so carefully (though not sequentially, more like the workings of memory than a sequence of events), letting us fall in love with Jack in the same way that Della does, revealing his better nature before taking us back to the parts of his past he is least proud of and their interactions are so delightfully considered, both of them children of preachers, both of them educated – Della is a teacher, Jack let his brother take his exams but reads and loves poetry nonetheless – that it is hard not to hope for this pair of lovers despite Jack’s rather disreputable past. There is something about his attempts to fit in, to leave society unruffled by his presence, that makes us feel for him the way Della does. Though, in truth, he’s probably a cad and Della would have an easier life without him.

There is such a delicate moral unpicking in Robinson’s work. Every dilemma is held up against religion, always waiting for one side or the other to trip up over its own logic. This kind of unpicking feels interestingly uncontemporary. This is something that takes time. These are people who need lengthy conversations and who write letters. I suspect this is part of the reason Robinson enjoys writing about these historical eras. We are so geared towards speed in our current lives that writing like this demands as much attention as its characters give to their thoughts. This won’t be for everyone. You need to sit and listen. The hymns, the biblical reference, the quiet challenge of the authority of the church and of society is loudest when you give the novel space. This is not a book you can skim through because though the plot is important, it’s how the characters get there, what they think along the way, that’s the truly fascinating part.

The novel begins in a cemetery. They both get locked in for the night. Della is locked in by accident. Jack had already planned to stay the night. They have already met, but this night together in chaste companionship creates a bond, an atmosphere that is magical, spiritual in its mists and lake-reflected starlight, in the dark shadows cast by stone angels.

There is no need to have read any of the previous novels to enjoy this one. If you like reflecting upon what it means to play a role in the organised structures of our societies and religions, and what it means to decide to act against or outside of them, Jack is just the book for you.

The fourth in her Gilead series, Jack follows John Ames Boughton, giving him his own voice, and slightly different points of view on the stories we already know of him. As ever, Marilynne Robinson's writing is beautiful, managing to be broad and lyrical while staying super close to her subjects. The cast in this novel is even smaller than the others, with Jack and Della's relationship at its centre. 

Jack is the wayward son of Gilead's minister, sometimes mistaken (initially by Della) as a minister himself because of his mannerisms and speech. However, he's a bum, recently released from prison, sometimes sleeping rough in cemeteries. He meets Della, a Black teacher from a good family, and they fall in love. Their marriage -- illegal and secret -- offers Jack redemption, and this is a gorgeous unpacking of how their love works.

I think it's probably helpful to have read the other novels in the series (or at least Gilead), especially because this book revisits some parts of those stories and reframes them, but that's absolutely not a bad thing, and more people should read Gilead anyway ;) 

I read a proof from @viragopress and #netgalley - thankyou!

The inimitable Marilynne Robinson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Women's Fiction Prize, the National Book Critics Prize and The American National Humanities Medal, returns to the world of Gilead with Jack, the long-awaited fourth and final novel in one of the great works of contemporary literature. Setting her novel in the time just before Gilead, Home and Lila, after World War II, JACK is John Ames Boughton's book. With Jack, Robinson takes her readers back to the small town of Gilead, Iowa, in 1956, to tell the story of John Ames Boughton, the godson of John Ames and the black sheep of his family. He's a ne-er do well and the beloved prodigal son who falls in love with and marries Della, a beautiful and brilliant African-American teacher he meets in segregated St. Louis. Their fraught, beautiful romance is one of Robinson's greatest achievements.

I am bereft that this will be the last book in this formidable series but Robinson certainly signs off with an exquisite treat and a story of two lonely, lost souls discovering one another before falling in love despite the social and political implications of interracial relationships and religious differences with it all being set against the backdrop of a racially divided town. It's a deceptively simple and engrossing tale, written with poetic beauty but also a fluidity, and at first, it conceals its multilayered nature like a set of Matryoshka dolls, however, the layers begin to be peeled back revealing deep nuance and a rich portrait of the location and time in which it takes place. This is a poised, potent and endlessly compelling read that ardent fans of Robinson's will savour. Hanging on her every word I found myself staying up late into the following day to reach the denouement, and I cannot recommend this highly enough. Many thanks to Virago for an ARC.

Jack is a beautifully written book and can be read as standalone. It is a tale of Jack and Della who meet and fall in love but can’t be together in 1950s segregated St. Louis - where/when it is illegal for mixed race couples to be together. I didn’t realise it was part of a series until I looked it up, however I don’t think you miss anything. It is set before the story told in Home, which is where people are initially introduced to him. Jack is such a complex character I am curious to read Home just because of the reviews and how he is described.

Jack is a white man who has fallen down the tracks of life. He’s been to prison, he indulges in petty theft ( I actually think he’s a kleptomaniac), he’s a drunk, and he’s also a very sweet, well read, thoughtful, educated son of a minister. Della is a beautiful black woman, who is a teacher and also the daughter of a bishop. I don’t actually know how old they are but Jack is often referred to as an old white man and Della comes across as being quite young and in her mid twenties. The book is written from Jack’s POV sand is mainly about him so I can’t expand much more on her. The timeline jumps a little over the course of their relationship but they start to fall in love when by chance they spend the night in a cemetery. They stay up all night talking and opening up to each other.

As I said before - this is beautifully written - within the first few pages I felt like i was transported and sitting right next to them hearing the sound of their voices. It is however very dense and I found it a little difficult and slow to read in parts. Jack is also a very troubled man so a lot of this is hearing his thoughts and understanding through circumstances that have led him to his current situation. He tries to be a better man for Della and succeeds and fails in equal measure. There are some incredible coincidences, which is meant to depict the inevitability or kismet of their relationship but the cynical parts of me raised an eyebrow to this.

Overall if you take it for what it is - it is a a really sweet love story but it is also a story of shambolic bum of a man trying to redeem himself. I’m giving it 3 stars because it is slow and difficult in parts but it is so beautifully written I couldn’t mark it down. I suspect i may have rated it higher if I read the other books to give me some context and make me more vested in Jack as a person.

Marilynne Robinson: Jack

The eponymous Jack of this novel is Jack Boughton. We have come across him in the previous books in Robinson’s Gilead series, particularly Home and Gilead. He is the son of the Reverend Boughton and he is very much the black sheep of the family. He is a drunk, can never hold a job and behaves badly. He has spent time in prison. He got a young woman pregnant in his youth. The child subsequently died. We know he later marries Della Miles, the black daughter of a minister and they too have a child. He does not marry her in Missouri, where this novel is set, as anti-miscegenation laws in Missouri banned mixed marriages till 1967, when the Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision overruled State laws on the matter.

This novel is set earlier than the other two as it is set in the early days of Jack’s relationship with Della Miles. Though they have met before, their main introduction is set in a cemetery in St Louis where they are locked in overnight. Jack had been planning to sleep there. He often sleeps in the open. Robinson cleverly has them trapped in this way, allowing their relationship to develop in a relatively short time span. How it develops is superbly portrayed by Robinson. Initially, as couples sometimes do on first meeting, they spar, each one somewhat wary of the other and also, doubtless wary of where the relationship might be going.

We see changes in Jack’s humour. At first he makes silly remarks, clearly out of embarrassment. He is, after all, an outcast from society, something he is only too well aware of. I am the Prince of Darkness. Her response is No, you’re a talkative man with holes in his socks. Later, however, his humour changes and it becomes more of the sort of humour couples share.

We know Jack to be a bad man from his past history in the previous books. However, if you read this and have not read the previous books – and it certainly can be read on its own – you will not get the impression that Jack is a bad man. He is clearly weak, clearly a failure but neither of those make him bad. Clearly, Della does not see him as bad.

Indeed he describes his aim in life: You know, I actually sort of enjoy my life. I know I shouldn’t. It could stand a lot of improvement. But maybe it’s the feeling you have that makes a life bad. Or makes it all right enough most of the time.” He said, “I aspire to utter harmlessness and I have not actually chosen this life. The path of least resistance is not a choice, in the usual sense of the word. I know it appears to be one. But when the resistance you encounter on every other path seems, you know, indomitable, then there you are. I’m sure I have been too easily discouraged.

The pair have much in common, apart, of course from the two obvious differences, namely that she has always followed her parents’ wishes and has successful career as a teacher and she is black and he is white. Both are the children of ministers and, therefore, despite their racial difference, will have had a similar upbringing. In both cases, their fathers were focussed on their careers and often the well-being of others, more than on their children. Both clearly have had an intellectual background in their upbringing as they freely discuss Milton, Shakespeare and the like, in a way that, I suspect, their present-day equivalents clearly would not and would not be able to.

Hamlet plays a key role here. Jack had a limited knowledge of Hamlet. My father cut it up with scissors and taped the pieces into a loose-leaf scrapbook, so we could act it out. So they could. What was left of it didn’t make much sense. Della had a complete knowledge of Hamlet. These issues can be seen as symbolic of their lives. Jack’s limited knowledge of the play and the fact that it did not make sense rather sums up his attitude to life, which he clearly has not fully grasped. He will later identify with Hamlet as the loneliest man in the world.

Della goes on to say It seems as though there were stories behind the play we only get glimpses of. But nothing is done to hide them, either, I mean the gaps they leave.. Again this could be said to sum up Jack. What is the real Jack and has anyone ever seen it? Clearly his family have not. Della clearly does.

Robinson fills in the gaps about what happened before this meeting, i.e. how they first met as well as his messy life prior to their meeting, and also what happened afterwards as the relationship progresses. Jack tries to be a better person, giving up drink and getting a job, even though there is still no formal relationship between the two. Inevitably, he eventually fails on both counts, though he does try. They continue seeing each other so Della’s aunt is dispatched from Memphis to warn him off. He agrees that the relationship is not appropriate and agrees to keep away from Della but…

He tries to improve, getting another job and even going regularly to church where he has a heart-to-heart with the minister. Yet, somehow, he cannot make that important step. It surprised Jack to realize that, in some part of his mind, he aspired to being an impeccable white gentleman. 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. Ultimately, however, as he himself says, his oldest question is How do people live? He doesn’t have an answer to the question and if he cannot answer it for others, nor can he do so for himself.

Indeed, he sums himself up in the works of Robert Frost’s poem:

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.

Though this book is essentially told from Jack’s point of view (though told in the third person), we do see Della’s point of view. She had been, till meeting Jack, a sensible, well-balanced woman, a credit to her parents and a good schoolteacher. However, if she had ever loved or been loved, it is not mentioned. Meeting Jack changes everything for her. Jack considers himself a stranger in the ordinary world. However, for Della, 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. Clearly, for her, as for him, their love is something very special and something worth sacrificing her conventional but respectable life for. She pays the price as we know from Home but she seems to think it is worth it. We also know in this book, she pays price, in terms of her family and job.

Robinson is concerned with many things but one of her concerns is clearly the idea of lost souls and how to save them. That Jack is a lost soul is without question. Many people try and have tried to save his soul: his parents, of course and, to a lesser degree, his siblings, for example. In this book there is the Reverend Hutchins, the minister at the church he visits. There is only one person who comes close to it and that, of course, is Della. The love of a good woman is, of course, a literary cliché but, in Robinson’s very skilled hands, it is not a cliché here, particularly, if we have read home Home, as we know that he is not saved.

Of course, we can look at this book in a non-religious way. It is about a man who has lost his way, who has a bad streak in him, which he frequently tries to overcome but invariably fails. He admits one of his few skills is petty theft (though we learn he goes to prison when he is considering theft but is set up). Much of the time, we see him simply drifting, sleeping outside, drinking, occasional arguments, occasional jobs which never last, little social contact till he meets Della. He has no purpose, no interest, no friends, nothing to sustain him. Della offers him purpose, interest, friendship and something, in particular, to sustain him. Here he tries to grab it, but by Home, his weak side will have asserted itself.

This is an absolutely superb book about a man who is lost and tries, but ultimately fails, to find himself. You can read it as a religious work, about a lost soul, or simply as the story of a man who may be basically good, but has many failings, one of them being the inability to get on the right track and stay there, whatever the right track might be. It is also about the woman who tries to save him and ends up paying a price and hers might be the saddest tale of the two.
Publishing history

First published 2020 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Jack is the fourth in the Gilead series, and I really recommend reading them all to really appreciate the continuing story of the Boughton family. As with the other books, Jack is a wonderfully lyrical, beautifully written piece of literature. We gain an insight into the psyche of Jack that was alluded to in the other books. He is a tortured soul, consumed by shame over past actions, lonely, and trying to isolate himself from the world so as not to cause harm. But a chance encounter with Della is to change him forever. Jack is white, Della is black. It is 1950's America. Her family are opposed to their union, and it is a testament to their enduring love and loyalty that they make a choice to be together despite all obstacles. Della's love for Jack makes him want to be a better man, but his thoughts continually haunt him - he can't bear the thought of her losing her job as a teacher, or disappointing her family. He tries to walk away. But he cannot. The final chapter is so so beautiful - understated and poignant. Jack is a book that should be savoured and is one that will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

Marilynne Robinson's writing just pulls me under a spell every time. In this book she has returned to the infamous Jack, the character from her Gilead series who is the closest thing to an antagonist you could find in those books. In this, however, we are not taken to Gilead but instead to St Louis. Segregated St Louis. And here we find Jack living through the first years of what we know becomes his long term relationship with his common law, black wife, Della.

This is a searing portrayal of what it means to see a person for all that they are and to love them. To not only manage this, but to defy laws against inter-racial relationships. We see the fight Jack has within himself - how to choose whether it is more loving to stand and love someone or to make yourself walk away so as to stop bringing the pain of prejudice, opposition and separation into their daily life.

I can't help but wonder where the rest of this story is - I want to know what happened after the events of Home to Jack, Della and their son. That said, reading the account of the beginning of their relationship at this time of massive civil unrest via the Black Lives Matter movement was extremely powerful.

The thing that stopped me completely loving this book was also the thing that makes me love this author. This is a relationship of the mind, an intellectual coming together of two people. A philosophical, religious union. Robinson explores all these ways two people can feel connected - from writing poetry to each other to debating the differences in their religious practices. And yet, for me, this was the first of her books that I felt truly needed to also reflect the more base aspects of life. To need to be together so desperately as to risk everything to walk home together, Jack and Della must have an intense passion for one another that isn't wholly intellectual. That wasn't explored and for the first time I felt that ignoring that part of relationships, of lived experience, took away from the character development purely because this book, more than the others, hinges completely on the reader's knowledge that two characters need, want and deserve to be together in all ways.

Unfortunately I found this to be a very dense read and as I lacked the background information on other books in the series, found it difficult to find my way. I was unable to finish reading the novel.

Not going to lie - I found this book hard-going.

It took me a good half of the book to really get into it. Jack and Della are the two central characters, falling in love is a major issue as he's a down and out white man, and she an educated black lady.

I found it really hard to engage with the characters, they were rather vague, and initially the flitting around between timeframes bothered me too.

However, half way in I suddenly sped up, and from the point that they really committed to one another, it got a whole lot easier to read, and I enjoyed it from thereon.

I. like some of the other reviewers I have seen commenting on this novel, have not read the other Gilead stories and so feel that perhaps I may well have missed some vital piece of information, or lacked some background on the characters that might have given me more enjoyment. I put this here so that others might take this review with a pinch of salt and judge for themselves if they'll enjoy it.

The conceit of the novel is interesting enough - 2 people falling in love across a racial divide in the 1950's. A deep and unsettling time (though sadly with quite modern parallels) which should make for some tense and interesting literature. Sadly I just couldn't get into the novel, the characters just weren't appealing to me, and I struggled to want to read about them. The writing itself, has moments of nice prose, but it seems to me that the author is trying to say something deep or profound, or is desperate to pull out some award winning paragraph or sentence and unfortunately it quickly grates as things go on longing then they have to. The dialogue too at times reminded me of an episode of Dawson's Creek, the characters aiming for something profound but just coming off as stupid (which I doubt was the aim). One particular sequence in a graveyard is especially guilty of this with the two characters going off on a bizarre tangent and discussing about fate and theology (which sort of makes sense with the two characters being from religoius backgrounds) apropos of absolutely nothing. When they don't really even know each other it's a very strange place to start a conversation.

I wanted to like this, I really did and I hope that it doesn't stop me from going back and reading Marilynne Robinson's other books, but this is one that I would happily put back on the shelf and not open again.