This was a beautiful slice of post war life. Jack and Della are very different- Jack is white, older, a drinker and general ne'er do well, whereas Della is a young Black English high school teacher. The book records their awkward courtship and falling in love. I enjoyed the atmosphere and the description, and the poetry that Jack and Della sent each other. However, I didn't really see the depth to their relationship- I did not see why Della would like Jack to the extent that she was prepared to defy her family and friends to see him. I did enjoy seeing Jack trying to improve himself and going to the black church. The book was quite heavy on dialogue, and I might have enjoyed it more of I knew more background about the characters.

I felt bewildered by this book until I realised my advance copy was the fourth in a series and the characters Jack and Della had a history that I wasn't privy to. For that reason I found it hard to engage and pick up the pieces so far along without that foundation to build on. So much about the situation I wanted to find endearing but for me there was a constant disconnect that I have to admit I didn't enjoy.

Elegantly written, this book is a lyrically-told story of racial inequality and the transcendence of one small pocket, two people, for whom there is no racial divide. Their awareness of the consequences of their love is very much there, though, and yet they are able to sacrifice everything to reach beyond that.

I do love Marilynne Robinson's writing and it was as good as ever, but I found this one hard-going. The verbatim conversations just went on too long for me and I didn't engage with this as I have with her other books.

Jack by Marilynne Robinson is about loneliness and two people connecting at a time when interracial relationships were frowned upon.

I was moved by this story of two people who meet and fall in love. Sounds simple and the story of millions of couples the world over but not so - this is not long after the war when the world was very different and their love was against the Law and could see them put in prison.
It’s very tenderly told and very subtle. Love grew slowly for our two but in the end, because of family pressure they decided they had to part.
It’s hard to consider that this could easily have been a true story because how can love ever be wrong?
This book is a gentle read and one of those books that will reverberate across your mind for years to come.

A great literary achievement and a novel that will be remembered for many years to come. It is an important work, not just because of the time in which it is published, but because of its humanity, insight and truthfulness.

This book is in essence a very thoughtful, empathetic and sensitive love story, but in post WW2 USA, love between a white man and a black woman could not be countenanced. We meet again the reprobate Jack, first encountered in the wonderful Gilead books, and his beloved Della, a schoolteacher and a cultured, sensitive soul, who falls deeply in love with Jack, in spite of his vicissitudes - that love is reciprocated and the story centres around the desperate struggle for these two beautiful people to be together in a deeply Christian, but also deeply prejudiced society, with the prejudice as deep on the black side as on the white. The writing style is ‘literary’ in the truest sense, and Robinson possesses an enviable vocabulary, but the complexity of language sometimes feels a little as if it is there for complexity’s sake, rather than to add anything to the story. The themes of prejudice, redemption, self control (or lack of it),alcohol dependence irrational behaviour and many others are explored with huge insight and empathy, making for an intense and moving read. The reader can’t help but want everything to work out for Jack and Della, but the obstacles they must overcome often appear to insurmountable.

Marilynne Robinson’s prizewinning series of books based around the fictional town of Gilead have long been one of my favourites so I was thrilled to get the chance to review Jack, the 4th in the series. This one tells the story of John Ames Boughton the drunken, kleptomaniac son of Gilead’s Presbyterian minister and his love for Della, the spirited, intelligent daughter of a bishop who has left home to teach in St Louis where the two meet. This unlikely pairing might always lead to trouble but the fact that Jack is white and Della is black at a time when interracial relationships were illegal, can only mean trouble.
The book begins in a cemetery where Jack and Della find themselves locked in at night, Jack by choice as it’s a good place for a drunken bum to sleep, Della by accident. The conversation between the two that night makes up a sizeable chunk of the novel and I did find it a struggle, probably only continuing with the book because I hoped it would get better. Luckily it did once the plot moved on to their difficulties as Della’s friends and family all tried to break up the relationship and Jack began to redeem himself by finding a job, while all the time trying to live by his own motto of do no harm and give Della up.
Fascinating portrayal of life in America at that time and the racial tensions combined with Robinson’s theological viewpoint which fans will be delighted to read. Also works as a stand-alone novel if you haven’t read the others or like me you had forgotten much of the original story

Jack and Della have a lot in common. They are both the children of preachers in the USA. They love poetry and the power of words. They are in love with each other. BUT, Jack is white and Della is black. They live in 1930's USA where inter-racial relationships or marriage are illegal. Della is a respected teacher and risks losing her job as well as imprisonment. Everyone advises strongly against their relationship continuing. Jack, whose life philosophy is to do no harm, is painfully aware of the potential harm he is inflicting on Della by continuing to see her.
This novel is firmly situated within Marilynne Robinson's Gilead series of novels and explores two of the characters from those books in great depth, giving us more of their back story and how they came to be where they are in the other books in the trilogy. This book is told from Jack's perspective (although it is not in the first person) and gives an insight into his history and his family as well as making it very clear why he would be in love with Della. What is not clear is why Della should reciprocate these feelings, putting her family and career at great risk. Perhaps the author intends another novel called Della which will tell the story from her point of view.
While parts of this novel were powerfully written I did feel that the first part of the book, where Jack and Della spend the night in a cemetery and every word of their conversation is transcribed, was over long. Although I had read Gilead decades ago I did not remember enough about it to recall these characters. I think I would have been more invested in the novel and the story as a whole if I had more recently read and enjoyed the whole Gilead trilogy. I do not think the book will necessarily captivate readers on its own merits.

Banned love in segregated America. Down on his luck Jack (a white guy) falls for beautiful, black Della in St Louis at a time when such a union was illegal and dangerous. Jack's love is touching, as he finds work playing the piano so that he can buy Della flowers, a book of poetry and improve his prospects with the girl he loves. He finds both kindness and cruelty along the way. Although this is the third in a trilogy, this book works well as a stand-alone. A poignant literary novel, full of memorable phrases and scenes.

I really enjoyed this book a lot. The characters were clever and engaging, and getting to spend time with them was a treat. I liked the writing too - it was descriptive without ever veering into flowery territory, and I would certainly be interested in reading more work by this author. The cover is great too!

Marilynne Robinson’s “Gilead” trilogy (with “Home” and “Lila”) is one of my favourite ever series of books both for their sheer craftmanship of the writing, the maturity and insight of the discussion of the issues covered, and for its sympathetic and intelligent exploration of the depths, consolations and challenges of Christian faith.

It is I think very telling that the collective reviewers of the Guardian (a paper which is somewhere between non-Christian and positively anti-Christian) rated “Gilead” the second best book of the 21st Century.

Therefore imagine my delight when it was announced that the author was writing a fourth book in the series – and one which forms a perfect (and obvious) compliment to the first three volumes – the story of the prodigal son who returns in “Home”, “Jack” (John Ames) Broughton, and whose difficult relationship with his father’s friend John Ames (after whom he is named, and who fears he will usurp his place as husband to Lila and father to his son) forms much of the tension at the end of “Gilead”. That tension is partly dissipated in “Gilead” when Jack confesses to Ames about his black wife (Della) and their child – and the difficulty of their relationship: struggling both against racial miscegenation laws and the avowed disapproval of Della’s family, headed by a minister. Della’s appearance at the end of “Home” forms the ending to that book also.

This book is the story of Jack’s meeting with and burgeoning relationship Della – one which closely but not completely follows Jack’s recounting to Ames (which presumably suffers both from the unreliability of memory and the selectiveness of retelling).

The book is written in the third person, but very much from Jack’s point of view.

At the opening of the story he is only just released from prison (wrongly convicted of theft – albeit he could have been correctly convicted for countless other occasions) and living as a down and out, estranged from his family (other than for regular donations from one brother) and struggling with alcoholism, kleptomania and self-destructive tendencies which seem to extend to anything he holds as precious: his only strategy is to aspire to “utter harmlessness” – trying to isolate himself so as to do as little damage as possible.

But into this mix – via a chance encounter, comes the schoolteacher Della and the two are drawn to each other. Jack’s early behaviour forces a breach between them, but both retain feelings for each other and the book opens on a second chance encounter – overnight in a graveyard (where Jack is staying having sold his bed for the night) and Della is inadvertently locked in. This opening conversation is covered almost word for word and covers around the first quarter of the novel and, in perhaps my only criticism, is a little too extended a set piece – I preferred the book when it reverted to perhaps a more conventional pacing.

The book is replete with meditations on poetry, on Hamlet (the subtexts of which form a backdrop to the cemetery conversations), on hymns and on bible verses.

But it is also shot through with the reality of racial tensions in 1950s America: Jack encounters threats and hostility from whites; he struggles with his secret satisfaction at reading of a planned demolition/regentrification of the black area of St Louis as it fits his own tendency to destruction; contrary to Jack’s account in Gilead, Della’s father’s objections to Jack centre less around his atheism and unlike her extended family less around his disreputable character, but instead centres on a firm belief in Negro self-sufficiency and separatism.

But of course like all the series, religious concepts dominate.

Jack struggles with pre-destination; habit, impulse and temptation; penitence, regret and forgiveness; and most of all grace.

Della remains more of an enigma, and I have seen reviews that query her feelings for Jack, but her motivation – a revelation of her redemptive role, and her opportunity to show non-judgmental kindness to the outcast, and to see and reach the inner soul behind the outward behaviour is revealed in a powerful speech.

A worthy conclusion to a wonderful series. One that I will revisit on its paperback publication with a read through of all four books.

My thanks to Little Brown Book UK for an ARC of the UK edition.

This is the story of the love affair between Jack, a white man and Delia, a black woman., living in the south of the USA, date not specified. There is obviously a lot of prejudice, including from Delia's family. It is not told in a straightforward way and there are a lot of tedious conversations and things hinted at. The thread of the story gets lost in the detail. I gave up reading and skimmed to the end. This is not a style of book for me, too literary by far.