Marilynne Robinson explores faith and belief

Every week, The Thread recommends a book that offers a fresh perspective on the news.

Today I'm thinking about a week in which all eyes were on Pope Francis and why great American novelists don't write about faith as often as they once did.

An exception is Marilynne Robinson. She has brought us two novels featuring the Rev. John Ames of Iowa City, a compassionate Calvinist who loves to baptize babies. In her novel, "Gilead" — my favorite — he's contemplating his own death.

In the book, Pastor Ames, at the age of 76, writes a letter to his young son from his second marriage and contemplates what it means to believe, to doubt and to search.

The language of the novel is spare, spirited and spiritual, and as New York Times reviewer James Wood noted, "When Robinson reduces her language, it's because secular meaning has exhausted itself and is being renovated by religious meaning."

I'm often asked about the most difficult Talking Volumes interview I've ever done. It is, without question, Marilynne Robinson, but more on that some other day. I love her John Ames novels and I think you will too.

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