Throughout the entire book, the minister returns to the mystery that is man, incomprehensible to others and even to himself. He constantly acknowledges his wonder in front of each human being, pointing out that God recreates each of us every day and that viewing each man as a proposal, “an emissary sent from the Lord,” allows us to be free from purely instinctual feelings. Ames reveals through the meandering collective histories what he holds dear. Gilead is a most unusual last will and testament.

Because of this redemption, she acquires a new identity and dignity. Lila becomes a metaphor for the soul in all its vulnerability and courage, redeemed by an unlikely bridegroom and the eternal Bridegroom whom he images. With few exceptions, her life is one continual struggle to simply survive until she encounters love and mercy in the tender embrace of the old minister. Gilead’s companion piece Lila relates in powerful vignettes the sorrowful past of Rev. It is a narrative resplendent with faith, humility, wonder, and mercy. John Ames renders an account of his history as it intersects with the lives of his grandfather, father, wife, child and fellow citizens in an obscure Iowa town, between the 1850s and the 1950s. Recognizing that his age and heart condition will prevent him from watching the boy grow up, Rev. The luminous novel Gilead, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, takes the form of a book-length epistle from a Congregationalist minister to his seven-year-old son, offspring of a marriage late in life.

John ames gilead