This week's book:
Jack
By Marilynne Robinson
This week's book was the first book of the year for my book group. It happens to be about… well, I don't exactly know because I was lost the majority of the time. I tried really hard to get into it, but it's the fourth or fifth in the series and I haven't read any of the other books. The first book, Gilead, won a Pulitzer Prize.
The books are based in Iowa, my family's favorite state, but I just struggled. There are two main characters who come from different backgrounds: the guy is an alcoholic and is white, and the woman is a teacher and black. The book is based in the 1950’s when racism was even worse than it is now. The characters are falling in love, but because of all the hatred about biracial couples, there is so much struggle.
The fact that I don't know any of their backstories for the most part, made the struggle even harder for me to read. There are no chapters in the novel and I was just lost. I understand anyone would have been lost if they were jumping into a book series late to the game, but I was in a bind to read it for the book group. In an ideal world, I would have been able to read the rest of the series before I read this novel, but I didn’t. I think that most of the people in my book group have read other books in this series for this book group in the past, so it wasn't a big deal for them to read it. However, I haven't been in the group as long.
I will say that the book imagery was very well written. I just wish I would have had the chance to know all the past stories before reading this one. If you have read the series I'm assuming you'll love Jack as well; as a stand alone book, it was hard to follow.
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