Two Perfect Books

I decided to read After Dark because I loved Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore, and I’m so glad I did. After Dark turned out to be an absolute masterpiece. It’s a perfect book, I believe, and a perfect novel of magic realism. It’s about what goes on with two sisters over the course of a night in Japan. That description doesn’t do it justice, of course. *recommends*

Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead (which I believe won a Pulitzer) is a beautiful, beautiful book. I’d heard warnings it was rambly, and it was. I’d heard nothing happened in it, and indeed, there was no action. Yet, I *loved* it, and I couldn’t stop reading. It’s about a preacher near the end of his life who writes letters to his son about his family and life. The plot concerns merely how this guy reconciles the messier issues of his life with his religion and that of his father and grandfather (all preachers but all very different).

It includes a lot of folksy Christian philosophy that spoke to me, I think because it reminded me of the hopeful parts of the religion I grew up with and then left behind. Maybe the character represents what I wished Christianity could have been. Or maybe I still romanticize that distant aspect of my past. (Hm.) Anyway, it’s a wonderful book.

I eagerly gave both books a “+” on my reading list and kinda want to reread them already. Anyone read either of them? Thoughts?