Jack

After Gilead, At Home and Lila, Marilynne Robinson returns to the world of Gilead with Jack, the fourth novel in one of the most important contemporary novelistic cycles. Jack tells the story of John Ames Boughton, who already appeared as one of the protagonists of At Home. Prodigal son of the Reverend Boughton, a victim of drinking and self-destructive tendencies, Jack lives estranged from his family in St. Louis, the main city of Missouri, in the years after World War II. There he survives with small jobs, some robberies and with the help of his brother Teddy. And he moves between disbelieving cynicism and suicidal tendencies. But in a chance encounter he meets Della Miles, an African-American high school teacher, also the daughter of a preacher, with a clear mind, a generous spirit, and an independent will. Della and Jack fall in love in a society where racial discrimination prevails and laws and customs make intermarriage difficult. Deep and moving, her beautiful and tense story is one of Robinson's greatest accomplishments.