Novels You Should Read

Reading fiction is good for the soul.  I know there are people out there who disdain novels.  Those folks need to read a couple of really great books.  A great story shines forth beauty and raw honesty in a way that moves not merely the mind, but the heart as well.  Granted, not all stories are good stories so it helps to have a starting point.

I want to take a minute and recommend a few books that highlight the beauty of the world around us, while also admitting the brokenness that we all feel around us.  I hope you will take the time to check some of these out.

The Gilead Series

Marilynne Robinson is one of my favorite novelists and essayists.  She is a terrific example of someone who has been deeply moved by the unfathomable doctrines of grace and yet portrays this with such beauty amid the brokenness of life.

Gilead is a novel written from the perspective of John Ames, an aging minister, to his seven year old son.  Ames wrestles in the tension of grace and forgiveness as he tries to honestly portray his own story and his own weakness to a boy who may never remember him.  Ames is an example of a man who deeply longs to be better than he is yet makes no pretense of being something he is not.  If you enjoy Gilead, then she has written two others which I am currently in the middle of.  Home  takes place at the same time but is written mostly from the perspective of John’s best friend’s daughter, Glory.  Lila is the story of John’s wife.

Jayber Crow

Pretty much anything by Wendell Berry is worth reading, but in my opinion one of his greatest works is Jayber Crow.  This simple man lives a life that at first seems ready to take him out on adventure, but instead something else. Unrequited love, abandoned dreams, disappointment and bad choices are all revealed through Jayber’s raw honesty.  He still discovers an abiding love of place along with a certain kind of quiet, hopeful, patience as a small town barber.   It may not sound exciting.  Indeed you may be tempted to give up at first. But it is so worth it.  Jayber Crow it is quite possibly one of the most important novels written in our generation.

The Brothers Karamazov

Looking at this book on the shelf may at first fill you with dread.  It is a thick book.  But after you’ve read it you will feel a well deserved feeling of accomplishment mixed with the joy of having read what is certainly one of the greatest novels ever written.  The brothers deal with the passing of their father, their different relationships to him and to each other.  Mixed within their story Dostoyevsky has buried some of the best religious and political commentary you will ever read.  It is especially important to read this book in our own age as we wrestle with how our religious and political opinions shape our relationships.  Even when we colonize Mars and have very little way to relate to the setting of this story, The Brothers Karamazov will never become a dated book.

If you want to grow to be a better person reading good fiction is an excellent place to begin.  Take the time to check out some of these suggestions.  I will continue to make other recommendations for great reading in the future.