Gilead is a beautifully written book but it's slow moving and at times, hard to follow. Told in a memoir form to his young son the book is choppy (on purpose to indicate breaks between writing sessions) and looses the reader. It is hard to remember who is who, and what they are like because there are long sections of ramblings from Rev. Ames. I did enjoy Rev. Ames take on life, how he questions himself and most things around him but as a story it is short on appeal for nothing really happens.