“I’m a simple man who was brought up by a complicated man. So I have mannerisms and so on. Vocabulary. People can be misled.”

This was my second effort with Jack. I love the Gilead series and was so excited to read a story that focused solely on Jack, who is one of the most complicated and tragic characters in American literature. I had a really hard time getting into this in print, but I jumped at the opportunity for the audio version when I saw there was no wait on Libby.

This tells how Jack and Della’s relationship began. Biracial marriages were illegal back then and it was dangerous for them to even be together. I’m still not sure why Della chose to “marry” him nor do I understand Jack’s psyche. If anything, I’m even more impatient with him than I was before.

This book is full of beautiful sentences and staggering thoughts, but I found it much slower and harder to sink into than the first three in the series. Because of this, I’m only giving it 3 stars. But if anyone was disappointed in the print version, I’d encourage you to try the audio version – the narrator is excellent and sometimes it helps to simply be told a story.