The Dearly Beloved: A Read with Jenna Pick

This book is remarkable. It is a beautifully written story of friendship, of marriage, of parenthood, and especially of faith. The faith is not the rigid pious show that we see so often right now. Nor is it the gospel of prosperity. It is a moral, loving, challenging faith in God and in humanity. It is faith where “love your neighbor” does not mean just love people who look like you, worship like you, love like you, and vote like you. There is never a moment of sappiness. Despite the occasional accounts of actual sermons, there is no preaching to the reader. I highlighted multiple passages that I will return to for more thought. There are passages of exquisite truth that will take your breath away. The novel revolves around the stories of two couples. Charles and James take different paths to arrive at the same Presbyterian Church in Greenwich Village. They were called to serve as co-pastors to this congregation in the turbulent 1960's. The first part of the book follows the separate lives of the main characters as they attend college, meet, fall in love, and marry. This portion of the book can drag a bit at times, but it is essential to building the rich understanding of these characters. This is a gentle, kind, book of tremendous power. Even some of the secondary characters are so three-dimensional that they will stay in my memory. It is a book that would be an excellent book group book. It is a book that could change you, and make the world a better place. One reviewer compared this book to the brilliant Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. It is a fair comparison in so far as both tell the story of long term marriages and friendship with skill, love, and insight. While it is a literary read, it is a very readable book without pretentious word choices or an overly stylized structure.

I found this book to be a refreshing, non-judgmental, positive look at the church as an invitation for real people with real problems. I just loved this book! It was so refreshing and real, as well as being a page-turner.In my opinion, the “Christian fiction” genre has been lifeless, dull and repetitive for a long time. By contrast, if one IS seeking, this book is extremely user-friendly, thought-provoking, and original. However, It does not pretend to be in the Christian genre. It’s just a great book!One can’t determine someone’s personal relationship with God by reading a novel that they’ve written. It isn’t a theological treatise; There is not to be a “how the believers should behave”— It is fiction.If you want a very well written book that is not the same tired Christian formula, but actually has realistic, vibrant, flawed characters with an excellent storyline, this book is for you.

Wow. What a beautiful story that touches on so many seasons and trials of life.This story focuses around two couples, Charles and Lily, and James and Nan. You get a little bit of their upbringing and then the stories of each individual come together as couples and then all four of them. You follow them as they graduate college, get married, move to new locations, and ultimately both men taking a job that lands them in the same city. From there you follow their journeys as they navigate relationships and children.This was such a beautiful work of fiction. The author doesn’t shy away from the doubt, restlessness, excitement, and joy that comes with following Jesus which makes the story all the more relatable. You get to see each of the four main characters form their opinions on faith (or no faith) and work through their differences. They use each other’s strengths and weaknesses to uplift and encourage one another which shows the beauty of friendship.The first half of the book was hard for me to get into as there were 4 different characters I was trying to keep straight. They all had different upbringings and thoughts which made them all the more deep and well-loved characters, but it was hard to get my bearings at the beginning there. One the book transitions to both couples living in the same city and interacting with one another I found it much easier to read.Overall, 5/5 such a great story!

Nothing as expected in this book. It kept me turning the pages eagerly. The characters are wonderful and lives are complex. There is plenty of wisdom and carefully crafted detail. Pure joy to read.

The book is well written and I enjoyed reading it. As a believer, I found it frustrating to have a novel where two characters who are ministers preach their beliefs not what God instructs us in His word the Bible. James one of the ministers does not believe that the stories in the Old Testament are true. He does not think the Bible is how God speaks to us through his word. I would read their sermons and think if you just stopped preaching your own beliefs and doubts and turn to God's word for answers you could truly help your congregation to grow in their faith and walk with God. In each character's story, I could turn to scripture and see how God is using this in their lives. Nan refuses medical intervention to get pregnant not understanding that medical intervention could be God's way of giving her a baby but it was not Nan's way of thinking it should happen and this character has the strongest faith in the novel. None of the three supposedly believers in the story ever seen to turn to God in prayer or search the Bible for answers.I wanted to scream at the character Lily can't you see that possibly God could use your situation with Will and your determination to help him to possibly find a better answer medically for all the children in the future who might have autism. How does Charles the father so quickly lose his faith?I did find it very true that only in working at a church can you completely not do your job and they will still pay you for months out of the goodness of their hearts. That is very true. If Charles had stopped showing up to a secular job, he would have been fired within a week or two.It feels like it was a novel written about church and faith by an author who is not a believer and does not feel God or the Bible are really that helpful or true.

Reading this book was like having a warm blanket on me . I didn't want to put it down. The four characters are so unique . I loved how Charles continued to love Lili unconditionally in spite of her indifference to him, his faith and his work. I loved how Nan had to experience suffering in order to feel what others feel. I loved how the congregation supported the two ministers thru their trials. I wondered if Lili realized her biggest wish was the same as her husbands..he just wanted to make her happy .she just wanted to make her son happy.I am a pastors wife and we live in an area away from family and it's comforting to see the two families become a family , being there for each other .Well done !

For those of us alive in the period of the book (1950s-2010s) and who grew up within Christianity this novel will resonate profoundly. Two men become joint pastors at a Presbyterian church in Greenwich Village. Both came late to their faith and both are still working it through. James is more action-oriented, Charles more bookish. They complement each other and get on well. Their wives could not be more different: Nan is the pretty well-trained daughter of a Southern minister and Lily is an avowed atheist after the deaths of her parents when she was 15. Charles knows it’s going to be difficult having a wife who’s a non-believer but he can’t stop loving her. Lily is prickily academic. She and Nan don’t get on. The men have been called to the church at a time of great social change and one of the problems they face is finding the balance between offering the balm of soothing tradition and galvanising the congregation to put Christ’s message into action.Another theme is children. Nan, to whom everything has come easily, has miscarriages while Lily gets pregnant with twins. Nan is ashamed of her deep response when one of the boys is diagnosed as autistic. Not much was known about autism then and it’s a nightmare ride for Lily and Charles. What this engenders is a deepening of honesty, connection and purpose between all four and the people around them.In fact, this kind of thinking and feeling, of being shaken by challenge and working hard to deal with it is the great gift this book gives us. It’s no wonder it took several years to write. It has a profundity about the things that mean most to us that is relatively rare these days. Yet for all the awfulness and banality of social and political life these days, let us remember that there are crowds of people in this world who do hunger for meaning and do care to do what is right and good. Every year when my choir sings at the local citizenship ceremony awards are given to to old and young people who have done good in their community. The contributions they make are astounding. Cara Wall has done the world a great service in writing this book. She can be content about that, even if she never writes another thing.PS: although I like the cover, it doesn’t seem enough for this novel. I can’t think of what would be though.

I found the book well intentioned but characters not very believable. Couldn’t not identify with them.

Every moment enfolded me in this author 's magical way with words and understanding of human nature ...one of the most captivating I have read.

For example the two couples were very real and able to live their lives in honesty and forgiveness and love. Iearned a lot about the problems they had to deal with and how their faith had helped them over the course of a long life.