Radiance and Secrecy in Marilynne Robinson's Gilead

A strange woman walks into church in the middle of a prayer – to get out of the rain, reasons Reverend John Ames. Sixty-seven years old, he is captivated by the young woman, some 40 years his junior, and not many months later marries her. Robert E. Kohn, literary critic, argues that Ames knew this woman when she was a girl, knew her past "to death," as the narrator claims, but for all purposes remained "completely ignorant of it." This is because the truth is couched in secrecy. As the secrecy unfolds, "this poor gray ember of Creation," which Ames calls himself, "turns to radiance."