Conviction Hardcover – May 19, 2015

This is a really marvelous, subtle book. Ostensibly the book is powered by a murder mystery suspense plot: did the father do it? Will he get off?But that's not the heart of the book at all. Really, the core of the book is the question: Is the father a good man?He's not a perfect man. You know that from the beginning. But he contains many aspects of a good father. He's raised a good kid: nice, respectful, reasonably happy, and a star pitcher with serious pro ball prospects. And he's oftentimes loving and encouraging. But he's also a haunted man. There's a streak of violence and nastiness inside him, and throughout the book you're left wondering how deep that streak goes and whether his nastiness wipes out all the good things you've seen.The moral questions in a lot of books tend to be pretty simple. They contain great humanitarians who turn out to be pedophiles. Or effective leaders who are forced to sacrifice innocent people in order to save the nation as a whole.Here, nothing is simple. At every moment, you're never really sure what lies underneath the father's words. Is it all ego and cruelty? Or is he just doing the best that he knows how?And watching the son try to come to terms with the way he's been raised is just heartbreaking. Because it makes you realize how alone kids are. If your parent is unambiguously awful, then maybe you can someday sever yourself from them and escape. But if your parent gives you both love and trauma, then how do you escape? How do you draw the line? How can you deal with the fact that someone who's given you so much and done so much for you is also able to do things that seem so selfish?The book does an amazing job of walking that fine line where you always THINK that some sort of closure is coming. You always feel like maybe you're going to get a final read on these characters and that it's going to come out and say something definitive. Because this is not a world where everything is shades of grey. This is not a world that's accepted the idea that all men are flawed and that you can't do anything about it. This is a world where people still struggle to be good, and one where they believe in the possibility of goodness. And it's really gripping to see people writhe and struggle within that world and try to figure out what the hell is going on.

CONVICTION tells the story of Braden Raynor, a top high-school pitching prospect whose father--a religious talk-show personality--is accused of killing a police officer. While his father is in jail awaiting trial, Braden's older brother Trey, long estranged from the family, comes to take care of his younger brother. Tensions mount as Braden struggles to renew his relationship with Trey, to prepare for an all-important baseball game, and to provide testimony during his father's trial--testimony that may either doom or save the man who's been both Braden's rock and his tormentor his entire life.Gilbert is an exceptionally fine prose stylist, and her glowing sentences work perfectly for this story of people struggling to find light in the darkness of their lives. Braden and Trey are both remarkably well-rendered characters--but even more remarkably, their father, who could easily have devolved into caricature, emerges as a fully human being, at once grandiose and self-loathing, loving and manipulative, inspirational and horrifying. The enigmas of faith, the human desire to find meaning and certainty even at the greatest of costs, are played out brilliantly as the story shifts back and forth in time, giving us glimpses into Braden's troubled relationship with his father and brother. If I have any reservation about the book, it's that some of the baseball material doesn't feel quite right--the language and scenarios sound more like the work of an educated fan than of an actual player like Braden. (This wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that for Braden, faith and baseball are integrally connected.) But that's a minor complaint about a book that's otherwise so rich and rewarding.

CONVICTION is a brilliant book. It treats so many themes so beautifully: religion, family, sports, racism, homophobia, abusive relationships, first relationships, everyone's fundamental brokenness. It's "heavy" in a way, but it pulses with compassion. The story rings true to life's twists and turns is compulsively readable. Especially in the last 150 pages, I couldn't stop going, I was so invested in what happened to Braden and the people close to him.Braden is a fascinating narrator. At first he seems simple and straightforward, a "jock" who doesn't make anything more complicated than it needs to be. But then you keep peeling back the layers of his personality and world view to see what an immensely rich (and troubled) character he is. I was particularly struck by his relationship to God--his compulsive need to figure out the "right" thing to do to keep God pleased with him. It's definitely something I could relate to from when I was that age, but I haven't ever seen that mindset captured so well in literature.CONVICTION is a classic about religion, father-son relationships, and baseball, right up there with Chaim Potok's THE CHOSEN.