Dearly Beloved follows, from childhood into late life, two Presbyterian ministers and the women they marry. This might not sound dramatically interesting and it certainly isn’t a book filled with twists and turns. Instead it’s a study of character. We have two men, Charles and James, who each come to ministry at a fairly young age but from drastically different backgrounds and with hugely varying personalities and focuses. Both men meet their wives as university students. Charles marries Lily, a non-believer while James marries Nan, the daughter of a Southern Baptist preacher. Their paths come together some years later at a church in New York City.
The setting is from the 1950s to roughly the 1970s, covering a time when religion and church attendance were becoming less central to the American culture. We have the upheaval of the Civil Rights movement and the changing role of women in the home and workplaces. Toward the end of the novel, we see some developing attitudes toward education and particularly neurodiverse children.
Often when I read books that centre around religious characters – be they ministers or missionaries or simply a character whose religion is supposed to be a central part of who they are – I find they either come across as caricatures or the author doesn’t seem to understand how central religious beliefs are to a believer’s life. Dearly Beloved is one of the few books that I felt truly reflected the thoughts and behaviours of Christian men and women. They are not flawless individuals who think only pious thoughts. Neither are they blatant hypocrites, hiding behind a holy front while causing pain all around them. And they aren’t characters for whom religion is an afterthought.
I’m not sure if this book is for everyone – for readers unfamiliar or uninterested in religion and Christianity in particular, I’m not sure how much this book will hold your attention. I really enjoyed the study of how Christianity could play out amongst four average people who chose to live according to its tenets and yet interpreted those beliefs in different ways.
Karissa Reads Books 
It sounds like perhaps they engage and wrestle with their faith daily, like you and your family?
Yes, that’s very much what I enjoyed reading about. I’ve often read in books where characters are described as having faith but we don’t actually see them engaging with that faith very much. So it was refreshing to read a book where it was genuinely a part of their lives.