Some personal notes (put here so I don't forget):

Spoiler

--pg. 35: son's leaving means basically saying to Father, "I want you to die"! fascinating (LOVE cultural and historical context like that)
--pg. 41: very few moments during day when free from dark emotions; without realizing, find brooding, loneliness, etc.
--pg. 42: constantly developing strategies
--pg. 47: "It goes somewhat like this:" paragraph
--pg. 51: inner dialogue with absent partners--YES!!
--pg. 72: my anger that people misunderstood that *I* wouldn't do such a thing
--pg. 82: pathology of darkness
--pg. 84: radical trust! (think June)
--pg. 106-7: beautiful, of God's love for us; don't totally know practical result of this though (wish more practical)
--pg. 115-6: discipline of joy
--pg. 121: if great tragedy is fear, why Bible full of wrath? even NT a bit...

Gorgeous personal meditation on this story through the lens of Rembrandt's painting.

A masterful work; a book you will read many times at different points in your life, and each time find new insights that only now make sense because of where you yourself are.

I read a lot of books, but very few do I read more than once. This book is in a small, small group of books that I re-read every year. Nouwen is all by himself in his ability to paint the picture of how God wants to be with us. And Prodigal Son is his best version of it. You cannot walk away from this book unchanged.

Absolutely loved this book! It took me a while to finish because I was learning so much from each of the sections, and needed time to process it altogether!

Highly recommend!!!!