Home (2009) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 5 stars

“powerful reflections on aging, family ties, interracial romance (in the 50s) and the son who never fits in -- why?”

• Rated 5 stars

“In “Home” Marilynne Robinson returns to the characters of her Pulitzer prize winning novel “Gilead”. The events of “Gilead” were seen through the eyes of an old rural pastor named John Ames. In “Home” Robinson tells the same account but now from the perspective of Glory Boughton, the youngest daughter of Ames’ best friend and fellow pastor, William Boughton. Both stories revolve around the return of William Boughton’s prodigal son, Jack.

The risk of writing a book that tells the same story twice is that the reader already knows the outcome. For this reason, I was not initially drawn to “Home” but after finishing it I was left wishing more authors would follow suit. There is something very satisfying and clarifying about being given the opposite side of a story. In a recent interview Robinson said, “After ‘Gilead’ I realized I was being haunted (by the characters) and I decided to let these souls have more life, since they seemed to want it.”

Robinson is a master of human observation. She is able to put into words what we instinctively feel about others but can’t always communicate. For example, in describing Jack, “She wondered what it was that made him stand when she or her father came into a room. It looked like deference, but it also seemed to mean, You will never see me at ease, you will never see me unguarded.”

“Home” is slow at time as Robinson tries to accurately portray daily life. But the powerful moments found throughout overshadow the pace. I was hooked twenty pages in. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“This is a good book! A wayward son returns to his family home just as his father is dying. They have unfinished business. His father just wants him to be a good Christian boy, but the son can't do this. The son is able to make peace with this. Good stuff.”

• Rated 0 stars

“A beautifully written story about the return of a long-lost son. Not as good as Gilead, Marilynne Robinson's earlier novel, but recommended nonetheless.”

• Rated 5 stars

“A beautifully written novel about the need for family to reconcile whatever the circumstances.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Home Marilynne Robinson
★★★★

339 Pages

This is the story of the Reverend Broughton and his family, specifically the black sheep and prodigal son Jack and his younger sister Glory.

Home is a small place in the Iowa countryside called Gilead a small community where everyone knows everyone else and its hard to escape your past.

After the failure of her relationship Glory has returned home, only to find herself cast in the role of carer for her dying father the Reverend, all the Reverend wants from life is to see his favourite child Jack one last time before he dies.

Struggling with his life and alcohol Jack also returns to Gilead but will his coming cause more heartache than his 20 year absence.

Like the place it is set in the story is slow moving there is no real action as such the plot is moved along by the complex relationships between the family members, the ideaology they discuss and the questioning of whether or not it is possible to ever escape the sins of the past.

A very touching novel about family that reminded me in some ways of Absalom, Absalom I will now have to read Gilead to see the story from the other side.”

• Rated 4 stars

“This book is subtle and quiet but it keeps you pulled in whe entire time. There are a limited number of characters and you never get out of Gilead but somehow it's enough. The unspoken tension in the few family members present is palpable and it's this tension that moves you along through the story. As a reader, there is a constant desire for some sort of resolution and Robinson doesn't necessarily dole any out. But she does give you enough of a string to grasp and hold to make the experience satisfying.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Another Robinson masterpiece with spiritual strength and return to the Gilead setting. Frustrating at times with the descriptive detail, but so poetic and relaxing that it was worth the wait to the dramatic conclusion. A future return to Gilead?”

• Rated 3 stars

“Michael E said: 3 stars

I was disappointed with the muted passions of the characters in the novel and their unrealistic dwelling on spiritual and moral issues in isolation from the wellsprings of the usual ongoing connections and concerns in life. The prose has the same elegant and spare virtues as Robinson’s previous books, “Housekeeping” and “Gilead”, but the narrative often dragged to me due to excessive length relative to few substantive events and choices in action taken by the characters.

In the late 50’s, a dutiful middle-aged daughter, Glory, leaves her teaching job to return to rural Gilead, Iowa, to take care of her frail elderly father, a saint-like pillar of the community he served as a Presbytarian minister. They are joined by an extended visit of the prodigal oldest son, Jack, who was a troublemaker in his youth and has been a source of worry while out of touch for nearly two decades. Outwardly, Christian kindness, forgiveness, and hope for redemption abounds in all their interactions, yet each of the three struggle with their largely hidden senses of guilt over past failures and inadequacies in their current roles in life.

As the characters move toward a better understanding of each other, the reader is faced with a claustrophobia inducing sense of isolation. Aside from regular interactions of daily home life, there is little impingement of the outside world for most of the novel. When Jack and Glory refer to their past lives, no names or places are revealed. A TV is acquired, providing and small window of discussion about the ongoing conflicts of the Civil Rights movement. A rhythm of home life is marked by Jack regularly working on an old car and he and Glory tending daily to the garden. No one fights or displays strong emotions when they are together. No serious medical illnesses of the father calls for dramatic efforts in his care.

There is beauty in this innovative model for exploring the meaning of “home” and exploration of whether adults can truly return to it. But the story almost leans toward the absurdist minimalist of “Waiting for Godot” or to the philosophical setting of Plato’s Cave. But for me I need more realism or more content in the story to reap full pleasures of the resonance between the universal and particulars of life.”

• Rated 3 stars

“I was disappointed with the muted passions of the characters in the novel and their unrealistic dwelling on spiritual and moral issues in isolation from the wellsprings of the usual ongoing connections and concerns in life. The prose has the same elegant and spare virtues as Robinson’s previous books, “Housekeeping” and “Gilead”, but the narrative often dragged to me due to excessive length relative to few substantive events and choices in action taken by the characters.

In the late 50’s, a dutiful middle-aged daughter, Glory, leaves her teaching job to returns to rural Gilead, Iowa, to take care of her frail elderly father, a saint-like pillar of the community he served as a Presbytarian minister. They are joined by an extended visit of the prodigal oldest son, Jack, who was a troublemaker in his youth and has been a source of worry while out of touch for nearly two decades. Outwardly, Christian kindness, forgiveness, and hope for redemption abounds in all their interactions, yet each of the three struggle with their largely hidden senses of guilt over past failures and inadequacies in their current roles in life.

As the characters move toward a better understanding of each other, the reader is faced with a claustrophobia inducing sense of isolation. Aside from regular interactions of daily home life, there is little impingement of the outside world for most of the novel. When Jack and Glory refer to their past lives, no names or places are revealed. A TV is acquired, providing and small window of discussion about the ongoing conflicts of the Civil Rights movement. A rhythm of home life is marked by Jack regularly working on an old car and he and Glory tending daily to the garden. No one fights or displays strong emotions when they are together. No serious medical illnesses of the father calls for dramatic efforts in his care.

There is beauty in this innovative model for exploring the meaning of “home” and exploration of whether adults can truly return to it. But the story almost leans toward the absurdist minimalist of “Waiting for Godot” or to the philosophical setting of Plato’s Cave. But for me I need more realism or more content in the story to reap full pleasures of the resonance between the universal and particulars of life.
”