Housekeeping: A Novel
by Marilynne Robinson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Marilynne RobinsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-11-01
ISBN: 0312424094
Number of pages: 219
Publisher: Picador
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780312424091
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Housekeeping: A Novel
Book Review: "For need can blossom into all the compensations it requires."
Summary: 5 Stars
The overall impression of Marilynne Robinson's transitory first novel is of lonely souls straining to interact with eachother, set against a foggy lake written with such beauty that it seems like a modern-day Eden. Lucille and Ruth are passed from relative to relative after their mom dies and finally end up with their Aunt Silvie. Silvie isn't a person in the book so much as a channel of Ruth's awakening; through her Ruth sees beauty and hope for the first time. All this is written in Robinson's pitch-perfect language, written with such powerfully intellectual grace that you could never look at life and literature in quite the same way. Take when halfway through the book Silvie and Ruth go to a hidden island:
"I could see why Silvie thought children might come here. Any child who saw once how the gleaming water spilled to the tips of branches, and rounded and dropped and pocked the softening shadows of frost at the foot of each tree, would come to see it again." (pg.153)
The book isn't a story so much as a temporary visit to a different, more elegant world. Each character has their arc, but it's the tone and setting of the piece which really impresses. In any case this book is the absolute best modern fiction has to offer.
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