Housekeeping: A Novel
by Marilynne Robinson
List Price:
Our Price: $9.81
You Save: $4.19 (30%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.98 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Marilynne RobinsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2004-11-01
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Picador
Book Reviews of Housekeeping: A Novel
Book Review: Beautiful, but tedious
Summary: 2 Stars
I read Gilead a while ago and loved it. Its language was beautiful and haunting, the story tender and heart-breaking. Housekeeping was different. It also has beautiful language, but that is where the similarities end. I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out what I did not like about this novel and the answer finally came to me: it has no plot. It has no substance. It had immense potential to be great, but for me, it fell utterly flat. Let me be clear, the language is BEAUTIFUL. There are passages on practically every page that made me breathless with the beautiful and creative wordplay of Ms. Robinson, but it was not enough to push the narrative forward on its own. I understand the symbolism, the allusions, etc. of the novel, but I also want the plot to move the story along, not the descriptions of a place alone. I want characters that I come to care about to push the story onward, I want a climax, I want to care about what happens to them on the next page, and sadly, I did not.
One could say that the lack of any feeling the reader had for the characters was the author's way of getting the reader to feel the lack of love and caring that the girls experienced in their own family. If so, I get it, but I wanted to made to feel that, even if their own family didn't care about them, I did. But that is not what happened. I simply stopped caring.
It just felt to me that the author used the idea of these two girls and their awkward, off-beat, tragic family as a vehicle for her magnificent use of the English language. And magnificent though it was, the story got bogged down with all of that lavish description, and I wanted more than that. I wanted substance.
Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literature & Fiction Books
Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott
Scribner; Published: 1986-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Killing Groundby JACK HIGGINS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD; Published: 2007; Hardcover; Book
Saving Fish from Drowningby Amy Tan
4th Estate; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Constant Princessby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005; Hardcover; Book
Wolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harper; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Saharaby Clive Cussler
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2005-03-21; Paperback; Book
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)by C. S. Lewis
Voyager; Published: 2005-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.67
Price in other shops:
The Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towersby J. R. R. Tolkien
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 2001; Paperback; Book
Red Marsby Kim Stanley Robinson
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Belovedby Toni Morrison
Vintage; Published: 2004-06-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghostsby Maxine Hong Kingston
Vintage; Published: 1989-04-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.51
Price in other shops:
White Noise: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)by Don DeLillo
Penguin Classics; Published: 2009-12-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.10
Price in other shops:
Giovanni's Roomby James Baldwin
Delta; Published: 2000-06-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.73
Price in other shops:
Zone One: A Novelby Colson Whitehead
Doubleday; Published: 2011-10-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.50
Price in other shops:
The Crying of Lot 49 (Perennial Fiction Library)by Thomas Pynchon
Harper Perennial; Published: 2006-11-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.16
Price in other shops:
Lost in the Funhouse (The Anchor Literary Library)by John Barth
Anchor; Published: 1988-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.10
Price in other shops:
The Road (Oprah's Book Club)by Cormac McCarthy
Vintage Books; Published: 2007-03-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.98
Price in other shops:
Home: A Novelby Marilynne Robinson
Picador; Published: 2009-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.24
Price in other shops:
Gilead: A Novelby Marilynne Robinson
Picador; Published: 2006-01-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.49
Price in other shops: