Home: A Novel
by Marilynne Robinson
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Book Reviews of Home: A Novel
Book Review: Ames v. Boughton
Summary: 3 Stars
I loved John Ames and think Gilead is probably the best book I've ever read. I'll continue to read it every few years. It is a masterpiece.
But for me, Home wasn't as satisfying. The other reviews have said it all well. For me, there were problems with all the characters. While one would naturally feel for someone whose son is 'lost,' there's something a bit hystrionic, prudish, and superior about Boughton's piety that annoys. Is it all about him? Then there's Jack. Maybe because Jack's sins are revealed so eliptically, so slowly, it's hard to be shocked when you finally understand them. Jack is hopeless, lacking the zest of an actual evildoer or the pathos of someone lovable. Glory, while somewhat sympathetic, lacks the insight of Ames as a narrator and can be a bit of a pill. It's not a home I'd want to live in. In a few years, I'll try again and perhaps my perspective will change. This time, I felt kind of a sense of anxious disappointment while reading the book. While the underlying intelligence of the author is still there, I didn't feel a sense of connection with the characters.
Given Robinson's greatness, I'd be willing to say it's possible that I'm the one who missed the point. I'll try again.
Book Review: After Gilead, the best book I've read in years
Summary: 5 Stars
Marilynne Robinson's last novel, Gilead, reminded me why I love to read. Robinson's books are absolutely absorbing, written in prose that manages to be unpretentious and astoundingly beautiful at the same time. Where so many contemporary writers lean on gimmicky, affected writing, her talent flows naturally onto the page and needs no stylistic crutches.
"Home" is a serious book that is both aesthetically and substantively meaningful. It is definitely not for everyone. Its brilliance is not in its plot but in the beauty of its writing and the depth of its characters and ideas. Those who are looking for a potboiler or a thriller will be disappointed.
Having said that, lately I've found it difficult to find a novel that could draw me in like this one. I've abandoned book after book because they were boring and I felt like I was wasting my time. As with Gilead, I didn't want to miss a sentence of "Home," so I gave it a degree of attention I haven't given a book in years, and was so absorbed I read the second half in one day.
For me, this book was a page-turner. I hope Robinson writes another one soon.
Book Review: Slow and arduous
Summary: 2 Stars
I felt this novel was poorly written. The simple language and dialogue style would have been adequate if there had been more indirect character development. As it was published, Robinson merely tells and tells and tells about the characters. There is so little meaningful action or conversation the novel truly seems endless. I had to force myself to finish it and at the end felt that the novel had little purpose. There were many opportunities for redemption (of the characters and the writing, mind you): delving more into the reconciliation between Ames and Jack, between Boughton and Ames, perhaps Glory asking her father for his forgiveness as she had also sinned, a change in Jack for the better...true redemption, the introduction of Jack's wife and the acceptance of her by a prejudiced family over time, Jack's wife and son being a catalyst for his change, really tackling the concept of predestination that was toyed with in the novel, etc. All of this was overlooked and the novel was truly lacking. It was a disappointment.Book Review: An Arduous Read
Summary: 2 Stars
"Home" is my first read of Ms. Robinson's work. And I must say it truly was an arduous task. I commend myself for not simply giving up. Although I can appprecite an author's style/skill to stifle the reader's imagination by inching one's way to a climax, however the inching took hours and the climax was disappointing.
I certainly felt the writer's plot had potential but somehow was lost in redundancy and peripheral details.
There was a scene that was heartfelt and brought a tear to my eye; when the ailing father pleaded for his two sons to stand in front of him so that he could get a good look at them, merely because he loved them so much. And I'm sure that heart-felt moment was centered around a look back of my own ailing father's wishes before he passed.
Reading comments of other reviews of this author's previous work, is the only reason I would give Gilead a chance because "Home", although a great title, did not impress me in the least.
Book Review: Robinson's pieties wear thin
Summary: 2 Stars
Poor Jack - I fear I would also be a truant, scoundrel and alcoholic if I grew up nested amidst so much piety, the likes of which do not seem to come under Robinson's scrutiny. This is book tedious and depressing, for the most part, and I am not convinced by the glowing reviews.
Clearly the prodigal son subject to scrutiny in this text remains a mystery to its author, whose terminal sense of "estrangement" since early childhood from everyone around him seems to be diagnosed as a failure of faith in the religion his siblings and pastor father reverentially share. This fundamental estrangement from religious conviction, suggests Robinson, accounts for the tragic fall of Jack, the good and long suffering reverend's alcoholic son, but I found myself itching for a good stiff drink right along with him 100 pages in.
Claustrophobic and strangely unimaginative, this book lacks empathy, I believe, for the only interesting character in it.