Home: A Novel
by Marilynne Robinson
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Book Reviews of Home: A Novel
Book Review: sorry to disagree with the lovers of this book, but......
Summary: 3 Stars
I absolutely adored Robinson's previous novel, Gilead -- thoughtful, thought-provoking, slow moving in a wonderful, wistful, fulfilling way. Home, which is set at the same time and with the same characters as Gilead, just told from a different perspective, is a disappointment. The main character, Glory, can't hold a candle to the narrator of Gilead, John Ames. Robinson seems to have lost her voice with this novel, or maybe she couldn't find a voice for Glory, who seems not well defined and thus not very interesting. Jack is by far the most interesting character, but he was more frustrating than sympathetic. The slow pace and thin plot, which worked wonderfully in Gilead and actually made that book the excellent piece of literature that it is, are a hinderance to this book. The pacing feels forced and some of the scenes are excruciating with their simplistic dialogue. Read Gilead and savor that -- but Home can be skipped.Book Review: a reader
Summary: 3 Stars
Although the book has much to recommend it, I didn't enjoy it. The only plot is human sadness.
The writing is finely crafted and the book offers gentle insights into the human condition and into the bonds of family. The character of Robert Boughton is nicely developed. He is presented as a thoughtful, loving, generous, flawed, occasionally demanding, aging man. His daughter Glory has returned to care for him as he slips toward his death. Her character is full of patience and regret, and I found her less nuanced, less convincing than her father. She is overshadowed by her brother Jack, who can't seem to escape his fate as the troublesome, difficult, and despairing prodigal son. He has always been his father's greatest worry. He gets the lion's share of attention because he is difficult. Although the book is beautifully written, it is overly long, the pace is slow, and the effect is one of pervasive melancholy.
Book Review: I was crying with Gloria at the end
Summary: 5 Stars
Tears come easily for Gloria for understandable reasons: 1) she's 38 years old, recovering from a long-term relationship that did not end well; 2) her father is dying, and 3) her long-lost brother has returned home.
I cried with her because I watched for almost ten years my brother cope with mental illness, which for a time resulted in homelessness and, to the devastation of my family, resulted ultimately in his suicide.
I cried with her as Jack struggled with his desire to reassure their father of his soul's salvation even as he knew the most he could admit to is that he was a seeker. I loved that Robinson did not neatly tie up the package in her ending in regards to faith issues.
My final tears could not help but come watching Rev. Boughton as he drew closer to the end. Glory may have annoyed some readers with all her tears, but I cried with her. Some of us just do.
Book Review: bemused
Summary: 4 Stars
this book disappointed me. i loved housekeeping and gilead, her previous novels; housekeeping ravished me with her sense of the overwhelming horror of death, cold, unchanging and forever, contrasted with the evanescence of life. In gilead, what gripped me was the titanic, heroic struggle between the ideal life and the real world. in home death seems to have won. the wonderful ferocious old men of gilead are tired and dying, everybody seems defeated, going through the motions, only the reprobate jack, who has been alien to this since his birth, seems to have any genuine moral sense, which may be her point. her characters are always wonderful, real and round and (like eliot's) so morally complex the notions of "good" and "bad" are useless; her writing is (like james) so compact you can't miss a word or you lose the train of thought. for that, the 4 stars. but i wanted more from this book than i got.Book Review: Quiet Prodigal Son Story
Summary: 4 Stars
Marilynne Robinson won the Pulitzer for her book GILEAD. I still haven't read GILEAD but I was anxious to read her follow-up, HOME, after reading several glowing reviews. HOME is a prodigal son story. It revisits several of the characters from GILEAD but it is not necessary to read GILEAD in order to understand the plot.
Prodigal Jack Boughton returns home after an extended absence to visit his ailing father and sister and tries to find some sort of redemption. The story is a quiet one that is very character-driven. For readers that crave fast-moving plots and lots of action, this would be a very difficult book to get through. However, it offers a great deal of reflection on religion and family and whether people can truly change. Extremely thoughtful if sometimes a bit slow.
I'm looking forward to reading GILEAD for a different perspective and viewpoint on this tale.