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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Robinson's beautiful new novel, a companion piece to her Pulitzer Prize–winning Gilead, is an elegant variation on the parable of the prodigal son's return. The son is Jack Boughton, one of the eight children of Robert Boughton, the former Gilead, Iowa, pastor, who now, in 1957, is a widowed and dying man. Jack returns home shortly after his sister, 38-year-old Glory, moves in to nurse their father, and it is through Glory's eyes that we see Jack's drama unfold. When Glory last laid eyes on Jack, she was 16, and he was leaving Gilead with a reputation as a thief and a scoundrel, having just gotten an underage girl pregnant. By his account, he'd since lived as a vagrant, drunk and jailbird until he fell in with a woman named Della in St. Louis. By degrees, Jack and Glory bond while taking care of their father, but when Jack's letters to Della are returned unopened, Glory has to deal with Jack's relapse into bad habits and the effect it has on their father. In giving an ancient drama of grace and perdition such a strong domestic setup, Robinson stakes a fierce claim to a divine recognition behind the rituals of home. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
"Home begins simply . . . and slowly grows in luxury--its last fifty pages are magnificently moving and richly pondered." -- The New Yorker --The New Yorker
"Robinson's work is morally complex, subtle, and she can be an extraordinary stylist, [her] words pitched precisely to effect." -- The Globe and Mail -- The Globe and Mail
"Robinson's work is morally complex, subtle, and she can be an extraordinary stylist, [her] words pitched precisely to effect." -- The Globe and Mail -- The Globe and Mail
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Are there really people like this?,
By Rosaleen "Rosaleen" (Halesworth, Suffolk) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Home (Paperback)
HomeI finally finished slogging my way through this book, and found it a highly unsatisfying experience. First, the characters are not well-rounded, and in the end, we know and understand very little about them, their motives, their inner feelings. And that's what the book is about, in essence. While I understand that perhaps this novel is not meant to be entirely realistic, it certainly seems to set itself up within the category of realism. But the characters address each other in ways that seem so restrained, so delicate, and indirect, that I found the dialogue to be maddeningly unbelievable. Can people in a family really speak to each other so that every nuance, every line they say is so calculated? It seemed almost ridiculously circumspect. Moreover, I found that it was hard to differentiate who was speaking to whom, because the characters are so lacking in depth and personality and interest. The plot, such as it is, uses delaying tactics to the big reveal, but then nothing much is revealed after 300 pages of a what felt like a long read. It is a matter of much too little, much too late. The coda was particularly lame and had a sense of being an afterthought meant to tie some loose ends together. I didn't care very much about what happened to these characters, because I didn't know who they were. It's a novel about forgiveness and acceptance and family ties, but I found myself incredulous that anyone could be as caring of every word they utter, and talk so much about the same subject over and over, without giving much real drama or tension. I appreciate subtlety and indirection, but this fell into an altogether different mode of not giving the reader enough to go on. Unlike a writer like Chekhov, for example, where often the characters say things they don't mean, or can't say what they want to say, in this book what the characters do say is tendentious and repetitious. If you can grasp at subtleties and your imagination is stirred to fill in the blanks, then that is wonderful, but I did not feel the least desire to imagine anything much about these characters. I wish I could say something nicer about Robinson's book, because I am a fan, I could barely get through Home. It was a trying experience to read, and in the end, I found it simply a bore, about boring people.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not the Book for Me,
By
This review is from: Home (Hardcover)
Home by Marilynne Robinson is the story of the prodigal son. The son of an ailing minister returns home and settles into an uneasy relationship with the dying man and his grown, younger sister. I enjoyed the storyline of this book but found the plot to move very slowly and, ultimately, it left me wanting for more. There seemed to be a number of issues and stories that remained under the surface without being fully explained even at the end of the book. I finished the book but didn't really enjoy the slow pace and the unanswered questions.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can You Go Home Again?,
By Laurel-Rain Snow "Rain" "Rainy Days" (Fresno, California) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Home (Hardcover)
When Glory Boughton returns home to Gilead to care for her ailing father, she carries with her the regrets and fantasies of a life of her own - now abandoned. But soon after her return to the old homestead, her prodigal brother Jack writes a letter, announcing that he, too, is on his way home.After more than twenty years gone, she barely recognizes him - and a part of her resents his return, coming as it does at a time when the old man needs this connection so badly. But as time passes, she and Jack come to a deeper understanding of each other, revealing some of their own secrets that neither is eager to share with anyone. Caring for their father together, fixing up the old homestead, which has become quite neglected in the past few years, they seemingly form a team...Protecting each other against the harshness of the life here, which remains the same, with the Reverend Ames sitting in judgment and the town folk glancing sidelong at Jack as if they half-expect him to steal from them...This is the reputation Jack once held, and his twenty-year abandonment of the family and any ties to this community, somehow reinforces this view. And Jack, self-deprecatory and doing nothing to eradicate the image the townspeople hold of him, continues in his quiet way to try to make some kind of amends - on the home front and with the minister. Their father, too, a former minister, holds many beliefs that cast someone like Jack in a "sinner" role. Slowly, the author peels away the layers that conceal the sadness and loss carried by these two, as they walk along the old familiar paths in the town and as they fall into the humble patterns of their youth in this home that is filled with memories of a time long ago...Dreams and loves and fantasies have been cast aside. In many ways, it seems as if these two people are sacrificing some other life to be here, caring for the old man, who barely recognizes them at times. And as the days and weeks pass, it becomes clear that, despite the moments of reconnection, time has not healed all the old wounds and the future is not what they expected... In Home, Robinson cleverly depicts those poignant, nostalgic moments we each carry with us. By Laurel-Rain Snow, Author of "Web of Tyranny", etc.
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