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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can You Go Home Again?, Nov 17 2008
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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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fitting Not-Quite-Sequel to Gilead, Jan 21 2010
Marilynne Robinson doesn't write very often but when she does she packs a punch. Her first novel Housekeeping was a Pulitzer Prize nominee; her second book Gilead was widely acclaimed as a masterpiece and won numerous awards including the Pulitzer for Fiction. Home, only her third novel, has won the Orange Prize for Fiction.
Home brings the reader back to the same Boughton family at the same moments in time as Gilead. We see the same characters from a different perspective and, as in Kurosawa's Rashomon, we learn that different viewpoints often reveal different truths. We come away caring even more about the feckless Jack, the dutiful Glory and their father Robert. This is a wonderful novel that deserves to be read but is probably best approached after having first taken on Gilead.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not the Book for Me, Mar 3 2009
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.
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