Home by Marilynne RobinsonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Marilynne Robinson’s Home is another book I would never have chosen to read even a few years ago. I would have found it too slow, too quiet, too psychological. But it is these aspects of the novel that capture the nature of life itself. Home reflects the realities of family situations we can find ourselves in—they can be slow, complex, and emotionally draining.
I read this book because I had read another of Robinson’s novels—Gilead—which is probably the most moving novel I’ve ever read. Although Home has the same characters and takes place concurrently with Gilead, the two novels are very different. Gilead is more philosophical and more uplifting, a novel of light. It’s hard to put into words. Home is not a dark novel, but it is sad. It is more realist, even heartbreaking. I almost wish Robinson would have written the books in the opposite order.
The three main characters are Robert Boughton, an old minister in his final days of life; Glory, his 38-year-old daughter, who has just come home after a relationship has ended; and Jack, Glory’s older brother, who has been missing from the family for twenty years, but has returned home to see his father one last time.
All three characters are weary, worn, and sad in their own ways, and each one is on a quest to find peace. Through them, Robinson explores whether fallen creatures can ever have a sense of truly being home in a fallen world. The book’s historical setting (1957, at the beginning of the Civil Rights movement) plays a role as well.
Robinson is a great writer. There is so much under the surface here. In fact, this is one of its themes. The three main characters try to connect, but there is so much baggage to deal with from years past that they face huge obstacles. But as with our own attempts to connect with loved ones who we have been estranged from, the attempt is worth it, even if it may fail. As Robinson progressively reveals what these characters have had to face alone through the years, she sets up a powerful ending.
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