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Marilynne Robinson

Teoksen Gilead tekijä

19+ teosta 26,990 jäsentä 930 arvostelua 141 Favorited

Tietoja tekijästä

Marilynne Robinson's first novel, Housekeeping, won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. Her other novels include Mother Country and Lila. Gilead won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award and Home won the Orange Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her näytä lisää nonfiction books include When I Was a Child I Read Books, Absence of Mind, and The Death of Adam. She was the recipient of a 2012 National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama. She received the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction in 2016. She has been named the winner of the Richard C Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award as part of the 2016 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. She was included on Time magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. (Bowker Author Biography) näytä vähemmän

Sarjat

Tekijän teokset

Gilead (2004) 10,778 kappaletta
Housekeeping (1980) — Tekijä — 6,345 kappaletta
Kotiin (2008) 3,771 kappaletta
Lila (2014) 2,497 kappaletta
Jack (2020) 825 kappaletta
When I Was a Child I Read Books (2012) 761 kappaletta
The Givenness of Things: Essays (2015) 497 kappaletta
What Are We Doing Here? Essays (2018) 351 kappaletta
Mother Country (1989) 66 kappaletta
Reading Genesis (2024) 51 kappaletta

Associated Works

Ääni ja vimma (1929) — Esipuhe, eräät painokset17,183 kappaletta
Herääminen (1899) — Johdanto, eräät painokset9,151 kappaletta
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories {9 stories} (1899) — Johdanto, eräät painokset1,128 kappaletta
The Future Dictionary of America (2004) — Avustaja — 627 kappaletta
The Best American Essays 2007 (2007) — Avustaja — 469 kappaletta
The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2016 (2016) — Avustaja — 109 kappaletta
Granta 15: The Fall of Saigon (1985) — Avustaja — 97 kappaletta
The Granta Book of Reportage (Classics of Reportage) (1993) — Avustaja — 93 kappaletta
The Virago Book of Wanderlust and Dreams (1998) — Avustaja — 36 kappaletta
The Best Spiritual Writing 2012 (2011) — Avustaja — 27 kappaletta
The New Salmagundi Reader (1996) — Avustaja — 3 kappaletta

Merkitty avainsanalla

Yleistieto

Jäseniä

Keskustelut

Gilead, Someone explain it to me... (heinäkuu 2014)

Kirja-arvosteluja

I previously read Marilynne Robinson's four Gilead novels, and only now this Housekeeping, written 25 years earlier, and that may be the wrong order. I definitely recognized the very controlled, refined writing style; Robinson is a first-class craftswoman who writes heavily charged sentences in a misleadingly poetic upmake. And I also recognized the emphasis on sensorial introspection: just as in the Gilead novels, the main character (here Ruth Foster) constantly alternates between registering her own sensory experiences and reflecting on what that does to her, and on the things she struggles with. Here Robinson approaches what the 19th century naturalists and symbolists did, by focusing on the threat posed by the environment in which this story takes place: the remote, chilly village of Fingerbone (the name alone), on a large lake in Idaho, connected with the outside world by a railway bridge that runs over the water. The tone is set right from the start: Ruth tells how her grandfather died when a train derailed on the bridge, ended up in the lake and was never recovered (and neither the bodies of the passengers within). And less than 20 pages later we read how her own mother committed suicide by driving her car off a cliff into the lake. The 'gothic flavor' of this novel is also emphasized further on, including in an unparalleled nocturnal scene in which the house is half flooded; darkness and obscurity clearly are recurring themes in Robinson.
But the main body of this novel describes how Ruth, together with her sister Lucille, subsequently came under the care of her aunt Sylvie, a confused, chaotic and very dreamy character. Robinson writes quite emphatically: “it was the beginning of Sylvie's housekeeping”, and in doing so she immediately provides us with a key to reading this novel. After all, it is not only about the struggle to keep the house (literally), but also about keeping it 'in order', and by extension also one's own life. Looking back on it, you notice that all the characters in this novel struggle with this: getting a grip on their own lives, curbing the inherent chaos of life and steering it in the right direction, and what you have to give up and sacrifice in doing so, and whether such an orderly life is actually the right choice. And all that aggravated by the struggle with loss, grief, isolation and loneliness, especially as a woman or a girl.
In other words, through Ruth Foster's coming-of-age story, Robinson opens up a reflection on what this life is all about and whether it makes sense to control it. To be clear: she does not give simple, obvious answers, but above all - through Ruth - asks the right questions. And thus there is a link with the Gilead novels, which essentially deal with the same theme, but with a clear, more religious - read Calvinist - slant, in which the question of good and evil, damnation and grace are more central. I think that Robinson definitely shows even more mastery in some of those Gilead novels, both stylistically and substantively, but with this 'Housekeeping' she already showed that her novels are among the best of what has been written in recent decades, worldwide.
… (lisätietoja)
½
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
bookomaniac | 211 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Mar 15, 2024 |
Reason read: botm 3/2024, Reading 1001. This is a novel about family, family secrets, passing generations, forgiveness, and death. I read the first book set in Gilead and this is the second book. The characters are Glory and her prodigal brother Jack. The Reverend Robert Boughton is old and dying. Glory has come home to take care of her dad and Jack has returned hoping to mend fences with himself and his family.

I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed Gilead and I've read Housekeeping. I want to read Lila and Jack. I find the stories good because they're about family not that I think the authors Christian values are perfect because I don't think they are but I also think that would make for good discussions.

This book won the Orange Prize of what is now the Women's Prize. 2009
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
Kristelh | 148 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Mar 12, 2024 |
This was upsetting on many levels. Stories about women who aren't mothers but do have children are the most devastating things on the face of the planet. I also can't help but think about Ada or Ardor re: Lucille, Lucette who wanted more and more and then is left/leaves. And of course, the red hair. When Ruth is left overnight outside in the dark will haunt me for the rest of my life.
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
adaorhell | 211 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Feb 27, 2024 |
Ook dit was weer een taaie brok. Ik schreef eerder al dat Marilynne Robinson het haar lezers niet gemakkelijk maakt: haar thematieken (essentieel het goede en kwade in de mens, en hoe we daar als individu mee omgaan) zijn bijzonder zwaar op de hand, en haar meticuleuze, superieure schrijfstijl vergt voortdurende concentratie. Ook in dit vierde deel van de Gilead-serie blijft ze op bekend terrein: net als in het tweede deel (Home) staat opnieuw Jack centraal, het zwarte schaap van de Boughton-familie. En op zich leren we niet veel nieuws: uit Home wisten we al dat Jack een dronkaard en een dief is, die zich maar al te zeer bewust is van zijn ‘slechtheid’, en we wisten van zijn problematische relatie met de zwarte Della Miles. Maar in dit deel graaft Robinson nog veel dieper in zijn ‘verdoemde’ ziel. Het doet bijna pijn om geconfronteerd te worden met Jack’s voortdurende gepieker, zijn permanente onzekerheid, en zijn ziekelijk minderwaardigheidsgevoel. Robinson maakt tastbaar hoe mensen in de marge van de maatschappij telkens taxeren hoe ze door anderen (die er beter voor staan) scheef bekeken worden, en hoe machteloos ze zijn om zichzelf uit het moeras te trekken. Bijzonder bij Jack is dat hij uit die situatie een eigen levensfilosofie heeft ontwikkeld, namelijk om zo weinig mogelijk schade aan te richten. Vergeefs uiteraard.
En dan is er die romance tussen Jack en Della waar het hier om draait, een romance waar we het fundament niet helemaal goed van kunnen peilen, maar die zich zo delicaat en aandoenlijk ontwikkelt, dat je er wel door gegrepen moet worden. Het lijkt niet meer dan een zoveelste Romeo en Julia-verhaal, gedoemd al beide protagonisten zijn door hun achtergrond en door de heersende wetten (met onder andere een verrassend ontnuchterende kijk op de morele stugheid van de zwarte gemeenschap). Wat me in de dialogen tussen Jack en Della vooral opviel was hoe dikwijls het over licht en donker gaat, misschien een hier wel erg voor de hand liggende metafoor maar dan wel één die het dilemma van dit koppel treffend samenvat. Uiteindelijk snijdt Robinson in dit deel vooral de vraag aan of Jack gered kan worden door Della, of nog, of iemand die verdoemd is gered kan worden door de liefde, een vraag die eerder al bij Dostojewski centraal stond (vooral in Misdaad en Straf). Inderdaad, Robinson meet zich met de allergrootsten en ze blijft daarbij overeind. Dat zegt genoeg.
… (lisätietoja)
½
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
bookomaniac | 36 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Feb 23, 2024 |

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1980s (1)

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Tilastot

Teokset
19
Also by
14
Jäseniä
26,990
Suosituimmuussija
#766
Arvio (tähdet)
3.9
Kirja-arvosteluja
930
ISBN:t
360
Kielet
21
Kuinka monen suosikki
141

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