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“Home” by Marilynne Robinson

“Home” by Marilynne RobinsonHome: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson
Published by Picador on September 1, 2009
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
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From the Publisher’s Description: Hundreds of thousands were enthralled by the luminous voice of John Ames in Gilead, Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel. Home is an entirely independent, deeply affecting novel that takes place concurrently in the same locale, this time in the household of Reverend Robert Boughton, Ames’s closest friend…Home is a moving and healing book about families, family secrets, and the passing of the generations, about love and death and faith. It is Robinson’s greatest work, an unforgettable embodiment of the deepest and most universal emotions. A 2008 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction. [Note: All links are to the 2009 Reprint edition]

 

In my notes on her previous book, Gilead, I wrote that I first became aware of Marilynne Robinson’s work while in seminary at TEDS. It took me more than 5 years to finish Gilead, because school and life got in the way. I was determined not to wait as long to read Robinson’s companion novel. Having enjoyed the last book so much, I had been motivated to read Home sooner rather than later.

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“Gilead” by Marilynne Robinson

“Gilead” by Marilynne RobinsonGilead: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson
Published by Picador on January 10, 2006
Pages: 247
Format: Audiobook
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Publisher’s Description: Twenty-four years after her first novel, Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson returns with an intimate tale of three generations from the Civil War to the twentieth century: a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America’s heart. Writing in the tradition of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, Marilynne Robinson’s beautiful, spare, and spiritual prose allows “even the faithless reader to feel the possibility of transcendent order” (Slate). In the luminous and unforgettable voice of Congregationalist minister John Ames, Gilead reveals the human condition and the often unbearable beauty of an ordinary life. [Note: All links are to the 2006 Reprint edition]

 

I first became aware of Gilead while in seminary at TEDS. I was part of a “Formation Group” on campus, where a small group of students would meet regularly together with a faculty member for spiritual formation, discussion, and prayer. My Formation Group leader was Dr. Phil Sell, and at some point he asked us to read Gilead together and discuss it. More reading wasn’t exactly what I thought I needed as a seminary student. I think I only read a couple of chapters, as did most everyone else in the group…but I enjoyed what little I read and I always meant to come back to it. I don’t think I knew at the time that Gilead was the winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. I also didn’t know that, had I made the effort to read the whole book, it would have been a great benefit to my preparation for ministry.

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