RECOMMENDED READING FOR FEBRUARY

GILEAD and/or HOUSEKEEPING by Marilynne Robinson

Soon after Marilynne Robinson’s first novel, Housekeeping, was published in 1981 it became known as a modern classic. Recently, on the publication of her long-awaited second novel, Gilead, Mona Simpson called Housekeeping “one of the ten best novels of the past century. . .a cherished marvel that happens only once in a lifetime.” A long list of critics, authors and readers agree. The novel centers on two sisters, Ruth and Lucille, who are raised by their eccentric aunt in an Idaho community beset by “climate calamities, sudden violence and extreme isolation.” This story of loss and survival is told with “exquisite lyricism”: [the novel] struck a quiet chord in a generation of women who had assimilated second-wave feminism and became tired of the stridency of agenda-driven literature” (New York Times Magazine, 10/24/04).

Gilead, while embracing similar themes, is a very different book, it is the story of a minister, approaching the end of life, confined to his Iowa home, writing journal entries for the young son he will never see to adulthood. Gilead is also an account of a “century’s worth of political events in the Middle West.” In that context, Robinson has said “. . .slavery became the focus of the novel” through her narration of abolition history. Reviewers have called the novel “a beautiful book of ideas” on moral development” and as The New York Times noted: “Gilead . . .is demanding, grave and lucid. . .Robinson’s words have a spiritual force that’s very rare in contemporary fiction.” [There are Readers’ Guides, author interviews and other information on the Farrar, Straus and Giroux Web Site, and amazon.com has reviews and excerpts of both novels.]