Looking for a place to feel inspired and challenged? Like to share a smile or a laugh? Interested in becoming more familiar with Canadian writers who have a Christian worldview? We are writers who live in different parts of Canada, see life from a variety of perspectives, and write in a number of genres. We share the goal of wanting to entertain and inspire you to be all you can be with God's help.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Home — A Novel To Be Savoured — Martin
In order to talk about Home, it’s impossible to not talk about Gilead (2004),Marilynne Robinson’s wonderful Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. That’s because the home spoken of is in the imaginary town of Gilead, Iowa, and the characters are those from the previous novel. When I read Gilead, I didn’t want it to end. Robinson has, thankfully, added to her earlier triumph.
The differences are subtle. Gilead is a beautiful, literary novel, written from the perspective of an elderly Congregationalist minister John Ames. Beginning in 1956, he is writing about his life to his young son, who he fears will have few direct memories of his father, if the minister’s heart condition continues to deteriorate. Ames had lost his first wife in childbirth, and has recently married a much younger woman. Ames’ best friend is Gilead’s Presbyterian minister, William Boughton. Both men have named a son after each other. John Ames Boughton (Jack), unfortunately, became a wayward man who left his family in disgrace when he left Gilead. Gilead moves slowly but surely because Robinson’s powerful characters wrestle through important life issues with both weakness and deep faith.
Home takes place in the early ‘60s. It comes from the perspective of Glory, the youngest of William Boughton’s children. She has returned “home” to care for her aging father, after her own life hasn’t turned out as she had hoped. Significantly, Jack also returns “home” after a twenty-year, uncommunicative absence. He hadn’t even appeared at his mother’s funeral. Jack’s life has moved from disappointment to disaster, and now he has alcoholism and years of broken relationships to deal with.
Glory struggles with the faith she learned from her parents, Jack’s narrow rejection of salvation despite his intellectual acknowledgement of Christian truth, and the town’s readiness to write Jack off for his sins. She views things through a more complex lens. Glory has her own sins to deal with, and has such compassion for her troubled brother because she understands how circumstances sometimes turn against us.
I highly recommend Home, but suggest you should start with Gilead. If we’re fortunate, Marilynne Robinson will write yet another sequel. I know I’ll be ready to buy it.
Home is published by Harper Collins (2009)
D.S. Martin is Music Critic for Christian Week. He is the award-winning author of the poetry collections Poiema (Wipf & Stock) and So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed (Rubicon Press). They are both available at: www.dsmartin.ca
Labels:
Gilead,
home,
Literary fiction,
Marilynne Robinson
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
Write Canada is more than a professional networking conference. It’s a safe place where beginning and intermediate writers can learn ...
-
I've been writing professionally for most of my adult life. My first novel, THE JOSIAH FILES was published twenty years ago by Thom...
-
Our coordinator suggested that in our April posts on this blog site we might “write a post about who we are and what we write. . . . [and w...
-
by Linda Hall If you haven't seen the “Which Downton Abbey Character Are You?” quiz, you soon will. It’s all over Facebook. Being a...
-
No one has to tell writers that they're up against some pretty big obstacles these days. The latest Tsunami to hit the writing/publishi...
-
The profile picture was blank and I had not seen a post from Charlie since 2012, but earlier this month, Facebook notified me that it was h...
-
I couldn't resist that as a title. I love it when we get new words added to our dictionary. I love especially the word 'blogosphere....
-
by Reverend Dr. Ed Hird Life is messy. Family is messy. Marriage is messy. Church is messy. How do we navigate through the complexitie...
-
Yes or No could be so boring at times, can't it? To catch my drift on the topic, click on the video below: This clip is part of ...
-
Monday began like any other day. My husband and I started out at slightly different times. I had a meeting to attend over the noon hour...
1 comment:
Excellent book! I also read it this spring, in fact, this very morning came across my notes on it. But I never wrote a review. It's one of those books that's so big, it's hard to pin down. Marilynne Robinson is worth studying for her simple but deep prose.
Post a Comment