I remember a few years ago, this author brought out a second book, twenty odd years after the above, and the critics all raved about it. Their praise was such that it seemed that this author must be a sort of hermit, a recluse who ventures out once every quarter of a century with seminal words which are of inestimable value. That book, "Home", (uncanny resemblance of title), moved with the same stately, almost soporific pace as does "Housekeeping".
This one is even more drifting and distant in pace. The one great theme running through the entire book, and appearing on virtually every page, is of water. The book appears as if one is reading it through the surface of a pond. Still waters run deep, but I found it difficult to get to the bottom of the story.
On the surface, it is a story of abandoned sisters, their mutual dependence as children, and their eventual split as they reach puberty. All the most powerful scenes revolve around water - the death of their grandfather in a train which went off a bridge into a lake, the floods which entered their home, the suicide of their mother in the same lake. All the themes are brought together when the eccentric aunt, Sylvie, takes the writer, Ruth, out in a boat to view the spot where the train hit the waters, and then initiates her into the life of a vagrant, by taking her on a freight train back to the home which they are soon to abandon altogether.
The front cover quotes the Observer, "One of the Observer's 100 greatest novels of all time". This merely awakened a thirst in me to find out the other 99.
I can't say it would be in the top 50 of my favourite novels. Not a favourite at all, in fact, more a "duty read", as others seem to think so highly of it. It is a mystery to me why this book and its author have attained iconic status. Could anyone enlighten me?
I confess I have many favourite novels that I studied and this is one. I have tried to read another of Marilynne Robinson's novels and not got through it but I return to this one every now and again to re-read it and just love the characters - I love the ideas of outsider and insider, I love Sylvie's disdain of housekeeping - esp her piles of newspapers and I really like the relationship between sylvie and ruth. Sorry I am not really up to in depth analysis at the moment but hope that helps a little.
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting here, Johanna, and thank you for giving me your views on this book! It's given me a new perspective.
ReplyDeleteI bought Home and Gilead in an Oxfam bookshop and struggled to 'get into' either of them. I only read the first few pages of each and they are now both in the garage (along with lots of other books, both read and unread) that will be taken back to Oxfam. Although maybe they will be books that I can 'try' again and enjoy. This is something which happened for me with The Book Thief, which I started and hated, and then months later, on holiday devoured it over 3 days and cried when it ended! Something makes you pick up a book and buy it, so sometimes you have to remember that all kinds of things come into play as you read it....your mood, your situation, and these things alter....revisiting a film or a book can often have a different feeling to the first time around.
ReplyDeleteThank you for that, Libby. Yes, I too struggled with both this one and "Home". The only reason they haven't gone back to the Charity shop from which they came, is that some external authority seems to think they are works of genius. I am going to do what you suggest, and revisit sometime in the future, when a different impression may come across.
ReplyDeleteYep, I tend to use "Top 50" or "Top 100" lists as an idea factory, but rarely do I come away with the same rating in my mind as the critics gave. Same with movies.
ReplyDeleteThen again, I determined I would NEVER read any of the Harry Potter stories because of all the hoopla, and four years after the first one was published, I picked it up in a bookstore just to look at, and got hooked up to the eyeballs. It's now my favorite series of all time. Go figure.
Hello Sensibilia, I've just found your comments lurking in a moderation file (where there's never been anything before), so my apologies for not saying hello earlier. What challenging books you've been reading!
ReplyDeleteHello, Marcheline and hausfrau, and welcome! It's nice of you to drop by and share your book-thoughts.
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