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wrenreads2025 's review for:
Home
by Marilynne Robinson
This is an understated novel about the trials and triumphs of every day living. I find that it depicts the concerns of midlife and late life very well. This novel is part life review of the dying and part the reflection many do at midlife. Those who are seeking a sensational tale will find it "boring." However, I find that it addresses issues that get to the very marrow of life.
I had just finished Gilead not long ago, and I had to force myself to finish. I didn't like Rev. Ames (the Boughton's neighbor and protagonist of that novel). But I was completely intrigued by Jack, a minor character in Gilead. Here Robinson fleshes him out in all his painful glory.
At a quick glance, Home looks like a book about a dying preacher, his "old maid" daughter and his prodigal son. But as the book progresses all three develop to be much more complex and nuanced.
We watch Jack Boughton examining his own worth after a twenty year absence. He's made a lot of bad decisions in his life, and he wonders if he has any more chances left.
Glory, his little sister, has mainly supported others and has never had the chance to put her own happiness first. A long engagement falls apart for strange but suspected reasons, and now she's supporting her dad and now her brother.
Rev. Robert Boughton wants nothing more than to see Jack enjoy a mighty change of life and reform according to the Christian ideals that the reverent preached for decades. Will the gospel take root in Jack's heart? Can the old preacher offer unconditional love? Can God? Can Jack even love himself?
With Jack's homecoming, all three review events from decades past and ask themselves questions about themselves and about the purpose of life and the nature of God, the character of the human heart, and our what it means to love another person.
I had just finished Gilead not long ago, and I had to force myself to finish. I didn't like Rev. Ames (the Boughton's neighbor and protagonist of that novel). But I was completely intrigued by Jack, a minor character in Gilead. Here Robinson fleshes him out in all his painful glory.
At a quick glance, Home looks like a book about a dying preacher, his "old maid" daughter and his prodigal son. But as the book progresses all three develop to be much more complex and nuanced.
We watch Jack Boughton examining his own worth after a twenty year absence. He's made a lot of bad decisions in his life, and he wonders if he has any more chances left.
Glory, his little sister, has mainly supported others and has never had the chance to put her own happiness first. A long engagement falls apart for strange but suspected reasons, and now she's supporting her dad and now her brother.
Rev. Robert Boughton wants nothing more than to see Jack enjoy a mighty change of life and reform according to the Christian ideals that the reverent preached for decades. Will the gospel take root in Jack's heart? Can the old preacher offer unconditional love? Can God? Can Jack even love himself?
With Jack's homecoming, all three review events from decades past and ask themselves questions about themselves and about the purpose of life and the nature of God, the character of the human heart, and our what it means to love another person.