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A review by book_concierge
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
4.0
A beautifully written gem of a novel about loneliness and transience. If you have a chance, rent the movie, starring Christine Lahti. She's wonderful in it.
Update: Sept 2011
This slim little volume is Robinson’s debut novel. It is beautifully written, with lyrical prose. But very little actually happens in the book to move the story. And that is the whole point, I think.
At its core it is a novel about loss, abandonment, loneliness and transience.
Ruthie and Lucille are orphaned at an early age when their mother commits suicide by driving into the lake near their grandparents’ home – the same lake into which their grandfather’s train plunged long before they were born. They are raised by their grandmother and, when she dies, two great aunts (their grandfather’s maiden sisters) who simply cannot cope. Eventually their aunt Sylvie (their mother’s youngest sister) arrives to care for them.
But it slowly becomes clear to Ruth and Lucille, and eventually the whole town, that Sylvie is an odd duck. She never wants the lights on, she prefers cold food, she collects empty cans and old newspapers, she seems oblivious to social convention and even to the cold. She is clearly struggling with having to stay put and care for her nieces, when her heart is in wandering, being transient and beholden to no one.
Still Ruth and Lucille love her … until Lucille’s emerging need to become a part of a larger society of friends drives a wedge between her and her sister and aunt. And things rapidly deteriorate once Lucille abandons Ruthie and Sylvie to the house that floods in the spring, to wandering the woods at night, and exploring the lake in a stolen boat.
The ending is inevitable, sad, and uplifting all at once. The movie version has a much happier, “freer” feel to the ending than the book does, and perhaps the memory of that last movie scene colors my impression.
I love the language of this book, the images are so different - clear but murky – in a sort of half-dream state.
Update: Sept 2011
This slim little volume is Robinson’s debut novel. It is beautifully written, with lyrical prose. But very little actually happens in the book to move the story. And that is the whole point, I think.
At its core it is a novel about loss, abandonment, loneliness and transience.
Ruthie and Lucille are orphaned at an early age when their mother commits suicide by driving into the lake near their grandparents’ home – the same lake into which their grandfather’s train plunged long before they were born. They are raised by their grandmother and, when she dies, two great aunts (their grandfather’s maiden sisters) who simply cannot cope. Eventually their aunt Sylvie (their mother’s youngest sister) arrives to care for them.
But it slowly becomes clear to Ruth and Lucille, and eventually the whole town, that Sylvie is an odd duck. She never wants the lights on, she prefers cold food, she collects empty cans and old newspapers, she seems oblivious to social convention and even to the cold. She is clearly struggling with having to stay put and care for her nieces, when her heart is in wandering, being transient and beholden to no one.
Still Ruth and Lucille love her … until Lucille’s emerging need to become a part of a larger society of friends drives a wedge between her and her sister and aunt. And things rapidly deteriorate once Lucille abandons Ruthie and Sylvie to the house that floods in the spring, to wandering the woods at night, and exploring the lake in a stolen boat.
The ending is inevitable, sad, and uplifting all at once. The movie version has a much happier, “freer” feel to the ending than the book does, and perhaps the memory of that last movie scene colors my impression.
I love the language of this book, the images are so different - clear but murky – in a sort of half-dream state.