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Housekeeping: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Marilynne Robinson
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $11.93
You Save: $2.07 (15%)
New (6) Used (13) Collectible (1) from $8.31
Avg. Customer Rating:  146 reviews
Sales Rank: 121340
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.7
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
ASIN: B0013TFBEC
Publication Date: November 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A modern classic, Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, their eccentric and remote aunt. The family house is in the small Far West town of Fingerbone set on a glacial lake, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck, and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town "chastened by an outsized landscape and extravagant weather, and chastened again by an awareness that the whole of human history had occurred elsewhere." Ruth and Lucille's struggle toward adulthood beautifully illuminates the price of loss and survival, and the dangerous and deep undertow of transience.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 141 more reviews...
 This Book Will Change You August 25, 2008
This book is so beautiful and wise that if you give it a chance, and yes it is a difficult read, it will change you. The ending is so transcendent I have never been able to get through it without tears. Is it comforting? No. It makes us look at some uncomfortable truths. As Ruthie becomes more and more odd, more and more like Sylvie, she also becomes wiser, almost a mystic about time and place. Lucille on the other hand, in her dogged quest for "normalcy" becomes more narrow-minded, more banal, ultimately more dangerous. Reviewing a book like this is difficult because it is so much more than the sum of its parts. This book is an article of faith.
Artistic and moving August 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Housekeeping" is not a novel for the faint of heart. Although at its surface it the fantastic tale of two girls it is, in reality, a comment on our relationship to place and home and our conception of the meaning of family. Robinson's writing is such that the reader never entirely falls under the spell of the story but remains fully conscious of each carefully crafted sentence. This "wordsmithing" is part of the allure of the novel, however, as it is a tale that requires that each line hold a distinctly unique part of the story. If you are looking for an author that demonstrates a complete understanding of her artistry and the effect it can have on a plot, Robinson will in no way disappoint you.
 Drifting Prose..... August 10, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was really looking forward to enjoying this novel from all of the stellar reviews I had read.
Perhaps due to all of the hype, it just could not rise to the the high mark set for it.
Robinson's prose is indeed a lush, rich tapestry, but at times it drifts from the story and feels rather 'lost in space', leaving the reader wondering where to anchor it.
The plot feels nebulous and lacking in clarity. The characters are never fully realized and become awkward and distant. You want to feel connected to these poor motherless girls, but drift away instead.
It just didn't engage me and thus I was unable to empathise with any of the characters and felt that the overall effect was remote and the plot too loose to be fully realized.
One of the best novels of this century August 4, 2008
Housekeeping, told from a young girl's point of view, is one of the best-written novels of this century, and should be on any list of bests. It is impossible to read this book quickly, because the quality of each sentence is so amazing that the novel forces you to slow down and truly read. Robinson's mind is extraordinary, and she composes sentences in completely unpredictable ways, leading you in directions you never otherwise would go - her juxtapositioning of metaphors and similes is awe-inspiring.
A tale of losses and discovery, Housekeeping is not as well known as it should be. If you have not read this yet, a mind-blowing journey awaits.
 Overrated and lacks a credible voice July 24, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
At best I'd rate this book as OK. It beats "Gilead" by a longshot. Provides a moderate amount of interesting material to talk about if you're in a book club. But beyond that the writing is pretentious and sounds like someone trying too hard to write something "important." To me the most frustrating aspect of the book is the tendency for overwritten, maudlin passages. The narrator is supposed to be a young woman who dropped out of school. Yet the book consistently showcases passages like this:
"So a diaspora threatened always. And there is no living creature, though the whims of eons had put its eyes on boggling stalks and clapped it in a carapace, diminished it to a pinpoint and given it a taste for mud and stuck it down a well or hid it under a stone, but that creature will live on if it can." (Robinson, p. 178)
"My ravishers left their traces in me, male and female, and over the months I rounded, grew heavy, until the scandal could no longer be concealed and oblivion expelled me. But this I have in common with all my kind. By some bleak alchemy what had been mere unbeing becomes death when life is mingled with it." (Robinson, p. 215)
This kind of writing isn't realistic and doesn't fit the character at all. The book should have been written from the third person point of view -- which is how it sounds anyway. If you can get past the melodramatic, "I've-got-a-thesaurus-and-I'm-not-afraid-to-use-it" writing style you may enjoy this book.
There are certainly some interesting characters in this book (particularly as compared to Gilead). But unfortunately they're not given more time. In particular the character of Sylvie and the town sheriff are the most interesting. I think a better story would have been built around them...or they could have been given more time in the story.
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