Home
by Robinson, Marilynne
- Used
- very good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 1554681227
- ISBN 13
- 9781554681228
- Seller
-
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Paperback. Very Good. Standard used condition May have some wear, highlighting, notes, creasing, previous owner's name, different cover images, etc (the dust cover may be missing) Might be ex-library book Fast & reliable delivery Exceptional customer service May ship from alternate location depending on your zip code and availability X036
Reviews
On Nov 11 2014, CloggieDownunder said:
Home is the second book in the Gilead series by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Marilynne Robinson, and is set in Gilead, Iowa at the same time as the first book. This book focusses on Reverend Robert Boughton (closest friend of Reverend John Ames), and his family. Thirty-eight-year-old Glory Boughton, with a failed engagement behind her, returns to Gilead to look after her ailing father, Robert. A letter arrives, and Glory worries about the effect it will have on her father: “…the note might really be from Jack, but upsetting somehow, written from a ward for the chronically vexatious, the terminally remiss”.
Eventually, her disreputable brother Jack, an unemployed alcoholic, returns home after twenty years of virtual silence. Her father is pleased to see this favoured child again, one who went from “a restless, distant, difficult boy” to what Jack himself admits: “….nothing but trouble…….I create a kind of displacement around myself as I pass through the world, which can fairly be called trouble”. Jack is not the only one with secrets in his past, and he and Glory form a bond. His reconnection with his godfather and namesake, Reverend John Ames does not proceed smoothly.
They think back on their youth in the family home: “Experience had taught them that truth has sharp edges and hard corners, and could be seriously at odds with kindness” and “…lying in that family meant only that the liar would appreciate discretion…..as a matter of courtesy they treated one another’s deceptions like truth, which was a different thing from deceiving, or being deceived”. Glory is less than pleased to be in Gilead and dreads the thought of spending the rest of her days there: “To have [the past] overrun its bounds this way and become present and possibly future, too – they all knew this was a thing to be regretted”
Robinson treats the reader to some marvellous descriptive prose: “Their father said if they could see as God can, in geological time, they would see it leap out of the ground and turn in the sun and spread it arms and bask in the joys of being an oak tree in Iowa”. She touches on the question of racial prejudice and also includes some hints about the life Lila led before Gilead, a subject expanded on in the third book in this series. While this novel is somewhat slow in places, it is a stirring read and the final pages will move many readers to tears.
4.5★s
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Details
- Bookseller
- Pine Tree Books (CA)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- R28300S
- Title
- Home
- Author
- Robinson, Marilynne
- Format/Binding
- Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- ISBN 10
- 1554681227
- ISBN 13
- 9781554681228
- Publisher
- Picador
- Place of Publication
- 2008
- This edition first published
- 1/1/2009
Terms of Sale
Pine Tree Books
If any book needs to be returned: We need to receive the book in the same condition it was sent to you.
We will issue your refund as soon as we receive the book. //
Tous livre retourner doit être dans la même condition don nous vous l¿avons envoyé. Une fois le livre reçu, nous effectuons un remboursement immédiatement.
About the Seller
Pine Tree Books
Biblio member since 2020
Ottawa, Ontario
About Pine Tree Books
We sell quality used books.