Although no one but me would notice, I\u2019m a little sheepish about recommending Marilynne Robinson\u2019s new book, Home, given that in last month\u2019s Bowdoin magazine I recommended the new president read Robinson\u2019s earlier book Gilead. I do read other authors\u2014really\u2014but I love Robinson\u2019s writing. Her language is exquisite and her stories are lovingly told. Home is a companion book to Gilead in that Robinson continues the lives of many of the characters from the first book. In Home a sister and brother return home as adults after troubling experiences in their lives to live with their aged father, a pastor in the small, rural town of Gilead, Iowa. The novel is set in the late 1950s. What I love about Home and Gilead is that Robinson asks the big questions\u2014what does it mean to come home, do we deserve to be loved\u2014in a place and with characters who are simple and sparse. I grew up in Chicago in the 1950s but have relatives who still live in rural Iowa towns like Gilead. As a kid I spent time on their farms in Bode, Ft. Dodge, St. Joe\u2019s. Robinson\u2019s portrayal of Gilead reminds me so much of that time and place in my own life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Although no one but me would notice, I\u2019m a little sheepish about recommending Marilynne Robinson\u2019s new book, Home, given that in last month\u2019s Bowdoin magazine I recommended the new president read Robinson\u2019s earlier book Gilead. I do read other authors\u2014really\u2014but I love Robinson\u2019s writing. Her language is exquisite and her stories are lovingly told. Home … <\/p>\n