June 2006: Housekeeping (Robinson)

Post date: Jan 07, 2010 8:43:47 PM

Gathered around the big table at Tully's coffeehouse in downtown Berkeley on June 20, 2006, about eight readers discussed Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (who recently won a Pulizer for her novel Giliad). The beautiful prose was so intoxicating that several of us had to re-read passages such as "The force behind the movement of time is a mourning that will not be comforted." We explored this haunting novel for threads and explanations of what it says about family, and the importance of people once they're gone through details and obsession about the grandfather and mother, and how aunt Sylvie responds to the threat of Ruthie (the narrator) being taken away from her... and were unable to draw conclusion or moral from the story.

Though told from the perspective of one girl telling the story of her life as an adult, much of the book was description not dialogue, and though she did not sound sad, we found the book overall to be quite depressing. Another story of unconventional childhood that seems particularly daunting is Jeannette Walls' memoir Glass Castle (2005).