He recounts family stories, he speaks of his long friendship with Boughton, the Presbyterian minister, and he muses about the return of Boughton’s ne’er-do-well son, Jack, whose relative youth and natural charm is a gentle though persistent source of envy for Ames. Gilead takes the form of a long and meandering letter written by Ames, an elderly and weakening Congregationalist minister who, having married late in life and fathered a son, takes pen in hand to write a letter to the boy whose adulthood he will not live to see. Like Wendell Berry, whose fiction explores different characters in his fictional Port William, Robinson’s two novels bring us into the intimate lives of two households, joined by friendship but strained by the imperfection of human understanding and the limits of love. Both are wonderful books, set in the same small Iowa town during the 1950’s. For some months I have been intending to read Home by Marilynne Robinson after enjoying her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead. One thing I enjoy about the Christmas break is the chance to sit back and read a novel. Review of Home in The New York Times by A.Review of Home in The New Yorker by James Wood, September 8, 2008.Novel's description at its publisher's website.^ ' The New Yorker: James Wood: Ten Favorite Books of 2008'.^ ' The San Francisco Chronicle: The 50 best fiction, poetry books of 2008'.

^ ' The Los Angeles Times: Special Issue: Favorite Books 2008'.^ ' The Washington Post: Best Books of 2008'.^ ' The New York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2008'.^ 'The National Book Foundation: 2008 National Book Award Finalist, Fiction: Marilynne Robinson, Home'.^ 'Marilynne Robinson wins the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction'.^ '2008 Book Prize Winners and Finalists'.Home was named one of the '100 Notable Books of 2008' by The New York Times, one of the 'Best Books of 2008' by The Washington Post, one of the 'Favorite Books 2008' of The Los Angeles Times, one of the 'Best Books of 2008' of The San Francisco Chronicle, as well as one of The New Yorker book critic James Wood's ten favorite books of 2008. The novel won one of the 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award for Fiction. A companion to Gilead, Home is an independent novel that takes place concurrently and examines some of the same events from a different angle. The novel chronicles the life of the Boughton family, specifically the father, Reverend Robert Boughton, and Glory and Jack, two of Robert's adult children who return home to Gilead, Iowa. Published in 2008, it is Robinson's third novel, preceded by Housekeeping in 1980 and Gilead in 2004. Home is a novel written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Marilynne Robinson.

Home by marilynne robinson