![]() ![]() Indeed, the only man who has stuck around makes a dramatic exit in the first pages of the novel – in a manner which reminded me of the opening to Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love, although Robinson’s came first. This opening, hovering between comedy and tragedy without any indication which side the balance might fall, is an indication of the absence of men in Housekeeping. Sylvia Forster, and when she died, of her sisters-in-law, Misses Lily and Nona Foster, and when they fled, of her daughter, Mrs. I grew up with my younger sister, Lucille, under the care of my grandmother, Mrs. ![]() The opening lines are surprisingly stark, given the writing that follows: I don’t think it is as good as Gilead, but it is still a strikingly beautiful example of how astonishingly an author can use prose. This opinion was formed on the basis of her novel Gilead, and has been strengthened by reading her first novel, Housekeeping (1980). ![]() I don’t read many living authors, certainly not as a percentage of my overall reading, but I think there is only one whom I consider to be a ‘great’ – and that is Marilynne Robinson. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |