Home by Marilynne Robinson

Two adult siblings return to their childhood home in Gilead, Iowa seeking refuge from their unfulfilled lives.

The first to return, Glory, has escaped from an unrequited love affair that has left her feeling ashamed and a teaching job that has left her feeling inessential. The youngest of the Boughton’s eight children, she busies herself as caretaker to her ailing father and to running the household.

Eldest Boughton, Jack, returns after a 20-year absence shrouded in enigma and carrying the burden of his youthful sins. He has not spent the last decades in repentance, but rather in and out of bars and prison and still carries more secrets he is not willing to reveal.

The family patriarch, the Reverend Robert Boughton welcomes his children back to their home. His faith has led him all his life, and as it is nearing its end, he desperately wants to ensure his son’s eternal deliverance.

Lila Ames, the young wife to Boughton neighbor Reverend Ames, is warm and compassionate and is the only character with the ability to take everything in without judgment and put everyone at ease with just a few kind words. She seemed a very unlikely match for her reverend husband, a judgmental and unsympathetic man.

Quotes:

He looked like the saddest fantasy she had ever had of the worst that might have become of him, except that he was breathing, an sweating, and a little tense under her touch.

His eyes were still reddened, and the flesh of his face looked a little like wax, or like clay, creasing deeply when he smiled. If she had not know him, she’d have thought, wistful and unsavory.

Were I given an opportunity to meet Ms. Robinson, I would steer the conversation away from religion and towards her upbringing and her writer’s workshops where I’m sure she’d have a plethora of tales to share.

My rating for Home is a 7 out of 10.

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Next up, Flannery O’Connor’s Everything That Rises Must Converge…