Home
by Robinson, Marilynne
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Near Fine in Very Good dust jacket
- ISBN 10
- 8925545594
- ISBN 13
- 9788925545592
- Seller
-
Iowa City, Iowa, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Random House Korea, Inc, 2011. Hardcover. Near Fine in Very Good dust jacket. Crisp, bright, and clean except for an ink stamp on the bottom edge of the page block; no owners' marks; the dust jacket shows only a few tiny wrinkles at corners and spine head and a touch of fading along the spine, otherwise excellent, now protected in a clear sleeve.
Reviews
On Nov 11 2014, CloggieDownunder said:
Home is the second book in the Gilead series by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Marilynne Robinson, and is set in Gilead, Iowa at the same time as the first book. This book focusses on Reverend Robert Boughton (closest friend of Reverend John Ames), and his family. Thirty-eight-year-old Glory Boughton, with a failed engagement behind her, returns to Gilead to look after her ailing father, Robert. A letter arrives, and Glory worries about the effect it will have on her father: “…the note might really be from Jack, but upsetting somehow, written from a ward for the chronically vexatious, the terminally remiss”.
Eventually, her disreputable brother Jack, an unemployed alcoholic, returns home after twenty years of virtual silence. Her father is pleased to see this favoured child again, one who went from “a restless, distant, difficult boy” to what Jack himself admits: “….nothing but trouble…….I create a kind of displacement around myself as I pass through the world, which can fairly be called trouble”. Jack is not the only one with secrets in his past, and he and Glory form a bond. His reconnection with his godfather and namesake, Reverend John Ames does not proceed smoothly.
They think back on their youth in the family home: “Experience had taught them that truth has sharp edges and hard corners, and could be seriously at odds with kindness” and “…lying in that family meant only that the liar would appreciate discretion…..as a matter of courtesy they treated one another’s deceptions like truth, which was a different thing from deceiving, or being deceived”. Glory is less than pleased to be in Gilead and dreads the thought of spending the rest of her days there: “To have [the past] overrun its bounds this way and become present and possibly future, too – they all knew this was a thing to be regretted”
Robinson treats the reader to some marvellous descriptive prose: “Their father said if they could see as God can, in geological time, they would see it leap out of the ground and turn in the sun and spread it arms and bask in the joys of being an oak tree in Iowa”. She touches on the question of racial prejudice and also includes some hints about the life Lila led before Gilead, a subject expanded on in the third book in this series. While this novel is somewhat slow in places, it is a stirring read and the final pages will move many readers to tears.
4.5★s
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Details
- Bookseller
- The Haunted Bookshop, LLC (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 00082544
- Title
- Home
- Author
- Robinson, Marilynne
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine in Very Good dust jacket
- Quantity Available
- 1
- ISBN 10
- 8925545594
- ISBN 13
- 9788925545592
- Publisher
- Random House Korea, Inc
- Date Published
- 2011
Terms of Sale
The Haunted Bookshop, LLC
RETURNS: I will gladly accept returns when returned in "as sold" condition postmarked within 14 days of receipt of shipment. Postage will be refunded only if the return is the result of my error. DEALER DISCOUNT: To bona fide book dealers, I do offer a 10% discount with retail sales tax number. If you qualify, please mention this in your order.
About the Seller
The Haunted Bookshop, LLC
Biblio member since 2005
Iowa City, Iowa
About The Haunted Bookshop, LLC
The Haunted Bookshop is an open shop with over 40,000 quality used, out-of-print, and antiquarian titles for students, scholars, collectors, artists, families and children. The store has been in business for over 35 years, now in a historic home near downtown Iowa City. Our open hours are 10-8 daily.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Crisp
- A term often used to indicate a book's new-like condition. Indicates that the hinges are not loosened. A book described as crisp...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...