When I Was a Child I Read Books: Book summary and reviews of When I Was a Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson

When I Was a Child I Read Books Summary

Since the 1981 publication of Marilynne Robinson's novel, Housekeeping - a stunning debut that was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize - she has built a sterling reputation not only as a writer of sharp, subtly moving prose, but also as a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. Her compelling and demanding collection The Death of Adam - in which she reflected on her Presbyterian upbringing, investigated the roots of Midwestern abolitionism, and mounted a memorable defense of Calvinism - is respected as a classic of the genre, praised by Doris Lessing as "a useful antidote to the increasingly crude and slogan-loving culture we inhabit."

In this new collection she returns to the themes which have preoccupied her work: the role of faith in modern life, the inadequacy of fact, the contradictions inherent in human nature. Clear-eyed and forceful as ever, Robinson demonstrates once again why she is regarded as a modern rhetorical master.

When I Was a Child I Read Books Reviews

"Starred Review. [A] series of tightly developed essays, some personal but mostly more general, on the Big Themes: social fragmentation in modern America, human frailty, faith." - Publishers Weekly

"Articulate and learned descriptions and defenses of the author's Christian faith." - Kirkus Reviews

"Here Robinson revisits favorite themes, considering the impoverishment of consumer culture, the role of faith, and the complexities of human nature. For all your smart readers." - Library Journal

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Marilynne Robinson Author Biography

Marilynne Robinson was born on November 26, 1943* in Sandpoint, Idaho. After attending high school in Sandpoint she went to Brown University, graduating in 1966; she then enrolled in the graduate program in English at the University of Washington, where she started writing her first novel, Housekeeping (1981), which tells the story of two girls growing up in rural Idaho in the mid-1900s and is regarded by many as an American classic; it received the PEN/Hemingway award for best first novel and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

After the publication of Housekeeping, Robinson began writing essays and book reviews for Harper’s, Paris Review, and The New York Times Book Review. She also served as writer-in-residence and visiting...

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