What readers think of Home, plus links to write your own review.

This is a quiet and contemplative book with very little plot; instead, it's a character study that is both profound and deeply sad. Like "Gilead" and "Lila," this novel philosophically examines life's biggest questions, but in this case it does so in a retelling of the Gospel of Luke's parable of the prodigal son: How do we forgive, especially ourselves? Why are we here? What is a soul? What is a family? Who is God? What does it mean to die?

Written by Marilynne Robinson, this novel continues the story of the Rev. Robert Boughton in his old age as he is nearing death. Retired as a minister in the Presbyterian church, he is a widower and the father of eight children, all of whom have moved away from their hometown of Gilead, Iowa. The youngest, 38-year-old Glory, a schoolteacher who was burned by a young man she thought of as her fiancé, has moved back to Gilead to care for her father in his last days. Surprising both of them, her brother Jack—the black sheep of the family, who has been incommunicado for 20 years and up to all kinds of mischief and misdeeds—suddenly appears on their doorstep. And while the other seven children did exactly what their parents expected, Jack did not. Yet, he remains his father's favorite child.

It's a hot summer in 1956. This is the story of the three of them as Rev. Boughton slowly dies and Glory and Jack begin to come to life again after experiencing heartbreak, disappointment, and despair. Jack is harboring some big secrets, and he's not disclosing any of them—for now. Meanwhile, he and Glory, who barely knew each other as children, begin a cautious and ever-so-careful dance toward one another, eventually forming a tight, loving bond as they both try to heal. Still, it's difficult. Jack is hostile. Jack is a thief, a liar, a coward, and a drunk. And Glory is suffering from her own secretive heartbreak.

This is a book that seems almost like a kind of prayer…a prayer for healing and hope, secrets and confessions, forgiveness and understanding.

As I wrote in my review of "Gilead: A Novel," this quartet of novels is an intelligent and accomplished literary achievement. Read this and the other three because they are masterpieces, but don't expect a compelling, page-turner of a story.

Unlike most book series, you do not need to read these novels in any particular order. They each—"Gilead," "Home," "Lila," and "Jack"—blend into the others in an imaginative way. And while each one stands alone, together they form a resonant whole.

Both Home and her previous book were so memorable! To read the reactions of the characters from their perspectives to the same recounting of events in their lives was so skillfully accomplished! I became a witness to their lives. I need to know what happened to Jack and his sister! So Ms. Robinson needs to write another book!

“You must forgive in order to understand. Until you forgive, you defend yourself against the possibility of understanding”

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 stars