Housekeeping

I plowed through Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping basically in one sitting. My review is here; the many adoring comments make me really excited to still have her Pulitzer-winner, Gilead, on my list. I actually went and got a copy out from the library to bump it up.

And onto Gaps housekeeping, I'm currently working my way through (three chapters a week) the devilish history of the Crusades called God's War. I put this on my list because many years ago I bought it for $35, so I need to read it so I don't feel stupid about having bought it. But it is 800 pages of very dense history. My big plan, when I finish, is to write here on this blog a summary of the WHOLE of the Crusades so that no one else will have to read the whole book. (Great plan, right...?)

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

Housekeeping is a brilliant book about identity and memory, and perhaps the greatest novel I've read this year. It is the story of two sisters in Idaho in the 1950s from a family marked by tragedy and suicide. The are raised by their aunt, a former transient, whose unreformed lifestyle scandalizes the townspeople and forces the sisters to make a choice between freedom and conventionality.

This is a serious novel deep in meaning and rich in imagery, but its beautiful language is highly readable. I highly recommend it. My full review is here.